Supporting renewable energy resources integration using content-centric networking

Abstract

Proper integration of renewable energy resources is one of the most revolutionary aspects of a smarter power grid. While green energy sources like wind and solar have been around for decades, what is lacking is the proper infrastructure to support their integration. In addition to electric infrastructure, a well-tailored communication solution is, in fact, needed to enable efficient green energy sources introduction into the smart grid. Content-centric networking is a novel communication paradigm with attractive features that has been explored for various use cases. In this research work, we revisit this paradigm for better renewable energy resources integration. First, a description of this application communication environment is presented in order to point out the inadequacy of current host-to-host communication pattern. Then, qualitative analysis will highlight the benefits of content-centric networking for renewable energy integration into the smart grid. A simulation study shows, in fact, how content-centric networking outperforms classical point-to-point communication solutions while managing required communications for renewable energy resources integration.