The paper discusses M2M communications standards for smart metering. One of the our goals is to show the failures of ETSI standartization process for M2M communications. Our paper proposes some extesions to ETSI standards. At the first hand, it is M-Bus protocol and Open Metering System based on M-Bus. The paper shows how to estimate wireless M-bus throughput and how to avoid collisions. After analysis of Open API for M2M, submitted to ETSI, we propose a new approach in the client-side web development - Web Intents. The main goal for our suggestions is to simplify the development phase for new applications by support asynchronous calls and JSON versus XML for data exchange.
The new generation of power metering system - i.e. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) - is expected to enable remote reading, control, demand response and other advanced functions, based on the integration of a new two-way communication network, which will be referred as Smart Metering Network (SMN). In this paper, we focus on the design principles of multiple access control (MAC) protocols for SMN. First, we list several AMI applications and its benefits to the current power grid and user experience. Next, we introduces several features of SMN relevant to the design choice of the MAC prot…
The next generation Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), with the aid of two-way Smart Metering Network (SMN), is expected to support many advanced functions. In this work, we focus on the application of remote periodic energy consumption reporting, which is a fundamental and significant component of Demand Response and Load Management. In order to support this periodic application with satisfactory communication performance, a well-suited Media Access Control (MAC) protocol needs to be designed. Because the number of Smart Meters (communication nodes) involved in SMN are much larger than t…
GSM is a synonym for a major success in wireless technology, achieving widespread use and high technology ma- turity. However, its future is questionable, as many stakeholders indicate that the GSM spectrum should be refarmed for LTE. On the other hand, the advent of smart grid and the ubiquity of smart meters will require reliable, long-lived wide area connections. This motivates to investigate the potential of GSM to be evolved into a dedicated network for smart metering. We introduce simple mechanisms to reengineer the access control in GSM. The result is a system that offers excellent supp…
In an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), data acquisition points (DAPs) are responsible for collecting traffic from several smart meters and automated devices and transmitting them to the utility control center. Although the problem of optimized data collector placement has already been addressed for wireless broadband and sensor networks, DAP placement is quite a new research area for AMIs. In this paper, we investigate the minimum required number of DAPs and their optimized locations on top of the existing utility poles in a distribution grid such that smart grid quality of service requ…
The concept of differential privacy emerged as a strong notion to protect database privacy in an untrusted environment. Later on, researchers proposed several variants of differential privacy in order to preserve privacy in certain other scenarios, such as real-time cyber physical systems. Since then, differential privacy has rigorously been applied to certain other domains which has the need of privacy preservation. One such domain is decentralized blockchain based smart metering, in which smart meters acting as blockchain nodes sent their real-time data to grid utility databases for real-tim…
Most of the smart applications, such as smart energy metering devices, demand strong privacy preservation to strengthen data privacy. However, it is difficult to protect the privacy of the smart device data, especially on the client side. It is mainly because payment for billing is computed by the server deployed at the client's side, and it is highly challenging to prevent the leakage of client's information to unauthorised users. Various researchers have discussed this problem and have proposed different privacy preservation techniques. Conventional techniques suffer from the problem of high…
Smart metering infrastructure (SMI) is the core component of the smart grid (SG) which enables two-way communication between consumers and utility companies to control, monitor, and manage the energy consumption data. Despite their salient features, SMIs equipped with information and communication technology are associated with new threats due to their dependency on public communication networks. Therefore, the security of SMI communications raises the need for robust authentication and key agreement primitives that can satisfy the security requirements of the SG. Thus, in order to realize the…
In recent years, the use of Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) is increasing for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications. In order to demonstrate the application of LPWAN technologies for a realistic smart metering scenario, we set-up and implement a widely used LPWAN protocol which is called LoRaWAN. In this study, the LoRaWAN is implemented by using Multitech devices (end-node and gateway) and the performance of the network is evaluated for different physical (e.g. location, distance etc.) and link parameters (e.g. data rate, transmission power etc.), under the European regulations. To ev…
The introduction of smart electricity meters with cellular radio interface puts an additional load on the wireless cellular networks. Currently, these meters are designed for low duty cycle billing and occasional system check, which generates a low-rate sporadic traffic. As the number of distributed energy resources increases, the household power will become more variable and thus unpredictable from the viewpoint of the Distribution System Operator (DSO). It is therefore expected, in the near future, to have an increased number of Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) devices with Phasor Measure…
Optimization of energy consumption in future intelligent energy networks (or Smart Grids) will be based on grid-integrated near-real-time communications between various grid elements in generation, transmission, distribution and loads. This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities of communications research in the areas of smart grid and smart metering. In particular, we focus on some of the key communications challenges for realizing interoperable and future-proof smart grid/metering networks, smart grid security and privacy, and how some of the existing networking technologie…
Design of an effective and reliable communication network supporting smart grid applications requires a selection of appropriate communication technologies and protocols. The objective of this paper is to study and quantify the capabilities of an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to support the simultaneous operation of major smart grid functions. These include smart metering, price-induced controls, distribution automation, demand response and electric vehicle charging/discharging applications in terms of throughput and latency. OPNET is used to simulate the performance of selected commu…
With the introduction of the smart grid, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) has become a main component in the present power system. The effective implementation of AMI depends widely on its communication infrastructure and protocols providing trustworthy two-way communications. In this paper we study two routing protocols philosophies for low power and lossy networks (LLNs) and their application for a smart metering scenario. This study purposes a detailed evaluation of two routing protocols proposed by IETF the proactive candidate namely RPL (IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy…
In this paper, we consider the utilization of TV White Spaces (TVWS) by small Cognitive Radio (CR) network operators to support the communication needs of various smart grid applications. We first propose a multi-tier communication network architecture for smart metering applications in dense urban environments. Our measurement campaign, without any competition from other CR operators, reveals that the communication architecture can achieve more than 1Mbps data rates using the free unlicensed TVWS spectrum. However, anticipating stiff competition for the unlicensed TVWS spectrum among CR opera…
A smart grid based Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), is a technology that enables the utilities to monitor and control the electricity consumption through a set of various smart meters (SMs) connected via a two way communication infrastructure. One of the key challenges for smart grids is how to connect a large number of devices. On the other hand, 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE), the latest standard for mobile communications, was developed to provide stable service performance and higher data rates for a large number of mobile users. Therefore, LTE is considered a promising solution for wi…
Smart grid, regarded as the next generation power grid, uses two-way flows of electricity and information to create a widely distributed automated energy delivery network. In this work we present our vision on smart grid from the perspective of wireless communications and networking technologies. We present wireless communication and networking paradigms for four typical scenarios in the future smart grid and also point out the research challenges of the wireless communication and networking technologies used in smart grid
The smart city is an emerging notion that is leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) technique to achieve more comfortable, smart and controllable cities. The communications crossing domains between smart cities is indispensable to enhance collaborations. However, crossing-domain communications are more vulnerable since there are in different domains. Moreover, there are huge different devices with different computation capabilities, from sensors to the cloud servers. In this paper, we propose a lightweight two-layer blockchain mechanism for reliable crossing-domain communication in smart citi…
The development of mobile communication technology, hardware, distributed computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) technology has promoted the application of edge computing in the field of heterogeneous Internet of Things (IoT). In order to overcome the defects of the traditional cloud computing model in the era of big data. In this article, we first propose a new AIenabled smart edge with heterogeneous IoT architecture which combines edge computing, caching, and communication. Then, we propose the Smart-Edge-CoCaCo algorithm. To minimize total delay and confirm the computation offloading d…
This paper presents a review for the development of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) world wide and the use of Smart Antennas in ITS. This review work also discusses the usual problems in ITS and proposes the solution of such problems using smart antennas.
In this paper, we proposed a novel OTSS-assisted optical network architecture for smart-grid communication networks, which has unique requirements for low-latency connections. Illustrative results show that, OTSS can provide extremely better performance in latency and blocking probability than conventional flexi-grid optical networks.
Wireless technologies can support a broad range of smart grid applications including advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and demand response (DR). However, there are many formidable challenges when wireless technologies are applied to the smart gird, e.g., the tradeoffs between wireless coverage and capacity, the high reliability requirement for communication, and limited spectral resources. Relaying has emerged as one of the most promising candidate solutions for addressing these issues. In this article, an introduction to various relaying strategies is presented, together with a discussio…
A recent paper by Yang et al. [1] proposed CRB-RPL as a new RPL-based routing protocol for communications in cognitive radio (CR) enabled smart grid. Essentially, CRB-RPL adopts the operation of CRB-MAC, which is a medium access control (MAC) protocol for cognitive machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, and depicts it as a network layer enhancement. CRB-RPL suffers from a number of technical flaws in terms of protocol operation and analytical aspects. The main objective of this paper is to highlight these technical flaws of CRB-RPL and provide corrections to analytical modeling.
Smart manufacturing is a vision and major driver for change in industrial environments. The goal of smart manufacturing is to optimize manufacturing processes through constantly monitoring and adapting processes towards more efficient and personalised manufacturing. This requires and relies on technologies for connected machines incorporating a variety of computation, sensing, actuation, and machine to machine communications modalities. As such, understanding the change towards smart manufacturing requires knowledge of the enabling technologies, their applications in real world scenarios and t…
By using experimental measurements of smart grid applications compliant with IEC 61850 in trace-driven WiMAX simulations, we show that the WiMAX MAC protocol efficiency decreases as a function of the number of stations. To avoid this shortcoming, we propose and analyze a novel WiMAX MAC protocol for smart grid applications, which uses lattice correlators to improve the throughput-delay performance significantly. For the considered configurations, the obtained maximum throughput of the proposed MAC protocol outperforms the current WiMAX MAC protocol by up to 41%.
Future IoT is expected to get ubiquitous connection and access in a global scale. In the meantime, with the empowered communications capability for IoT devices, IoT will evolve to be highly autonomous, even under the help from infrastructure, and thus will gradually establish the smart IoT community. One of the major challenges imposed on the smart IoT communities is the socialization of IoT communications, because massive IoT accesses make centralized control very hard and also face the shortage of spectrum resources. Towards these issues, we in this article first present the overview and dis…
This paper presents a preliminary system architecture of integrating OMNeT++ into the mosaik co-simulation framework. This will enable realistic simulation of communication network protocols and services for smart grid scenarios and on the other side, further development of communication protocols for smart grid applications. Thus, by integrating OMNeT++ and mosaik, both communities will be able to leverage each others's sophisticated simulation models and expertise. The main challenges identified are the external management of the OMNeT++ simulation kernel and performance issues when federati…
Multiple-operators (multi-OPs) spectrum sharing mechanism can effectively improve the spectrum utilization in fifth-generation (5G) wireless communication networks. The secondary users are introduced to opportunistically access the licensed spectrum of idle operators (OPs). However, the identity privacy and data security issues raise great concerns about the secure spectrum sharing among multi-OPs. To address these challenges, a consortium blockchain trust framework is proposed for the spectrum sharing in multi-OPs wireless communication networks in this paper. A real consortium blockchain is …
Smart building (SB), a promising solution to fast-paced and continuous urbanization around the world, includes the integration of a wide range of systems and services and involves the construction of multiple layers. SB is capable of sensing, acquiring, and processing a very large amount of data as well as performing appropriate actions and adaptation. Rapid increases in the number of connected nodes and thereby the data transmission demand of SB have led to conventional transmission and processing techniques becoming insufficient to provide satisfactory services. In order to enhance the intel…
This paper discusses on the need to focus on effective and cheap communication solutions for the deployment of smart services in countrysides. We present the main wireless technologies, software architectures and protocols that need to be exploited, such as multihop, multipath communication and mobility support through multihoming. We present Always Best Packet Switching (ABPS), an operation mode to perform network handover in a seamless way without the need to change the current network infrastructure and configuration. This is in accordance with the need of having cheap solutions that may wo…
An overview of several standardization activities for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications is presented, analyzing some of the enabling technologies and applications of M2M in industry sectors such as Smart Grid and e-Health. This summary and overview of the ongoing work in M2M from the industrial and standardization perspective complements the prevalent academic perspective of such publications to date in this field.
The current electrical grid is perhaps the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century. However, it is increasingly outdated and overburdened, leading to costly blackouts and burnouts. For this and various other reasons,transformation efforts are underway to make the current electrical grid smarter. A reliable, universal and secure communication infrastructure is mandatory for the implementation and deployment of the future smart grid. A special interest is given to the design of efficient and robust network architecture capable of managing operation and control of the next generation…
Smart grid is an energy network that integrates advanced power equipment, communication technology and control technology. It can transmit two-way power and data among all components of the grid at the same time. The existing smart grid communication technologies include power line carrier (PLC) com-munication, industrial Ethernet, passive optical networks and wireless communi-cation, each of which have different advantages. Due to the complex application scenarios, massive sampling points and high transmission reliability require-ments, a single communication method cannot fully meet the comm…
Electricity forms the backbone of the modern world but increasing energy demand with the growth of urban areas in recent decades has overwhelmed the current power grid ecosystem. So, there is a need to move towards a more efficient and interconnected smart grid infrastructure. The growing popularity of the Internet of Things(IoT) has increased the demand for smart and connected devices. In this work we developed a hardware device based on the ATmega2560 microcontroller that can estimate the power consumption and control the state of electro-electronic devices interconnected to it through Bluet…
Ubiquitous information service converged by different types of heterogeneous networks is one of fundamental functions for smart cities. Considering the deployment of 5G ultra-dense wireless networks, the 5G converged cell-less communication networks are proposed to support mobile terminals in smart cities. To break obstacles of heterogeneous wireless networks, the 5G converged cell-less communication network is vertically converged in different tiers of heterogeneous wireless networks and horizontally converged in celled architectures of base stations/access points. Moreover, the software defi…
As large scale deployment of smart devices in the power grid continues, research efforts need to increasingly focus on efficient communication of generated information. This paper describes a strategy for static routing and scheduling of messages in a multi-hop wireless Smart Grid Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) with multiple source nodes and a common set of destinations or gateways. The problem is formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) and solved using commercial optimization solver CPLEX. Feasibility of the scheme is demonstrated using different network models, constraints, mess…
This study discloses the development of a solution for realizing a smart home in the post COVID-19 era using the Internet of Things domain knowledge. COVID-19 outbreak has been catastrophic and impacted everyone's lives due to its rapid transmission from one body to another. This study aims to reduce virus transmission by eliminating the need to touch any common-point surface in a home, such as switches, doorknobs, and remotes. We provide a generic solution by coupling things with the internet to control them remotely. The project aims to showcase a working solution to controlling devices like…
