Scalability Dynamic Multicast Labels Management Mechanism for Ubiquitous Data-Centric Sensor Networks

Abstract

The significant difference between traditional electric power system and smart grid is the cooperative control of power flows and information flows. With a large number of secondary equipments accessed into smart grid, the electric power communication network becomes one type of ubiquitous data-centric sensor networks. Real-time and reliable multicast services are required for power system's stable operation. Multiple Protocols Label Switching (MPLS) with its traffic engineering capabilities has emerged as a powerful tool to provide QoS support in backbone transmission networks. But previous MPLS unicast and multicast protocols have common disadvantages, not scalable enough, especially for various intelligent electronic devices following distributed generators frequently accessed into smart grid. To overcome the problems of overfull labels consuming bandwidth and prolonging delay, this paper proposed a novel labels dispatching mechanism based on Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP) and message injecting and headward impelling technologies. Based on a set of accurate mathematical analyses and simulation experiments in a typical distributed power system scenario, the new mechanism could effectively reduce the total number of labels and overheads, save bandwidth, and shorten the multicast tree establishing time. The good scalability can adapt much better to ubiquitous and thick electrical advanced metering application.