Abstract
Powerline communications (PLC)-based smart meter deployments are now a reality in many regions of the world. Although PLC elements are generally incorporated in smart meters and data concentrators, the underlying PLC network allows the integration of other smart grid services directly over it. The remote control capabilities that automation programs need and are today deployed over their medium voltage (MV) grid, can be extended to the low voltage (LV) grid through these existing PLC networks. This paper demonstrates the capabilities of narrowband high data rate (NB HDR) PLC technologies deployed over LV grids for smart metering purposes to support internet protocol internet protocol (IP) communications in the LV grid. The paper demonstrates these possibilities with the presentation of the simulation and laboratory results of IP communications over international telecommunication union: ITU-T G.9904 PLC technology, and the definition of a PLC Network Management System based on a simple network management protocol (SNMP) management information base (MIB) definition and applicable use cases.
Highlights
The expansion of smart metering systems worldwide, and especially in Europe as a result of the Directive [1], Annex I.2, is not a trend but a fact
This paper demonstrates the capabilities of narrowband high data rate (NB HDR) Powerline communications (PLC) technologies deployed over low voltage (LV) grids for smart metering purposes to support internet protocol internet protocol (IP) communications in the LV grid
Smart metering systems have evolved from the plain automatic meter reading (AMR) to the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) [3], and from there, they have acquired this new name of smart metering
Summary
The expansion of smart metering systems worldwide, and especially in Europe as a result of the Directive [1], Annex I.2 (last report in [2]), is not a trend but a fact. Reference [32] provides information on the feasibility of IP transport for remote control applications and the extra-bandwidth of newly deployed PLC-based networks for smart metering, and discusses smart metering as the first application of these new generation NB HDR PLC technologies. The second novel contribution of this paper is the definition of a SNMP-based NMS for NB HDR PLC systems, including a MIB definition, an interface for PLC traffic capture and the first results of a prototype implementation over a massive NB HDR PLC deployment This NMS is fundamental to allow the effective management of telecommunication services over NB HDR PLC technologies, and this contribution if a novelty for this kind of PLC systems.
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