Opportunistic Routing for Smart Grid With Power Line Communication Access Networks

Abstract—Power line communications (PLCs) have recently absorbed interest in the smart grid since they offer communi-cation capability in an easy and simple deployment. The main role of PLC access network (PLC-AN), which is constructed with medium and low voltage distribution networks, is to exchange control signals between substations and end users or to provide the Internet access to homes. Since a transmission signal of nar-rowband PLC penetrates electronic devices, a use of opportunistic routing (OR) can be a viable option in PLC-AN design. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of OR use in PLC-AN and propose a customized OR for it, named PLC-OR, which uses static geographical information. For doing this, we formulate a bit-meter per second maximization problem and solves it in a distributed manner. Through simulations, we confirm that our proposed PLC-OR successfully reduces packet transmission time compared to the traditional sequential routing while achieving the same level of reliability in packet delivery. Index Terms—Access network, narrowband PLC, opportunistic routing, power line communications, smart grid