Implementation of Highly Accurate Test-Bed for Practical Evaluation of Wired and Wireless Internet Based Smart Grid Communications

Abstract

There have been a number of previous studies for implementing low cost and easily deployable communication networks to support smart grid services such as demand side management, automatic metering infrastructure, and virtual power plants. The outcome of the research showed us that internet based communication is the best option for low-cost, reliable and fast deployment. However, different characteristics of the internet in terms of speed and reliability should be investigated practically to help design smart grid services. In this paper, we practically evaluated the robustness of the United-Kingdom (UK) Internet network for demand response services. Further, the internet connectivity of consumer premises has been evaluated regarding its suitability for sending short control packets, in terms of packet loss and latency. From the results it can be seen that the cable broadband and fourth Generation (4G) wireless access networks have better performance in terms of packet loss and latency whereas third Generation (3G) wireless networks show significantly poorer results.