Density Based Fuzzy C Means Clustering to prolong Network Lifetime in Smart Grids

Wireless sensor networks (WSN's) are preferred for industrial applications due to progressive increase of sensor electronics. One such application is deployment of WSN's in smart grids. Smart Grid integrates information and communication techniques with electricity network. Smart grids utilize sophisticated control and monitoring devices for improving the efficiency of the grid. For energy efficient, low cost monitoring and control in smart grid WSN's is treated as a promising technology. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is the key technology in the distribution networks of Smart Grid. The AMI is composed of various sensors for metering purpose. The meter data is also useful for the distribution operators to manage the demand response. The network involves smart meters, smart electric gas and water meters along with digital network management appliances for optimizing the electric network with real time data management. The smart sensors are limited in terms of battery, operational power and memory. These sensors communicate with the base station in restricted range. The communication between smart grid nodes and base station (sink) is multi-hop in nature. The communication takes place within limited range of communication so the security concerns that are involved in the network are to be handled by the routing protocols. So as to make the bidirectional communication efficient between the smart sensors and utility an effective routing scheme is required for these energy limited devices to handle the heavy network traffic in smart grids. Here energy efficient routing for WSN's in NAN networks to attain load balancing is proposed through density based Fuzzy C means clustering (DFCM). The obtained simulation results show that DFCM can provide a satisfactory performance for enhancing the network life span.

     

面向智能电网应用的网络规划方法

传感器网络是智能电网和物联网的重要支持系统,贯穿智能电网输、变、配、用等各个环节。智能电网中各种传感器应用环境中对现有的移动网络具有多样化的需求。本文从智能电网中传感器网络需求出发,浅析满足智能电网无线网络规划和覆盖等要求的网络关键技术,给面向复杂智能电网通信环境下物联网大规模部署和可靠通信研究建议,从而实现智能电网中...     

PAINT: Priority aware interference mitigation techniques for improving coexistence in home area networks of smart grid

As smart grid (SG) home area networks (HANs) communicate with various smart devices such as meters, sensors, and actuators on a 2.4‐GHz unlicensed band, the coexistence of different wireless technologies in such networks is a common phenomenon due to the overlapping of channels. In this research, homogeneous and heterogeneous interference are considered to address the coexistence problem in smart utility networks (SUNs). The homogeneous interference is mitigated by utilizing the contention free period (CFP) and the contention access period (CAP) of the MAC layer superframe of IEEE 802.15.4g designed for SUNs. This frame is used to get access for the channel. For this, a slotted CSMA/CA algorithm is used for various priority levels of data with adjustable backoff period (BP) and clear channel assessment (CCA) period in order that nodes (devices) with high priority can achieve high probability of channel access. By modeling the proposed scheme using the Markov chain, the exactness of the proposed scheme is assessed based on throughput, channel access delay, energy consumption per bit, and probability of successful data transmission and collision. A performance evaluation of the proposed scheme is further investigated by comparing it with the existing scheme PA‐MAC. In addition, a channel switching mechanism is explored to mitigate the heterogeneous interference with the help of a Naive Bayes classifier prediction. Finally, the prediction indicates that by choosing the non‐coexisting and the non‐overlapping channel, the proposed channel switching mechanism effectively mitigates the heterogeneous interference.     

IP2DM: integrated privacy‐preserving data management architecture for smart grid V2G networks

With the development of battery vehicles, vehicle‐to‐grid (V2G) networks are becoming more and more important in smart grid. Although battery vehicles are environmentally friendly and flexible to use two‐way communication and two‐way electricity flow, they also raise privacy‐preservation challenges, such as location and movement privacy. On the one hand, utility companies have to monitor the grid and analyze user data to control the power production, distribution, scheduling, and billing process, while typical users need to access their data later online. On the other hand, users are not willing to provide their personal data because they do not trust the system security of the utility companies where their data stored, and it may potentially expose their privacy. Therefore, in this paper, we study data management of V2G networks in smart grid with privacy‐preservation to benefit both the customers and the utility companies. Both data aggregation and data publication of V2G networks are protected in the proposed architecture. To check its security, we analyze this architecture in several typical V2G networks attacks. We conduct several experiments to show that the proposed architecture is effective and efficient, and it can enhance user privacy protection while providing enough information for utility companies to analyze and monitor the grid. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

浅谈智能电表的应用前景

智能电网成为全球电力工业的首选,是电力系统在21世纪的努力方向。智能电表对智能电网建设起到基础性的作用,也是最重要的基础装备。智能电表是电网实现自动化、信息化以及互动化的重要组成部分。文中主要阐述智能电表的概念、功能,及其在智能电网中的地位。     

Middleware for integration of legacy electrical equipment into smart grid infrastructure using wireless sensor networks

To improve the efficiency of electricity distribution, smart grids allow communication between their devices. Pieces of legacy equipment operating in the distribution network do not communicate using any commercial protocol, such as DNP3, IEC 61850, or Modbus. Thus, herein, a middleware is proposed to allow the integration of the legacy electrical equipment into a smart grid using wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Each piece of legacy electrical equipment is connected to a sensor node, and the WSN sink node runs a middleware to enable the integration of this device with a smart grid, according to the commercial communication protocols. The middleware model is proposed to guide users in the development of a WSN‐based system for integrating electrical equipment into a smart grid. The middleware was validated in a real environment, which is related to the concept of power metering. Experiments were performed using the software supervisory control and data acquisition and distributed test manager to validate the communication between the electrical equipment and the computer of the power substation control centre.     

智能电网对智能电表的要求及发展的影响

近年来,随着各种先进技术在电网中广泛应用,智能化显然已经成为了未来电网发展的必然趋势。智能电表作为智能电网建设的重要基础设备,对于加快推进智能电网的发展具有重要的意义。文中介绍了智能电表在智能电网中的应用现状,分析了智能电网对智能电表的要求及发展的影响。智能电表正走向模块化、系统化和网络化。     

Internet of Things Cloud Framework for Smart Homes

Smart appliances and renewable energy resources are becoming an integral part of smart homes. Nowadays, home appliances are communicating with each other with home gateways, using existing short-range home area network communication protocols such as ZigBee, Bluetooth, RFID, and WiFi. A Gateway allows homeowners and utilities to communicate remotely with the appliances via long-range communication networks such as GPRS, WiMax, LTE, and power liner carrier. This paper utilizes the Internet of Things (IoT) concepts to monitor and control home appliances. Moreover, this paper proposes a framework that enables the integration and the coordination of Human-to-Appliance, Utility-to-Appliance, and Appliance-to-Appliance. Utilizing the concepts of Internet of Things leads to one standard communication protocols, TCP/IPV6, which overcomes the many diverse home area networks and neighborhood area networks protocols. This work proposes a cloud based framework that enables the IoTs integration and supports the coordination between devices, as well as with device-human interaction. A prototype is designed, implemented, and tested to validate the proposed solution.     

ElectroBlocks: A blockchain‐based energy trading scheme for smart grid systems

Smart grid systems are widely used across the world for providing demand response management between users and service providers. In most of the energy distributions scenarios, the traditional grid systems use the centralized architecture, which results in large transmission losses and high overheads during power generation. Moreover, owing to the presence of intruders or attackers, there may be a mismatch between demand and supply between utility centers (suppliers) and end users. Thus, there is a need for an automated energy exchange to provide secure and reliable energy trading between users and suppliers. We found, from the existing literature, that blockchain can be an effective solution to handle the aforementioned issues. Motivated by these facts, we propose a blockchain‐based smart energy trading scheme, ElectroBlocks, which provides efficient mechanisms for secure energy exchanges between users and service providers. In ElectroBlocks, nodes in the network validate the transaction using two algorithms that are cost aware and store aware. The cost‐aware algorithm locates the nearest node that can supply the energy, whereas the store‐aware algorithm ensures that the energy requests go to the node with the lowest storage space. We evaluated the performance of the ElectroBlocks using performance metrics such as mining delay, network exchanges, and storage energy. The simulation results obtained demonstrate that ElectroBlocks maintains a secure trade‐off between users and service providers when using the proposed cost‐aware and store‐aware algorithms.     

Smart grid sensor data collection,communication, and networking: a tutorial

The smart grid is an innovative energy network that will improve the conventional electrical grid network to be more reliable, cooperative, responsive, and economical. Within the context of the new capabilities, advanced data sensing, communication, and networking technology will play a significant role in shaping the future of the smart grid. The smart grid will require a flexible and efficient framework to ensure the collection of timely and accurate information from various locations in power grid to provide continuous and reliable operation. This article presents a tutorial on the sensor data collection, communications, and networking issues for the smart grid. First, the applications of data sensing in the smart grid are reviewed. Then, the requirements for data sensing and collection, the corresponding sensors and actuators, and the communication and networking architecture are discussed. The communication technologies and the data communication network architecture and protocols for the smart grid are described. Next, different emerging techniques for data sensing, communications, and sensor data networking are reviewed. The issues related to security of data sensing and communications in the smart grid are then discussed. To this end, the standardization activities and use cases related to data sensing and communications in the smart grid are summarized. Finally, several open issues and challenges are outlined. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Deferrable load scheduling under imperfect data communication channel

In smart grid, the real‐time pricing is implemented to motivate power consumers to change their consumption profile dynamically. With the real‐time pricing, a deferrable load can be scheduled by its scheduler optimally so that the power consumption cost will be minimized. However, when the data communication in smart grid suffers from interference, congestion, malfunction in devices, or even cyber attack, it is possible that the power price information cannot be transmitted successfully to the scheduler. As a result, the scheduling performance will be negatively affected by the suboptimal decision‐making because of incomplete power price information. To overcome this problem, a partially observable Markov decision process based deferrable load scheduling algorithm is proposed. Besides, the implementation of a standby alternative channel with the purpose to improve the reliability of the data communication in smart grid is also discussed in this paper. The numerical results show that the proposed partially observable Markov decision process based algorithm and the implementation of standby channel can effectively improve the scheduling performance when the scheduler lacks actual price information. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Opportunistic RPL for reliable AMI mesh networks

Driven by the need to improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact, we observe a thrust towards enabling a Smart Grid. It is envisaged that to achieve these goals, the Smart Grid will be equipped with communications infrastructure and mechanisms that will enable near real-time control of the grid components. One of the key elements of the Smart Grid is the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) which is expected to facilitate the transport of meter readings from a smart electricity meter at the customer premises to the utility provider, and control data in the other direction. These communications can be potentially realized by deploying a self-organizing mesh network composed of smart metering nodes connected to concentrator nodes which in turn are connected to the utility provider data management systems. This paper explores a cooperative communications approach to improve reliability of such mesh networks. The proposed opportunistic forwarding protocol called ‘ORPL’ has been realized as an enhancement on top of the routing protocol for low power and lossy networks, a connectivity enabling mechanism in AMI mesh networks. In ORPL, smart meter nodes select multiple candidate relays to facilitate reliable transport of smart metering data to the concentrator node. Moreover, it is designed to work in a distributed manner thereby ensuring scalability. We also present a further extension to ORPL, i.e., ORPLx with adaptive medium access control retransmit limit, which reduces unnecessary retransmissions. Our protocols have been evaluated and verified with comprehensive experimental results, demonstrating their effectiveness and favorable characteristics.     

Renewable and Storage Energy Integration for Smart Grid Housing

This paper presents the design,implementation and testing of an embedded system that integrates solar and storage energy resources to smart homes within the smart microgrid.The proposed system provides the required home energy by installing renewable energy and storage devices.It also manages and schedules the power flow during peak and off-peak periods.In addition,a two-way communication protocol is developed to enable the home owners and the utility service provider to improve the energy flow and the consumption efficiency.The system can be an integral part for homes in a smart grid or smart microgrid power networks.A prototype for the proposed system was designed,implemented and tested by using a controlled load bank to simulate a scaled random real house consumption behavior.Three different scenarios were tested and the results and findings are reported.Moreover,data flow security among the home,home owners and utility server is developed to minimize cyber-attacks.     

智能电表应用研究及其PLC通信芯片的设计

智能电表是智能电网的重要组成环节。本文首先对未来智能电表可能具备的功能做了定义与描述,其次对现有的应用于智能电表的通信技术的优缺点及适用领域进行了对比分析,然后举例提取了目前市场上存在的PLC通信芯片的关键技术．最后从芯片设计的角度给出了2种不同的PLC通信芯片的详细设计方案。     

Delay-sensitive and multimedia communication in cognitive radio sensor networks

Multimedia and delay-sensitive data applications in cognitive radio sensor networks (CRSN) require efficient real-time communication and dynamic spectrum access (DSA) capabilities. This requirement poses emerging problems to be addressed in inherently resource-constrained sensor networks, and needs investigation of CRSN challenges with real-time communication requirements. In this paper, the main design challenges and principles for multimedia and delay-sensitive data transport in CRSN are introduced. The existing transport protocols and algorithms devised for cognitive radio ad hoc networks and wireless sensor networks (WSN) are explored from the perspective of CRSN paradigm. Specifically, the challenges for real-time transport in CRSN are investigated in different spectrum environments of smart grid, e.g., 500 kV substation, main power room and underground network transformer vaults. Open research issues for the realization of energy-efficient and real-time transport in CRSN are also presented. Overall, the performance evaluations provide valuable insights about real-time transport in CRSN and guide design decisions and trade-offs for CRSN applications in smart electric power grid.     

Security for Smart Grid in 5G and Beyond Networks

The smart grid is the next-generation electrical power system that combines operations technology (OT) and information technology (IT) for the efficient generation, delivery, and consumption of electrical energy. We aim to provide a brief overview of machine to machine (M2M) communication and its history, its application in the smart grid, security issues affecting M2M data on the smart grid, and some available solutions to detect and prevent cyber threats. With the emergence of 5G networks, we also provide an introduction to this evolving technology, how the smart grid will benefit from its deployment, and some security concerns.

     

An enhanced anonymous identity‐based key agreement protocol for smart grid advanced metering infrastructure

Sprouting populace mass within the urban areas furnishes critical challenges of providing uninterruptible community services to fulfill the primitive needs of inhabitants in smart cities. Smart cities facilitate and uplift the living standards of inhabitants through various smart systems or infrastructures, and smart grid is one of them. Secure transmission is a key requirement in the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) of most smart grids, and key establishment cryptographic protocols can be used to achieve such a requirement. Designing efficient and secure key establishment protocols for AMI remains challenging. For example, in this paper, we reveal several weaknesses in the identity‐based key establishment protocol of Mohammadali et al (published in IEEE Trans Smart Grid, 2017), which is based on elliptic curves. We then improve their protocol and prove its security in the random oracle model. We also demonstrate that the improved protocol achieves both anonymity and untraceability, before presenting a comparative summary of the security and computational overheads of the proposed protocol and several other existing protocols.     

An Improvement of Slotted CSMA/CA Algorithm in IEEE 802.15.4 Medium Access Layer

The standard of IEEE 802.15.4 is able to achieve low-power transmissions in low-rate and short-distance wireless personal area networks. It employs the slotted carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) for the contention mechanism. The blind backoff process in the slotted CSMA/CA will cause lower channel utilization. Sensor node performs backoff process immediately when the clear channel assessment (CCA) detecting busy channel. It may neglect the implicit information of CCA failed detection and further cause the redundant senses. This paper proposes an additional carrier sensing (ACS) algorithm based on IEEE 802.15.4 to enhance the carrier sensing mechanisms in original slotted CSMA/CA. An analytic model is developed to evaluate the performance of ACS algorithm. The analytical and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly improves the throughput, average medium access control delay and power consumption of CCA detecting.     

面向智能电网二元复杂网络的电力统一空间信息模型

智能电网融合了电力网和电力通信网（以下简称二元网络）,是现代电网的升级和跨越。针对电力空间信息模型存在的信息共享、专题应用及动态展示等难题,提出了面向智能电网二元网络的统一空间信息模型。分析了电力企业二元网络统一模型管理需求,按照抽象、实体、业务3个层次构建了二元网络的几何对象、拓扑关系、台账参数的概念模型与逻辑模型,实现了基于公共信息模型的电力二元网络统一空间信息模型表达、建模和一体化管理。     

太赫兹网络中基于优先级调度的低开销双信道MAC协议

针对现有太赫兹通信网络双信道MAC协议存在控制开销冗余和在竞争信道时缺少优先级调度策略等问题,提出了一种太赫兹网络中基于优先级调度的低开销双信道MAC协议（Low Overhead Dual-channel MAC Protocol Based on Priority Scheduling,LO-PSMAC）,包含通信距离预判、优先级调度策略的CSMA/CA和精简THz频段MAC帧三种机制,可有效提升信道利用率和整体网络吞吐量,同时减小控制开销和降低数据平均时延。仿真结果表明,所提协议与现有太赫兹双信道MAC协议相比,MAC层吞吐量和信道利用率分别提升了7.14%和14.75%,数据平均时延降低了14.21%。