Abstract
Background: In smart grids mainly there are two types of communications based on the paths travelled by the received signals. These are line of sight (LOS) communication and non-line of sight (NLOS) communication. These communication models are formed because of different harsh environments like 500 kV outdoor substations, main power control room and underground transformer vaults which are very difficult to access and monitor for a human being during an operational power grid. In the recent research, the network lifetime has been evaluated with respect to the arrival rate, distance and duty cycle for LOS and NLOS communication. Methods:The systematic analysis is performed to characterize the aptness of the cluster tree topology of ZigBee based wireless sensor networks in the monitoring of non-line of sight regions having different shadowing channel properties in the smart grids. Results: The performance is evaluated by thoroughly analyzing the average end-to-end delay with respect to the packet interval, throughput, energy consumption, packet reception rate and network lifetime with respect to the packet size. The simulations are performed on QualNet 6.1 simulator. The objective of this work is to determine the influence of packet interval, packet size and different NLOS environments on the performance of ZigBee based wireless sensor network deployed in smart grids and to give prominence to this field for further exploration. Conclusion: The simulation results illustrate that huge errors in packet reception and variable link capacity in complex environments of the smart grid spectrum gives rise to many challenges in the reliability of ZigBee based wireless communications in smart grids. The design and implementation of efficient algorithms and protocols to reduce the collisions and interference can be considered for the future work. Keywords: Smart grid, Wireless sensor network, Shadowing parameters, Cluster tree topology, QualNet 6.1.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have