Heterogeneous multi-mode access in smart grid using BeiDou communication

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Abstract

Communications in smart grid consist of multiple mode access technologies. To connect with remote area, BeiDou short-message communication provides a good solution to enlarge the coverage area and decrease the costs. Current research on heterogeneous network mainly focuses on multi-radio access networks. In this paper, we put forward a systematic architecture for multi-mode access which efficiently supports various services. A specific scenario of communication between WiFi and BeiDou was designed. The design results verify the feasibility of the architecture.

Introduction

Smart grids can be understood as complex networks of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), wired and wireless sensors, smart meters [1], distributed generators, and dispersed loads which require cooperation and coordination to realize their expected functions [2]. The communication network of smart grid must be combined with multiple communication modes and various communication protocols. According to the system level, the communication network can be divided into three parts. The first part is Home Area Network (HAN), which refers to the connection from sensors and electrical appliances to smart meters. The second part is Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) located between smart meters and concentrators. The last part is Wide Area Network (WAN), which is used to connect smart meters or concentrators with data centers. As suggested in [3], the HAN can be accomplished through Power Line Communication (PLC) or wireless communications such as ZigBee and WiFi. The wireless networks can be designed into dynamic and self-organised networks [4], [5]. Cellular technologies or the Internet can be used for NAN and WAN.

However, key limiting factors still exist and should be considered during smart metering deployment processes in the aspects, such as the time of deployment, operational cost, availability of the technology and rural/urban or indoor/outdoor environment, etc. A technological choice applicable to one environment may not be suitable for the other one [6]. We can imagine a scene that smart meter is located in an “acnode” far away from city, e.g. an island or a secluded mountain area. In such scenario, operational cost thus becomes an important factor worthy of consideration, and contruction of relevant infrastructure facilities will also be much more difficult. Satellite communications, such as IRIDIUM [7], INMARSAT [8] and BeiDou [9], [10] can effectively solve the coverage problem [11], [12]. The BeiDou satellite system is equipped with the communication function, namely the BeiDou short-message communication. BeiDou short-message communication is the first generation of BeiDou's unique function. A BeiDou transceiver can send messages to another transceiver through BeiDou linkage if BeiDou satellites covers the areas where these two terminals locate in. By virtue of the BeiDou short-message communication technology, the coverage area of smart grid can be expanded greatly. The costs for smart grid construction in remote areas will also become affordable.

Some recent researches on smart grid include end-to-end communication in smart grid [11], [13], [14], [15] And some other researches on smart grid are about energy management system (EMS) and security in smart grid [[16], [17], [18], [19]. Recent researches on heterogeneous networks mainly focus on multi-radio access networks, such as the Ambient Networks (AN) [20], [21], [22], [23], [24]. The AN project mainly aims to realize seamless interoperation between heterogeneous multi-radio access networks. Most recent researches on BeiDou short-message communication have studied the applications in disaster prevention and control [25]. Nearly all these researches have adopted BeiDou short-message communication as an independent system rather than a part of a complete communication system.

Rest parts of the paper are organized as follows: Section 2 presents a system architecture for multi-mode access in smart grid. Section 3 describes design of multi-mode access architecture for WiFi and BeiDou. Section 4 shows the design testing results and analysis. Section 5 is the conclusion and the last part of this paper.

Section snippets

Multi-mode access architecture

The smart grid communication network adopts extensive communication technologies supported by two main communications media, i.e., wired and wireless types. The traditional architecture of heterogeneous networks is inapplicable to smart grid communication networks. Hence, we used the AN as a reference to establish a new architecture for heterogeneous multi-mode access in smart grid.

Case of MMMH on WiFi and BeiDou

In this section, WiFi and BeiDou are used to realize a typical MMMH. The reasons for choosing WiFi and BeiDou are as follows: (i) the scene like this may become a reality in the future; (ii) this scenario involves both the terrestrial networks and satellite networks and will be a good demonstration of linking the terrestrial and satellite networks; (iii) this scenario contains a network with high data rate and low coverage (WiFi), which possesses an exhaustive control plane with a large scope

Communication delays

We measure the propagation time of data between different terminals to determine the delays of WiFi and BeiDou. The delay of WiFi means duration of propagation and handling from terminal A to terminal B. The delay of BeiDou means the duration of data transmission from terminal B to terminal C.

Fig. 5 shows the delays of WiFi and BeiDou. In order to decrease the latency of transmission in serial ports of terminal B and terminal C, the size of data for transmission is very small, namely 64 bits.

Conclusion

Multi-mode access is necessary in smart grid. The combination of BeiDou short-message effectively enlarges the coverage area of smart grid and decreases the costs. How to realize better access and manage multi-mode access becomes an inevitable problem. In this paper, the solution can solve the link problem between heterogeneous multi-mode accesses in smart grid. The availability and scalability of the solution were also verified by the realization of WiFi and BeiDou.

Future work shall focus on

Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully thank the referees for the constructive and insightful comments. This work was supported in part by the Cooperative Innovation Foundation of Jiangsu Province Prospective Joint Research Project (No. BY2014126-02), the Key R&D Program of Jiangsu Province industry prospect and common key technologies (No. BE2015022, No. BE2015212), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61401194), the Funded Project of Satellite Communication and Navigation Collaborative

Jian Wang was born in Jiangsu, China in 1978. He received the M.Sc degree from Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, China, in 2003, the Ph.D. degree from Nanjing University, Nanjing, China, in 2006.

He is currently an associate professor at the school of electronics and sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. His research interests include Heterogeneous network, video coding and transmission and parallel computing.

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    Jian Wang was born in Jiangsu, China in 1978. He received the M.Sc degree from Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, China, in 2003, the Ph.D. degree from Nanjing University, Nanjing, China, in 2006.

    He is currently an associate professor at the school of electronics and sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. His research interests include Heterogeneous network, video coding and transmission and parallel computing.

    Chang Liu was born in Hunan, China in 1993. He received the B.Sc degree in Communication Engineering in 2014 from Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.

    He is currently a postgraduate at Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. His research interests include heterogeneous network and satellite communication.

    Wenfeng Li was born in Jiangsu, China in 1975. He received the Ph.D. degree in communication and information systems from Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in 2012.

    He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with the School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nan-jing.

    Dr. Li's research interests include wireless and mobile communications, wireless sensor networks, satellite communications and networks.

    Kaiyuan Li was born in Nanjing, China in 1987. He received the B.Sc degree in Electrical Engineering in 2010 from Nanjing University, China. In 2016, he received the Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from University of Pittsburgh, USA.

    His research interests covers guided ultrasound imaging, sensor/actuator design, wireless sensor networks, energy harvesting and solitary wave propagation.

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