Are Power Line Communications (PLC) a good candidate for Smart Grid applications? The objective of this paper is to address this important question. To do so, we provide an overview of what PLC can deliver today by surveying its history and describing the most recent technological advances in the area. We then address Smart Grid applications as instances of sensor networking and network control problems and discuss the main conclusions one can draw from the literature on these subjects. The application scenario of PLC within the Smart Grid is then analyzed in detail. Because a necessary ingredient of network planning is modeling, we also discuss two aspects of engineering modeling that relate to our question. The first aspect is modeling the PLC channel through fading models. The second aspect we review is the Smart Grid control and traffic modeling problem which allows us to achieve a better understanding of the communications requirements. Finally, this paper reports recent studies on the electrical and topological properties of a sample power distribution network. Power grid topological studies are very important for PLC networking as the power grid is not only the information source but also the information delivery system-a unique feature when PLC is used for the Smart Grid.

/pdf/for-the-grid-and-through-the-grid-the-role-of-power-line-u1a0j36lkc.pdf

For the Grid and Through the Grid: The Role of Power Line Communications in the Smart Grid

Power line communication, that is, using the electricity infrastructure for data transmission, is experiencing a renaissance in the context of Smart Grid. Smart Grid objectives include the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources into the electricity supply chain, securing reliable electricity delivery, and using the existing electrical infrastructuremore efficiently.This paper surveys power line communications (PLCs) in the context of Smart Grid. The specifications G3-PLC, PRIME, HomePlug Green PHY, and HomePlug AV2, and the standards IEEE 1901/1901.2 and ITU-T G.hn/G.hnem are discussed.

https://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jece/2013/712376.pdf

Power line communications for smart grid applications

Despite being a well-established ingredient to many wireless systems, multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) signal processing has only recently been considered for broadband power line communications (PLC). Adapting multiple-antenna transmission and reception techniques to a wired medium such as the electrical grid requires solving a number of issues, both regarding the physics of electromagnetic transmission and the optimization of the signal processing strategies. In the last few years, significant steps were made to demonstrate the benefits of MIMO PLC and to develop the necessary hardware. As a result, MIMO PLC has been adopted in several broadband PLC specifications, precisely as part of ITU-T G.hn in Recommendation G.9963, and as part of the industry specification HomePlug AV2, which is backward compatible to IEEE 1901. This paper reviews important aspects of MIMO PLC, highlighting its similarities and main differences with classical wireless MIMO. It focuses first on the peculiarities of the electrical grid, with a survey of PLC channel and noise characterization in a MIMO context. It further estimates MIMO PLC channel capacity adhering to the electromagnetic compatibility regulations currently in force. In addition, MIMO signal processing techniques most suited to PLC environments are discussed, allowing for throughput predictions. It is found that eigenbeamforming is the best choice for MIMO PLC: the full spatial diversity gain is achieved for highly attenuated channels, and maximum multiplexing gain is achieved for channels with low attenuation by utilizing all spatial streams. It is shown that upgrading from a conventional single-input–single-output PLC configuration to a 2 $\times$ 2 MIMO configuration, the throughput can be more than doubled while coverage is increased. The survey concludes with a review of specific MIMO PLC system implementations in the specifications ITU-T G.9963 and HomePlug AV2.

/pdf/mimo-power-line-communications-4ne3jmejfj.pdf

MIMO Power Line Communications

1 School of Informatics, College of Informatics and Virtual Education, University of Dodoma, P.O. Box 490, Dodoma, Tanzania 2 Electrical Engineering Department, Faculdade de Engenharia, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Campus Universitario, 36 033 330 Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil 3Wireless and Power Line Communications Lab, Universita di Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy 4 France Telecom, Orange Labs, 2, Avenue Pierre Marzin, 22 307 Lannion Cedex, France

/pdf/power-line-communications-smart-grid-transmission-and-4nts71gpcb.pdf

Power-line communications: smart grid, transmission, and propagation

Current satellite coverage architectures generally assumes uniform traffic distribution among all beams, giving rise to uniform beam coverage pattern along with equal beam bandwidth allocation. However, the uniform coverage is not suitable for the unbalanced traffic scenarios, e.g. the metropolis region and emergency communication during disaster, which is characterized by the fact that there is single hot spot serving the majority of users, while the surrounding beams carry relatively light traffic. In this paper, we propose a dynamic coverage adjustment scheme that changes beam size and resource allocation according to the spatial distribution of user traffic. More resource is offered to the beam covering the hot spot, whereas basic coverage is maintained for the surrounding area. Further, we introduce the resource allocation policy and implement issues for proposal realization. Numeric results show considerable performance enhancement is brought by our scheme under diverse user distributions, especially for low earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/6971896/6992003/06992014.pdf

Traffic-based dynamic beam coverage adjustment in satellite mobile communication

Power company have been operated the automation system for relaying and supervisory controls by using public communication network. But these systems must have the strictest requirements of communication. For these reasons, there are a lot of difficulties to apply to the automation system considering the cost, location environment, and other characteristics of power lines. But, recently, the existing power line can be used as communication media by using power line communication (PLC). PLC can be adopted as a main communication means, and other wired/wireless can be adopted as second means. In order to this, the high voltage PLC have to be used as a long distance communication network. In our study, in case of accidents, we suggest the intelligent Compound Communication System for optimal roundabout routes in communication network, and verified its performance and reliability in the real test field.

A Study on the Compound Communication Network over the High Voltage Power Line for Distribution Automation System

In this paper, uplink interference, which can occur when frequencies are reused, and new measures are mainly discussed. First, many different types of scenarios on uplink interference in Mobile Satellite Service in both normal and reverse mode are designed. Then the simulator which analyzes uplink interference of a user link, among interferences that can occur when reuse frequencies to make efficient use of the limited frequency resources in multi-beam satellite environments, is designed. The simulator provides the amount of interference in MSS and the way to reuse the frequency efficiently. The results of interference analysis are shown in I/N. With the given data, resolutions are proposed to minimize the interference by modifying satellite cells, diameter of the terrestrial cells, reuse of frequency and protective area.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-642-20998-7_46.pdf

Uplink Interference Adjustment for Mobile Satellite Service in Multi-beam Environments

The information of existing smart meter is transmitted by the fixed concentration and scheduling protocol on the request of the server. The connection configuration and the data transfer process are performed by DLMS/COSEM standard protocol. This protocol is applied to only point to point connections between the meter and the metering server. Therefore some constraints of transmission efficiency occur in large-scale networks. In this paper, we suggests an open protocol - Smart Meter Concentration Protocol(SMCP) which provide efficient transmission between concentrator and metering server. The AMI system was implemented with the proposed SMCP and has field tested in Jeju Island.

Design and Implementation of Smart Meter Concentration Protocol for AMI

Nowadays, Attention about how to effectively manage data according to vast amount of data is increasing. Also, concern about power consumption and CO2 generation with regard to green IT business is trends which growing up. In this paper, performance of HDD and DRAM-based SSD was analyzed when used as data storage. Performance comparativeanalyzed used Tool accordingly that make up a total of two kinds of environments and created three kinds of conditions, and comparative-analyzed power consumption amount and CO2 generated amount each of storage when experiment. Through this study result, when processing of low data I/O, use the product that using a HDD was judged beneficial. Used DRAM-SSD when stored and administered large amount data that is judged to be more effective which reduction in the time and power consumption reduction. Also, as a way which to handle of large amount data using a configured environment, SAN switch is considered more advantageous.

A Study on the Disk Performance Comparison

One of the most important issues of the school education today is that learners are not able to apply their knowledge that they’ve learned from the classroom to their real life. Situated Learning Theory would be one of the best solutions to solve these problems. However, current methods which have been developed for instructional purpose until now don’t seem to reflect Situated Learning Theory enough. It is vital to investigate better applicable methods that can be practiced in education field based on Situated Learning Theory. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to design and implement a Mobile Language Learning Assistant System using location awareness technology. This study has found that Mobile Language Learning Assistant System can be effectively utilized in providing authentic learning environment and also its future prospect is very bright according to the learner evaluation.

Young-Hun Lee

Papers

A Study on the Compound Communication Network over the High Voltage Power Line for Distribution Automation System

Uplink Interference Adjustment for Mobile Satellite Service in Multi-beam Environments

Design and Implementation of Smart Meter Concentration Protocol for AMI

A Study on the Disk Performance Comparison

Development of a Mobile Language Learning Assistant System Based on Smartphone