36 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 4, NO.

1, MARCH 2013

Smart Grid Communication: Its Challenges

and Opportunities
Ruofei Ma, Hsiao-Hwa Chen, Fellow, IEEE, Yu-Ren Huang, and Weixiao Meng, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—The necessity to promote smart grid (SG) has been TABLE I

recognized with a strong consensus. The SG integrates electrical COMPARISON OF THE EXISTING GRID AND SMART GRID
grids and communication infrastructures and forms an intelligent
electricity network working with all connected components to de-
liver sustainable electricity supplies. Many advanced communica-
tion technologies have been identified for SG applications with a
potential to significantly enhance the overall efficiency of power
grids. In this paper, the challenges and applications of communi-
cation technologies in SG are discussed. In particular, we identify
three major challenges to implement SG communication systems,
including standards interoperability, cognitive access to unlicensed
radio spectra, and cyber security. The issues to implement SG com-
munications on an evolutional path and its future trends are also
addressed. The aim of this paper is to offer a comprehensive review
of state-of-the-art researches on SG communications.
Index Terms—Cognitive radio, smart grid communication,
smart utility network, wireless sensor network.
storage systems and distributed energy resources (DER) is an
attractive way to address the environmental problems with ex-
I. INTRODUCTION
isting grid [2]. The distributed storage nodes can be used to
supply energy during peak loads and save the surplus energy

T ODAY’S electricity grid was designed and constructed to

meet the requirements set up in the last century. The grid
is primarily radial, built for centralized power generation, and
when demand is low. SG communication technologies are an-
ticipated to enable electric distribution systems to incorporate
large amounts of distributed energy resources into the grid and
is dependent on manual restoration. Besides, reliability of tradi- to deal with the intermittent nature of renewable energy [3].
tional electric grid is ensured mainly by having excessive power Table I makes a comparison between SG and the existing grid.
capacity in the whole system, with one-way power flow from Energy waste in traditional power transmission and distri-
power plants to consumers. Although lots of newly-developed bution (T&D) systems, which includes everything between
information and communication technologies have dramatically power plants and customer side, is also a motivation for us to
affected the other industry sectors, the electric systems generally implement SG using communication technologies. The other
remain to operate in the same way for decades. waste is due to inefficient routing and dispensation of elec-
Most of the electrical energy we consume today comes from tricity. T&D losses are considered normal in a traditional grid,
fossil-fuel power stations. Electricity generation in fossil-fuel and these losses can result in huge revenue losses for utilities
power stations is low in efficiency and causes pollution to the [1]. As a result, SG helps to lower the T&D losses with its
environment. In other words, there is a tremendous amount of monitoring ability with the help of communication technologies
energy left behind in the process of electricity generation [1]. to distribute electric power in a more effective way. Another
In this sense, the power generation presents a substantial waste important issue is that most of generated electrical energy in the
of limited natural resources and emits lots of carbon dioxide grid can not be stored, and even if it can, lots of electricity will
(CO ) into the air. Renewable energy resources, characterized be lost in energy conversion processes. Therefore, SG is needed
by their carbon-free and environmental friendly electricity gen- to make generated electricity closely match to the demand.
eration processes, have become more and more popular. How- If we focus on the end of grid, customers’ non-smart ap-
ever, these resources are mostly intermittent in nature and dis- pliances are the main cause for ineffective use of electricity.
tributed over electrical grid. Combination of distributed energy SG will help those appliances to use electricity in a more
efficient manner by its communications capabilities. Smart
Manuscript received March 27, 2012; revised July 24, 2012; accepted Oc- appliances in the future should be able to manage power to take
tober 02, 2012. Date of publication February 06, 2013; date of current version
advantages of real-time billing function. This is often referred
February 27, 2013. Paper no. TSG-00133-2012.
The authors are with the Communications Research Center, Harbin Insti- to as demand response (DR), which is a mechanism to adjust
tute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China (e-mail: [email protected]; hsh- customer electricity consumption in response to supply-side
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]).
conditions, for instance, reducing electricity consumption in
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. reaction to market prices, etc. [4]. DR can also be regarded as
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSG.2012.2225851 a semi-emergency application triggered during peak loading

1949-3053/$31.00 © 2013 IEEE

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 MA et al.: SMART GRID COMMUNICATION: ITS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 37

Fig. 1. A conceptual diagram to implement DR in a SG communication net-

work.

times to reduce the total demand at distribution systems for a Fig. 2. Basic components in smart grid.
certain duration of time. Fig. 1 shows a conceptual diagram
on how to implement DR in a SG communication network. features, underlined communication and information infrastruc-
Using different communication technologies, meter data man- tures definitely play important roles in SG applications. The
agement system (MDMS) receives data from aggregators or basic components in SG are depicted in Fig. 2, which concep-
individual customers, and then the received data are delivered tually shows the major functional blocks of a SG, built on com-
to a DR engine which promotes DR activities by sending DR munication and information technologies, and electric power
control commands to optimize resource allocation in an energy systems, supported by new approaches and applications such
network. The DR engine can also forecast the future demand as DR, distributed energy resources, and pervasive monitoring,
through a load forecast module. etc.
Wireless communication plays an extremely important role The aim of this paper is to offer a comprehensive review on
in realizing all aforementioned goals of SG. Advancements in the recent works on the applications of wireless communication
wireless communication technologies have made it possible to technologies in SG, based on which we want to show an evo-
implement a SG with its capability to convey various vital infor- lutional path of SG development. The possible research trends
mation from and to electricity consumers, to achieve a very high for SG communications are also discussed in this paper. It is
utility efficiency. While we say in general telecommunication observed from our survey that the current SG communication
infrastructure is important to implement a SG, wireless com- research focuses very much on smart monitoring technologies,
munications in particular can offer SG a much greater degree applications of DR, implementing SG communications in li-
of freedoms for information collection, dissemination, and pro- censed-exempt bands, security technologies, pervasive sensing
cessing than wired communication infrastructure. For instance, using WSNs, and interoperability in different SG communica-
wireless sensor network (WSN) forms an essential part in real- tion standards.
izing a SG, since it has the ability to construct a highly reliable The remainder of this paper is outlined as follows. Section II
and self-healing power grid that can quickly react to the events elaborates the wireless communication technologies related to
with appropriate actions. Also, the use of pervasive control sys- SG. In the same section, suitable wireless communication tech-
tems will improve efficiency and stability of the networks, to nologies for distribution grid are also discussed. Section III re-
avoid overwhelming load on the grid and hence reduce pos- views the applications of wireless sensor networks in SG. The
sible blackouts which might cause a massive economic impact. challenges and trends of SG communications are discussed in
The recent advances in WSNs have made it attainable to realize Section IV, followed by the conclusions drawn in Section V.
embedded electric utility monitoring systems [5]. The poten-
tial applications of WSNs on SG might include remote system II. COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS IN SMART GRID
monitoring, equipment fault sensing, wireless automatic meter Recently, diverse communication and information technolo-
reading (WAMR), network distributed resource optimization, gies have been identified to realize SG. In this section, first we
and so forth [5], [6]. It is noted that WSNs can be utilized and will introduce a general SG architecture, and then we will dis-
implemented throughout the entire SG network due to its many cuss those recently developed technologies according to their
advantages such as rapid development, flexibility, and low-cost. functionalities in electricity delivering processes, including
From Table I and the above descriptions, it is understood that electricity transmission and distribution systems. A transmis-
SG is built to solve the problems and drawbacks of the existing sion system is often regarded as the section in an electricity grid
grids, such as the lack of two-way communications, limited con- that moves a great amount of power over very long distances,
trol capabilities, and inefficient use of electricity [1]. Basically, and thus it is distinguishable from a distribution system, which
a SG needs to provide the utilities with pervasive measuring is usually considered as the section that delivers electric energy
and control over their assets and services. Given those salient from a high voltage transmission grid to user-end premises

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 38 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 4, NO. 1, MARCH 2013

Fig. 4. Conceptual model for smart grid information networks.

Fig. 3. Interactions among different smart grid domains.

tasks performed by one or more actors within a domain. For ex-

such as a residential district or commercial center. At the end ample, smart meters, solar power plants, and control centers are
of this section, we will discuss the issues related to SG security. the actors in this model. In this case, the corresponding appli-
cations may be home automation, solar energy generation, and
A. SG Framework energy management.
In Fig. 3, whenever energy demand occurs, the customer has
As reported in [7], Energy Independence and Security Act to exchange information with power markets, system opera-
(EISA) assigned National Institute of Standards and Technology tors, service providers, and distribution domains. The power
(NIST) the responsibility to coordinate the development of an market involves energy buying and selling, and it exchanges in-
interoperability SG framework including model standards and formation with all domains to balance supply and demand. Ser-
protocols. There are lists of standards presented in [7] based vice providers offer the services to support business activities of
upon the comments received from workshops, stakeholders, and power producers, distributors and customers. System operators
public reviews. There are two major principles that NIST used exchange information with all domains to provide smooth op-
to select the standards. First, whether they support interoper- eration of the whole system. With market and operation infor-
ability of SG as it evolves from the existing grid with new utility mation, the generation domain, transmission domain, and dis-
deployment to SG equipment and appliances. Second, whether tribution domain work jointly to deliver power to the customer
they have a demonstrably high level of consensus to support. domain.
According to the document [7], SG infrastructure is most likely A specific conceptual diagram [7] for SG information net-
to be built based on 75 standards. For example, IEC 61850 Suite work is depicted in Fig. 4, which shows information flows in
is for communications within transmission and distribution sec- those seven domains as depicted in Fig. 3. Communications
tors, ANSI C12.20 is for revenue metering accuracy specifica- in this conceptual model can be illustrated by six basic com-
tion, and IEEE 1588 is for time management and clock syn- ponents, i.e., domains, information networks, actors, domain
chronization of equipments across the SG, etc. These identified gateway actors, inner-domain and cross-domain information
standards will definitely have great influences on how SG will flows. Each of the seven SG domains is a high-level group
be implemented in the future. of organizations, systems, devices or other actors that have
According to a conceptual model of SG proposed in [7], a SG similar objectives and participate in similar types of applica-
framework of information exchange among the seven domains tions. Domains may contain subdomains or have overlapping
(denoted as clouds) is illustrated in Fig. 3. The four domains functionalities, as in the case of transmission and distribu-
in the lower layer related to electrical power system are gen- tion domains. An information network is a combination of
eration domain, transmission domain, distribution domain, and interconnected computers, communication devices, and other
customer domain. The physical configuration of a power system information and communication technologies, all of which can
is constructed mainly on these domains. The higher regulatory exchange information and share resources with each other. The
layer domains include regional system operators, energy service information networks in this diagram include enterprise buses,
providers, and power markets. In Fig. 3, the blue arrow-lines substation local area networks, wide area networks, field area
show bidirectional communication links among these domains, networks, and premises networks. Actors are systems or devices
and the red dotted lines represent electricity flows in power capable to make decisions and to exchange information with
grid. In this SG paradigm, each domain encompasses several the other actors. Communications among actors in the same
actors and applications. Actors include devices or systems that domain may have similar characteristics and requirements.
make decisions and exchange information necessary for imple- Organizations might have actors in more than one domain.
menting SG applications. On the other hand, applications are the On the other hand, a gateway actor is an actor in one domain

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 MA et al.: SMART GRID COMMUNICATION: ITS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 39

reflect a mismatch between generation and demand in a power

system. In addition to generation losses, a system-wide fre-
quency disturbance caused by load shedding can also induce
a positive response in this module. The inter-area oscillation
trigger module possesses a high accuracy on measuring system
dynamics. Power system oscillations, which are associated with
events load shedding and generation trips, can be monitored
and detected according to both FNET phase angle and FNET
frequency recordings.
A FNET system was well designed for high volume data
transfer, processing, storage and utilization. Due to the desired
sensing ability of FDR, FNET system now comprises a variety
of real-time dynamic monitoring applications. Because FNET
system is a mature, multifunctional, low-cost voltage phasor
Fig. 5. FNET and cognitive radio in smart grid information networks. measurement system with stable performance, it is expected that
it will be capable to dynamically estimate and control the grid in
that interfaces with the actors in the other domains. Generally a real-time manner. These desired features make FNET system a
speaking, a variety of communication protocols are adopted by suitable monitor and control system for smart transmission grid.
gateway actors in the real world; therefore, the gateway actors Some more works on SG transmission systems can be referred
should use interoperable protocols if seamless interconnectivity to [9] and [10].
is required. Finally, inner-domain and cross-domain flows show 2) Cognitive Radio Based WRANs for SG: Due to scarce
data communications between actors or between actors and frequency resources, works have been reported in the literature
information networks. to apply cognitive radio (CR) technologies to SG communica-
tions to access unlicensed bands and white space available in
B. Communications in SG Transmission Systems TV bands. In [11], the authors proposed to use CR based IEEE
1) Wide-Area Frequency Monitoring Network: [8] presented 802.22 standard in wireless regional area networks (WRANs)
some latest implementations of frequency monitoring networks for SG backhaul data flows. They proposed two different ar-
(FNETs), which facilitate wide-area monitoring networks for chitectures for CR-based WRANs, i.e., stand-alone radio and
observing various statuses in an electrical grid. In FNET sys- secondary radio, for SG communications according to specific
tems, frequency disturbance recorders (FDRs) are implemented circumstances and applications. They suggested that CR-based
as sensors to measure phase angle, amplitude, and frequency WRANs work appropriately as a secondary radio particularly
of a voltage source. Phasor measurements of a power grid are in urban areas and as a backup in disaster management. When
transmitted via the Internet or other wireless WAN technologies there exist higher capacity requirements and hence less avail-
to a local client or a remote data center. A conceptual model ability of unused TV bands, CR-based WRAN can opportunis-
of FNET in SG is depicted in Fig. 5. FDRs can be installed in tically transmit non-critical SG data and provide a backup radio
many locations in the grid, such as power plants, substations, in case of a natural disaster or a security breach. In rural areas,
office buildings, and premises. Measured data from FDRs are i.e., like the places in which customer density is low and there
processed in a data center by multilayer agents in a multilayer is more white space available in TV bands, they suggested that
fashion. The top layer is a FNET data concentrator, which is re- a stand-alone radio based on IEEE 802.22 can provide broad-
sponsible to receive data from FDRs, create GPS time-aligned band access for utility backbone communications because of
records, share data with real-time application agents, and for- wide area coverage due to the good propagation characteristics
ward data records to data storage agents as well as subscribed of TV bands.
clients. The real-time application agents and data storage agents The authors highlighted the issues that, in both of their
are located in the second layer of the data center hierarchy. The proposed architectures, transmission of SG time-critical data is
third layer is a non-real-time analysis agent, in which applica- challenging because of inherent sensing delays and cognitive
tions implemented on this layer are operated on the saved data nature specified in IEEE 802.22. Accordingly, the authors
from the data storage server. proposed a concept of dual-radio architecture for CR-based
FNET applications can be classified into two categories, one WRAN transmission where one radio chain is used only for
is real-time applications and the other is non-real-time applica- SG data transmission and reception, while the other chain is
tions. Real-time applications require immediate response after dedicated for spectrum sensing. The sensing radio constantly
receiving data, while non-real-time applications have more searches for new available channels, so that transceiver chain
flexible timing requirements. Real-time applications operate does not have to postpone its data transmission in order to seek
on data in a memory cache. The real-time applications include for idle channels. By employing the proposed dual-radio archi-
frequency monitoring interface, event trigger and inter-area tecture, a higher spectrum efficiency and sensing accuracy can
oscillation trigger. The frequency monitoring interface can be achieved compared with a single-radio architecture, since
display unit name, IP information, connection status, and spectrum sensing is performed all the time, and thus a clear
dynamic frequency curve of one certain FDR. FNET event channel for SG data flow can be quickly allocated whenever
trigger module can detect frequency variations, which always required.

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 40 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 4, NO. 1, MARCH 2013

According to their discussions, it is convinced that their pro- networks (HANs). Therefore, it is essential to provide coexis-
posed CR-based WRAN is well suited for SG backhaul net- tence mechanisms that enable SUNs to coexist with the other
works and offers four benefits, which are briefly discussed and heterogeneous standards in the same license-exempt bands. The
listed as follows. authors in [12] provided an overview of all the mechanisms
a) Soft capacity limit: The proposed CR-based WRAN for specified or proposed in IEEE 802.15.4g that are applicable for
SG communications has a soft capacity limit as it can op- interference avoidance and mitigation, which are able to facili-
portunistically and dynamically use available TV chan- tate coexistence amongst heterogeneous and homogeneous sys-
nels to increase system capacity. tems. These coexistence mechanisms include multi-PHY man-
b) Wide coverage area: The BS coverage area for IEEE agement scheme, clear channel assessment, and link quality in-
802.22 standard is much larger than the other 802 stan- dicator (LQI), to just name a few. It is believed that more ad-
dards, which means that less BSs and hence less capital vanced on-demand coexistence mechanisms should be devel-
expenditure will be required by CR-based SG communi- oped for SUNs in order to mitigate the interference from the
cation systems. heterogeneous systems in crowded license-exempt bands.
c) Fault tolerance and self-healing: Their proposed architec- 2) SUNs in TV White Space: An overview of the recent inno-
ture is inherently robust to failures because if one link has vative concept of deploying SUNs in TV white space (TVWS)
a breakdown due to a natural disaster or security breach, a was presented in [13], in which the main purpose is to provide
new connection can be established in a timely manner to readers with a detailed discussion to explore the potential of
maintain connectivity due to the fact that available chan- combining these two technologies based on their current devel-
nels are constantly sensed. opment as well as their regulatory status. The authors reviewed
d) Ease of upgradability: CR-based systems are gener- SUNs and TVWS as two different green technologies, and then
ally implemented using software-defined radio (SDR) merged them to propose a hybrid solution that integrates their
systems, which are usually implemented by means of respective merits.
software on a personal computer or embedded computing A usage model for SUNs was depicted in [13], in which there
devices. Consequently, they are more flexible and can be exist four kinds of SUN components, i.e., utility provider base
easily modified through software upgrades. stations (BSs), data collectors, smart meters, and mobile data
Fig. 5 illustrates the role of CR technology in SG. In conjunc- collectors. In SUNs usage model, smart meters of different util-
tion with the control center, there is a spectrum manager that ities in a neighborhood area network (NAN) are connected via
plays an important role in sharing spectrum resources amongst SUN radio frequency (RF) link. Each house is connected to at
different NANs concentrators and the main information stations least one of its neighbor, and therefore an ad-hoc topology is
in wide areas. formed by SUNs. A collective number of households form a
service area that is covered by a data collector. Data collectors
C. Communications in SG Distribution Systems form a mesh network and are connected to the utility provider
BSs via wireless or other wired solutions. Data collectors may
Distribution system forms another critical part of SG. In this be deployed as an alternative in the case of an emergency or
subsection, we will discuss those relevant communication tech- malfunctions of fixed data collectors are encountered.
nologies implemented in distribution grid. Unlicensed TVWS devices, also known as TV band devices
1) Coexistence of SUNs With Other Networks: IEEE (TVBDs), can be classified into two different types, i.e., fixed
802.15.4g smart utility networks (SUNs) task group, i.e., and portable devices. Fixed devices operate at a fixed location
TG4g, founded in December 2008, was established to create a with a high-power outdoor antenna like BSs of a cellular net-
PHY amendment to IEEE 802.15.4 to provide a global standard work. Portable devices operate at a lower power and could act
that expedites large-scale process control applications such as an access point in HAN. Portable devices can be further di-
as SG distribution network [12], [13]. SUNs enable multiple vided into two different modes, in which Mode I devices are
applications to operate over shared network resources, pro- client portable devices controlled by a fixed device, and Mode
viding monitoring and control of a utility system. The major II devices are independent portable devices with the ability to
technology that employs SUNs is the advanced metering infra- access available channels.
structure (AMI), which has the abilities of monitor, command, In order to utilize unused spectrum in TVWS, SUNs must
and control for service providers at the end-side of the grid, comply with governing rules and communication protocols
as well as measurement, data collection, and analysis for which are specific to access the TVWS. With an aim to achieve
electricity usage at utility’s back office. this, SUNs and TVWS must be developed and deployed with
Since IEEE 802.15.4g is a newly developed standard that op- a certain level of homogeneity in terms of implementation
erates in regionally available and license-exempt bands, the co- scenario and system behavior. Consequently, the authors
existence characteristics required by this new standard need to mapped the SUN components into TVWS communication
be addressed. Furthermore, the focus of SUNs are the elements system architecture. They suggested that the utility providers
that fit between existing standards, which may be used in the have high-power BSs at headquarters and control centers
utility backbone and in-premises process, industrial and home for establishing metropolitan area networks, so that BSs at
area networks. In this context, the SUNs form part of a hetero- utility’s headquarters can be viewed as fixed TVBDs. From
geneous network, filling the gap between wide area networks the perspective of TVWS regulations, they considered that
(WANs), neighborhood area networks (NANs), and home area the data collectors can be viewed as Mode II independent

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 MA et al.: SMART GRID COMMUNICATION: ITS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 41

TVBDs. The smart meters are equivalent to Mode I client

TVBDs because data collectors are connected to the customer’s
premises. A mobile data collector in SUNs can be regarded
as a sensing-only device with low power consumption and no
geolocation awareness capability.
The future of SUN and TVWS combining technologies is
promising, but there still exist some limitations to their poten-
tial. Several crucial recommendations were made by the au-
thors from both regulatory and technical standpoints for the sake
of making SUN able to fully utilize the advantages of TVWS.
From a regulation standpoint, the authors suggested that, the re-
quirements specified by regulators for occupying TVWS should
be relaxed and the TVWS licensing issue should be consid-
ered. On the other hand, from a technical standpoint, it is rec-
ommended that the differences in respective system demands
must be aligned or regulators should make efforts to engineer a
brand-new system that includes merits from both eco-friendly
technologies.
3) Hybrid Communication Networks in Smart Grid: Al-
Fig. 6. A hybrid network architecture uses WiMAX and wireless mesh net-
though WiMAX may not be able to compete with LTE-A as a
works, where ZigBee, BlueTooth, and WLAN are adopted for M2M communi-
most popular 4G broadband technology, it has been considered cations in HANs. Local grid control centers monitor each wireless mesh domain
to be utilized as a communication backbone in SG. The pilot using SUNs, IEEE 802.11s, or WSNs. The remote grid control center in a global
network monitors each wireless mesh cluster using WiMAX.
SGs that use WiMAX as part of their data communications have
already been implemented in San Diego, Michigan, Texas, and
parts of Australia. A hybrid network architecture using WiMAX distance. A large coverage as well as sufficiently high data rates
and wireless mesh networks (WMNs) was described in [14], as makes the hybrid network topology more suitable for wireless
shown in Fig. 6. In this hybrid architecture, a group of electric automatic meter reading (WAMR) as part of utility automatic
utility subscribers are clustered into wireless mesh domains, metering infrastructure [15]. Implementation of WAMR for
each of which can be easily managed by a local control center revenue metering offers several advantages to electric utilities
using wireless standards such as IEEE 802.15.4g (SUNs), IEEE and service providers by eliminating the needs for human
802.11 family, or wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The re- meter readers. Hybrid network can be used to provide real-time
mote control center in a global network monitors each wireless pricing information based on real-time energy consumption of
mesh cluster over WiMAX. With the integration of WMNs the customers. This capability is very beneficial to let customers
and WiMAX, electrical utilities can exploit full advantages of to shift off their loads during peak load times and lower their
multiple wireless networks. electricity bills. Due to the advancement achieved in wire-
The wireless mesh domain in a hybrid network is also less communications and digital electronics, hybrid network
known as NAN, which bridges the gap between HAN and architectures can enable scalable wireless communications
WAN. A NAN usually contains thousands of communication and provide different quality of service (QoS) requirements of
nodes distributed in a very large area, and the formation of electric systems in an economical manner. Major benefits of
WMN can improve reliability and self-healing of the whole hybrid network architectures include improved communication
network. Needless to say, SUN is the most suitable standard reliability, lower installation costs, larger network coverage,
for SG NANs. On the other hand, IEEE 802.11s might be and better network connectivity.
another choice as it extends IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol for 4) M2M Communications for HEMS: Recently we have
WMNs and supports frame delivery and route selection at seen increased attention given to machine to machine (M2M)
MAC layer through radio-aware metrics. In the topology of communications in wired and wireless links. The aim of M2M
an IEEE 802.11s mesh network, a central gateway is used for communications is to enable M2M components to be inter-
data transmission to mesh stations. Mesh access points offer connected, networked, and controled remotely with low-cost,
the access interfaces to the end users in either static or dynamic scalable, and reliable technologies. Diverse applications of
state. IEEE 802.11s supports high-speed data transmission, M2M have already started to emerge in various sectors such
which is different from SUNs. Therefore, it might serve as an as healthcare, smart home technologies, and so forth. The
option to implement reliable and high-speed wireless NANs in evolution of M2M has also taken place in SG.
SG. The focus of network infrastructure has shifted over from
With the help of of WiMAX technology, the capacity of an emphasis on wired and fixed communications to flexible
a network backbone can be increased up to 1 Gbps fixed connectivity of wireless communications. The paper [16] pro-
speed. Furthermore, electric systems suffering from environ- vided extensive discussions of a number of existing communi-
mental impairments can benefit from WiMAX technology to cation technologies that can be adopted for M2M communica-
improve the performance of their communication systems, tions in SG, such as Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 (WiFi), ultra-wide-
since WiMAX is characterized by its ability to cover a long band (UWB), IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, and so forth.

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 42 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 4, NO. 1, MARCH 2013

Fig. 6 shows the roles of M2M in SG HANs. As demonstrated subject at the same time. Later, when a device wants to access
by the authors, ZigBee is a superior technology for HAN com- a secure resource, it transmits a certificate to the relying party,
munications due to its characteristics of low power consump- i.e., the secure resource. The relying party validates the certifi-
tion, flexibility and short wake-up time. In addition, they pre- cate, typically by requesting the certificate status from a VA.
sented a technique to improve the performance of conventional Eventually, VA will reply a positive response if the certificate is
ZigBee-based M2M communications in SG by incorporating in- valid. While PKI is known for being complex, the authors sug-
telligence in the gateway (GW) and M2M devices of the HAN. gested that many of the items responsible for the complexity can
In a conventional HAN, if M2M devices always attempt to send be significantly reduced by including the following four major
their periodic messages to a HAN GW, the HAN GW is ex- technical elements, e.g., PKI standards, automated trust anchor
pected to receive a relatively large number of messages. To this security, certificate attributes, and SG PKI tools. The authors
end, the authors proposed a new strategy for transmitting power demonstrated that only by including these PKI elements into
requirement message, in which a M2M device remains in silent the overall security architecture, a comprehensive and cost-ef-
mode unless its power requirement changes. Therefore, a HAN fective solution for SG security can be achieved.
GW will not receive any repeated requests from the same M2M Trusted computing platforms are comprehensive security
devices and thus is less likely to be overwhelmed by incoming plans that encompass virtually all aspects of grid operations.
requests from many M2M devices at the same time. Platforms and associated mechanisms in the trusted computing
In [17], the authors presented an overview of M2M commu- model are used to ensure that malware is not able to access
nications. The enabling technologies as well as the open re- to devices of software processing. The main functionality of
search topics on M2M communications, such as standardiza- trusted computing is to allow any devices which want to join
tion, traffic characterization, protocol re-design, spectrum man- in a grid network to verify that authorized code runs on that
agement, and optimal network design. They addressed the net- system. The adoption of strict code signing standards by SG
work design issues of M2M communications for a home energy suppliers and operators was also suggested in this paper. Mech-
management system (HEMS) in SG. The HEMS traffic from anisms for enforcing such standards have been put forward
the smart meter in each house can be aggregated at a concen- by the Trusted Computing Group and have been also well
trator (i.e., gateway) to minimize installation and communica- documented and available on demand.
tion costs. Concentrator installation cost stands for the phys- As a whole, the authors pointed out that SG security solution
ical deployment (i.e., routing path) and the bandwidth used by requires a holistic approach including PKI technologies based
HEMS to transmit data to the base station. This cost is assumed on industry standards and trusted computing techniques. They
to be fixed over a certain time period. On the other hand, the also concluded that PKI technical elements, for examples, cer-
deployment cost of a concentrator has to be minimized due to tificate lifecycle management tools, trust anchor security, and
QoS degradation from packet delay and losses. For QoS degra- attribute certificates, are existing technologies that can be tai-
dation, the corresponding cost (i.e., the impact of QoS degra- lored specifically for SG networks, resulting in an efficient and
dation on HEMS) is increased if HEMS traffic is not delivered effective solution. To achieve their vision for the proposed se-
to a control center quickly and reliably. To minimize the total cure SG networks, the authors suggested that the primary step
cost, the nodes have to be divided into clusters, and each con- that should be taken is to develop a cohesive set of requirements
centrator is assigned to one of the clusters. This is actually an and standards for SG security. For more works about security
optimal cluster formation problem, which can be solved by uti- issues for SG communications, the reader may refer to [3] and
lizing dynamic programming algorithms. For more works about [19].
SG distribution systems, the reader may refer to [21]–[23].
III. WSNS IN SMART GRID
D. Smart Grid Communication Security To support many innovative SG applications, the communi-
The authors in [18] discussed several key security technolo- cation networks in a SG should be highly scalable and perva-
gies for a SG system, including public key infrastructure (PKI) sive. To this end, the employment of wireless sensor networks
and trusted computing methodologies. Based on the security re- (WSNs) seems to be particularly important because it enables
quirements of SG, the system structure and the required avail- realization of advanced communication networks without con-
ability, the authors believed that utilizing PKI technologies to- structing complex infrastructure. At the same time, WSNs pos-
gether with trusted computing elements is the most desirable sess a set of intrinsic merits such as wide coverage, low cost,
solution for SG security. and fault-tolerant transmission.
The basic steps in utilizing a PKI are summarized as follows.
First, in order to communicate with a secure resource (i.e., a A. WSNs for Transmission Line Monitoring
relying party), the device (i.e., a certificate subject) begins to Considering constrained transmission range of transceiver
send a certificate signing request (CSR) to a registration au- module of a wireless sensor, it is generally assumed that data
thority (RA). The RA performs a validation function check to generated by a sensor have to be delivered to a substation
determine whether the requested bindings are correct or not. If through a set of sensors in-between, resulting in a multi-hop
the requested bindings are correct, RA signs the CSR and for- linear network model (LNM). In [20], the authors first analyzed
wards it to the certificate authority (CA), which then issues a the performance of LNM in handling the traffics extracted
certificate. CA will issue the certificate and let the validation au- from a system architecture they modeled. According to their
thority (VA) know the certificate information of the certificated modeling, it was found that the LNM may not be sufficient to

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 MA et al.: SMART GRID COMMUNICATION: ITS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 43

support future SG applications due to the problems of trans-

mission delay, unbalanced network loading, unbalanced energy
depletion, and low reliability. Therefore, they proposed a new
network model called reconfigurable network model (RNM), in
which sensor nodes can optionally communicate with the other
nodes using WANs such as cellular networks (e.g., GSM). Each
relay node can send its data to GSM base stations directly, and
the GSM base stations are connected to a data collector server
(utility back-office) with low latency, high bandwidth, and low
cost links. It should be noted that the communicating cost and
energy cost of GSM links are very high when compared to the
links between relay sensor nodes. On the other hand, less cost is
required by data transmission to the sink node through a set of
nodes in-between, but this generally incurs the aforementioned
problems in the network. Consequently, a certain trade-off
exists and the best way to send traffic to the data center that
strikes a balance between delay and cost must be found based
on a given system architecture.
In the proposed RNM, an urgent message from a relay node
can be transmitted back to a substation almost instantly by
turning on its WAN interface. For this reason, RNM is more
capable of handling emergency in SG than a conventional
LNM. Besides, it is anticipated that several nearby spans
should experience similar event, and hence these relay nodes
Fig. 7. Architecture of ACORD-FI scheme, where wireless sensor nodes send
can collaborate to turn on one of the WAN devices in-between or relay signals between appliances, electricity storage, smart meter, and EMU
so as to balance the delay and cost. It was highlighted by the to reduce the total energy consumption.
authors that, the network can still provide information on most
of its coverage areas even two or more relay nodes fail due to
multiple link failures caused by transient ambient disturbances The iHEM application considered in [24] is based on
because the fact that the data can always be sent out by enabling an appliance coordination scheme which was proposed in
WAN capabilities in relay nodes. their previous work, in which the authors developed an Ap-
In brief, the authors analyzed the performance of existing pliance Coordination with Feed In (ACORD-FI) scheme
LNM and identified its insufficiencies in supporting future SG for energy-aware smart homes, which helps consumers to
applications. To deal with these issues, they proposed an exten- manage their demand and supply profile. The architecture of
sion of capability of relay sensors in transmission grid by equip- the ACORD-FI scheme is shown in Fig. 7. Compared with
ping relay sensors with WAN communication capability. We ACORD scheme, the ACORD-FI scheme takes locally-gener-
think their works are valuable because the three-layered RNM ated energy into consideration.
can be reconfigured based on application requirements to de- According to their simulation results, the iHEM application
liver information to substations and utilities’ back-office in a was showed to decrease the load on peak hours as well as
more efficient and effective manner, which further enhances the the power-related carbon emissions. They also assessed the
reliability of SG communications in transmission grid. performance of iHEM under various scenarios, e.g., iHEM with
the presence of local energy generation, iHEM with prioritized
appliances, and iHEM with real-time pricing. In each case, it
B. In-Home Energy Management was showed that iHEM reduces the expenses of consumers
compared to the cases without energy management. It was also
In [24], the authors evaluated the performance of an in-home demonstrated that the more appliances are involved in energy
energy management (iHEM) scheme. The performance of management leads to a greater reduction in the total energy bill,
iHEM was compared with an optimization-based residential which is foreseeable because more appliances involved means
energy management (OREM) scheme aiming to minimize that more appliances will take the advantages of the iHEM
energy expenditure of the end-users. OREM can reach an applications. Through their simulations, they also observed that
optimal scheduling for the appliances, but it is not practical as packet size of iHEM applications decreases, the delivery
since consumer requests are usually not given in advance. ratio increases, and the delay decreases, which means improved
Consequently, the authors showed that iHEM is better than network performance. With the help of WSHANs, iHEN ap-
OREM since iHEM is able to decrease energy expenses, reduce plications can help customers to respond to electricity prices,
the contribution of the consumers to the peak load, decrease and hence reduce their expenditures. This work also showed
carbon emissions of the household. Most importantly, iHEM that WSN applications are very promising for the future SG
has a more flexible scheduling mechanism than OREM with its applications, especially for those implemented in homes or
power savings being very close to OREM. buildings.

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 44 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 4, NO. 1, MARCH 2013

C. Cooperative WSNs for Voltage Quality Monitoring the authors in [5] made their efforts on characterizing wireless
In [6], the authors proposed to employ self-organizing WSNs link-quality in different electric power system environments
to construct a fully-decentralized voltage quality monitoring ar- by conducting many field tests. The field tests were performed
chitecture. They used a cluster of sensor networks, where each to measure background noise, wireless channel characteristics,
one of those WSNs monitors a specific electrical grid section. and attenuation in various real-world environments, e.g., an
Each node in the WSNs has a sensor, which monitors the voltage indoor power control room, a 500-kV substation, and an under-
waveforms and computes the corresponding quality index (i.e., ground network transformer vault.
node index), and a dynamical system (oscillator) which is ini- They modeled wireless channels in different grid environ-
tialized by sensor computation. Their work showed that if the ments using a log-normal shadowing path-loss model through a
oscillators of nearby nodes in the same WSN are mutually cou- combination of analytical and empirical methods. Additionally,
pled by proper local coupling strategies, then each oscillator on they showed the corresponding radio propagation parameters in
each node will converge to the global voltage quality index of the model. The parameters were calculated from the measured
the monitored grid section. This feature allows power system data, which were collected for various locations and network
operators to obtain system voltage quality index for each grid configurations in electric power system environments. The pa-
section by querying any node in the corresponding sensor net- rameters were derived by using linear regression such that the
work without having a central control center. In this way, their difference between the measured and estimated path losses is
strategy makes the overall monitoring architecture highly scal- minimized in a mean square error sense over a wide range of
able, self-organizing and distributed. These features perfectly different experimental conditions.
meet the design principles of the monitoring networks for SG. More works on WSNs in SG applications can be found from
the [26]–[29] at the end of this paper.
D. Frequency Agile WSNs for Smart Grid
ZigBee is a wireless mesh networking scheme based on IEEE IV. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
802.15.4 standard. ZigBee is low in cost, power, data rate, and Although lots of works have been done in order to trans-
complexity, and it is easy for deployment and implementation. form the current power system into SG, there are still three
These features, together with its use of unlicensed spectrum and major challenges that utility companies or other SG participants
its advantages of being a public standard rather than proprietary will face. These challenges include ensuring standard interoper-
protocol, make it the most suitable wireless technology to mon- ability, cognitively accessing the unlicensed spectrum, and im-
itor, collect, and analyze data on energy usage in real time for proving cyber security.
SG applications. However, almost all ZigBee channels are over- Identification of suitable communication standards and de-
lapped with wireless local area networks (WLANs) based on velopment of interoperable communication protocols for SG are
802.11 specifications, because they all use the license-free 2.4 necessary because there are too many diverse technologies and
GHz ISM frequency bands. This coexistence results in a signif- standards existing in the market. NIST is now working towards
icant performance degradation when ZigBee based WSNs and coordinating the development of a framework that includes pro-
WLANs are operating simultaneously within a SG network. The tocols and standards for information management to achieve in-
authors in [25] proposed a frequency agility based interference teroperability of SG devices and systems. As mentioned earlier,
avoidance algorithm, which utilizes energy detection and active due to the scarcity and hence the high cost of licensed RF bands,
scan to perform smart channel selection. In order to dynamically the recent trends of implementing SG communications is to op-
avoid WLAN interferences, their algorithm can detect interfer- erate in unlicensed bands. This can be evidenced by the newly
ences and adaptively switch sensor nodes to unused channels. developed IEEE standard for SUNs [12], [13], in which most
The authors used packet error rate (PER) to evaluate their of the specified RF bands are license-exempt. Therefore, coex-
proposed scheme in a ZigBee and Wi-Fi coexistence test bed. istence mechanism for mitigating interference from the other
The measured results in their field trial demonstrated that their unlicensed/licensed systems must be developed. In [11], [13], it
algorithm efficiently mitigates the effect of Wi-Fi interferences was pointed out by the authors that CR can be a good choice for
upon ZigBee networks. Just like cognitive radios, which avoid tackling this coexistence issue and they further tried to make SG
the interference with licensed users based on active monitoring communications operate in TVWS. These attempts will not only
of a radio environment, their interference avoidance algorithm lead to a higher penetration as well as a wide coverage due to
overcomes the coexistence problem of Wi-Fi and ZigBee in a the VHF/UHF bands, but also result in globalized compatibility
similar way. Due to the increasing popularity of ZigBee-based of SUN devices, hence to fuel the competition among vendors,
WSNs in SG applications, it is believed that how to effectively which stimulates healthy growth of the SG industry. It is empha-
solve the coexistence problem in 2.4 GHz ISM band will largely sized that the major challenges along the path to incorporating
affect the sensing performance of the SG. TVWS into SUN applications is service reliability. In spite of
diversity algorithms, such as dynamic frequency switching and
E. Smart Grid WSN Channel Modeling multi-channel utilization which may provide solutions to the re-
In many SG applications, severe and complex environments liability problems, the “secondary” characteristic of TVWS is
of electric power systems may pose great challenges to the considered as a fundamental issue, for which SUN systems in
reliability of WSN communications. Because of the fact that TVWS must postpone all its operations upon detecting the ex-
communication link-quality characterization in power delivery istence of an incoming incumbent service. How to mitigate the
process or industrial facilities has not been sufficiently studied, unreliability caused by the inherent “secondary” characteristic

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 MA et al.: SMART GRID COMMUNICATION: ITS CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 45

for SG communications in license-exempt bands remains to be this paper. With more emerging technologies, SG should pre-
solved. Cyber security is another serious challenge we will face. serve its interoperable and secured communications within a hy-
While new applications for SG systems and networks can im- brid system where both new and legacy grids coexist. Therefore,
prove its efficiency and reliability, they may also create vulner- SG communication systems should be built up on open proto-
abilities at the same time if not deployed to address the appro- cols with security.
priate security concerns.
WSNs, which have the ability of pervasive sensing, are very
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 46 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SMART GRID, VOL. 4, NO. 1, MARCH 2013

[21] R. W. Uluski, “The role of advanced distribution automation in the Hsiao-Hwa Chen (F’10) obtained his B.Sc. and
smart grid,” in Proc. 2010 IEEE Power Energy Soc. Gen. Meet., pp. M.Sc. degrees from Zhejiang University, China, and
1–5. a Ph.D. degree from the University of Oulu, Finland,
[22] R. H. Salim, K. de Oliveira, A. D. Filomena, M. Resener, and A. S. in 1982, 1985 and 1991, respectively.
Bretas, “Hybrid fault diagnosis scheme implementation for power dis- He is currently a Distinguished Professor in the
tribution systems automation,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 23, no. 4, Department of Engineering Science, National Cheng
pp. 1846–1856, 2008. Kung University, Taiwan.
[23] H. Gharavi and B. Hu, “Multigate communication network for smart Dr. Chen is the founding Editor-in-Chief of
grid,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 99, no. 6, pp. 1028–1045, Jun. 2011. Wiley’s Security and Communication Networks
[24] M. Erol-Kantarci and H. Mouftah, “Wireless sensor networks for cost- Journal (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/se-
efficient residential energy management in the smart grid,” IEEE Trans. curity). Currently, he is also serving as the Ed-
Smart Grid, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 314–325, 2011. itor-in-Chief for IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS. He is a Fellow of IET
[25] P. Yi, A. Iwayemi, and C. Zhou, “Developing ZigBee deployment and a Fellow of BCS.
guideline under WiFi interference for smart grid applications,” IEEE
Trans. Smart Grid, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 110–120, 2011.
[26] P. S. Moura and A. T. de Almeida, “Multi-objective optimization of a
mixed renewable system with demand-side management,” Renewable Weixiao Meng (SM’10) obtained his B.Sc., M.Sc.,
Sustainable Energy Rev., vol. 14, pp. 1461–1468, 2010. and Ph.D. degrees from Harbin Institute of Tech-
[27] V. C. Gungor and F. C. Lambert, “A survey on communication net- nology (HIT), Harbin, China, in 1990, 1995, and
works for electric system automation,” Comput. Netw., vol. 50, pp. 2000, respectively.
877–897, 2006. He is currently a Professor at School of Electronics
[28] M. Erol-Kantarci and H. T. Mouftah, “Using wireless sensor networks and Information Engineering, HIT. From 1998 to
for energy-aware homes in smart grids,” in Proc. 2010 IEEE Symp. 1999, he worked at NTT DoCoMo on adaptive
Comput. Commun. (ISCC), pp. 456–458. array antenna and dynamic resource assignment for
[29] Y. Peizhong, A. Iwayemi, and C. Zhou, “Frequency agility in a beyond 3G as a Senior Visiting Researcher.
ZigBee network for smart grid application,” in Proc. Innov. Smart Dr. Meng is a Senior Member of China Institute of
Grid Technol. (ISGT), Jan. 2010, pp. 1–6. Electronics, China Institute of Communication, and
Expert Advisory Group on Harbin E-Government. He has been an editorial
Ruofei Ma received the B.S. and M.S. degrees board member for Wiley’s WCMC Journal since 2010.
in information and communication engineering
from Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), Harbin,
China, in 2008 and 2010, respectively. He is
currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in infor-
mation and communication engineering at at School
of Electronics and Information Engineering, HIT.
His current research interests include wire-
less communication and networking technologies in
smart grid, and coexistence issues of IEEE 802.15.4g
(smart utility networks, SUNs) and other wireless
networks on the unlicensed bands.

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