Opportunities for Software-Defined Networking in

Smart Grid
Jianchao Zhang, Boon-Chong Seet, Tek-Tjing Lie Chuan Heng Foh
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department of Electronic Engineering
Auckland University of Technology University of Surrey
Auckland, New Zealand Guildford, UK
{jizhang, bseet, tlie}@aut.ac.nz [email protected]

Abstract— The large-scale, heterogeneous, and distributed nature such an architecture can be more agile. Furthermore, application
of the Smart Grid poses many challenges to be overcome from systems are enabled to be network-aware, which means that they
communication networking to autonomous control and management. are aware of the properties, requirements and state of the network
The underlying infrastructure of Smart Grid must be efficient and environment and can quickly adapt to changes in the network
reliable in transmitting large amounts of real-time data, scalable and
context [1]. Therefore, SDN is perceived to have tremendous
flexible in aggregating resources, and secured and convenient in
providing management interfaces to upper layer application systems. potential for utilization by the underlying communication
Meanwhile, the recent rapidly developing technology of Software infrastructure of the Smart Grid. To the best of our knowledge,
Defined Networking (SDN) is perceived to have tremendous potential this is one of the first studies on the utilization of SDN in Smart
for utilization by the underlying infrastructure. By abstracting control Grid. Previous research on SDN have focused on heterogeneous
functionalities from underlying packet forwarding hardware to an Internet [2] and Cellular networks [3].
external software controller, SDN offers a high degree of flexibility for Motivated by a vision of future development, we present
implementing novel networking solutions to improve performances of three potential use cases to examine the opportunities for SDN
distributed systems in large, complex network environments such as technology in Smart Grid. The rest of the paper is organized as
Smart Grid. In this paper, three potential use cases are presented to
follows: Section II examines SDN and Smart Grid in more depth
examine the opportunities for SDN technology in Smart Grid.
with a view to analyzing the synergies between them. Section
Keywords-Smart Grid; Software Defined Networking; Distributed III, IV, and V each presents a potential use case of SDN in
Energy Resource Aggregation; Smart Building Management; Smart Grid. Section VI concludes the paper.
II. SYNERGIES BETWEEN SDN AND SMART GRID
I. INTRODUCTION
The development of Smart Grid will be based upon complex
With the aim of enabling smarter energy usage and integration networking between a vast number of sensors deployed in the
of renewable distributed energy resources (DERs), Smart Grid generation, transmission and distribution facilities, smart meters,
has been proposed as an evolution of the current power systems. DERs, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems,
The term refers to leveraging the most advanced Information and back-office systems, as well as end-user devices and appliances
Communication Technologies (ICT) to provide an intelligent located on residential and commercial premises which interact
bi-directional electricity and communication network. with the power grid [4]. To sustain the transmission of a massive
A diverse and large number of devices, appliances, and energy amount of real-time data generated by these entities, the underlying
resources distributed throughout the electricity system will be communication infrastructure of the Smart Grid must be scalable,
interconnected and communicating information for metering, efficient and reliable.
monitoring and control. Therefore, Smart Grid will be large-scale, With the advent of SDN, the interface between applications
heterogeneous and distributed in nature, which poses many and networks will be greatly changed. Applications in Smart Grid
challenges to be overcome from communication networking to will have a higher degree of network awareness which enables
autonomous control and management. more dynamic interactions with the underlying network. The
In recent years, the paradigm of Software Defined Networking opportunity for SDN in Smart Grid lies in its capability of:
(SDN) has attracted much attention. It proposes a new concept of
networking architecture which abstracts the control functionalities A. Ease of configuration and management
from the packet forwarding hardware (data plane) to an external The separation of packet forwarding intelligence from the
software controller (control plane). This is extremely convenient data plane to externally centralized control plane renders the SDN
for large data centers to cope with virtual machine networking easy to configure and manage. The control plane or network
in which virtual machines are created dynamically and move operating system (OS) is aware of the global network state and
between different physical machines. Due to the controller being provides applications or management systems with programmatic
implemented as software and its programmatic interfaces to interface to configure how packets will be forwarded through the
individual networking devices are exposed to other software network switches and provide this forwarding knowledge to each
applications, any network applications and services based on switch in the data plane. Packets in the network that do not

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ICICS 2013 apply.
match any existing forwarding/access control rule in the data To present our view of the advantages of using SDN, we
plane will be sent to the control plane for setting up new selected three potential use cases to examine how SDN will
forwarding/access control rules. This is much more convenient contribute to: i) enhanced data exchange; ii) distributed energy
than traditional networks in which forwarding/access control rules resources aggregation; and iii) smart building energy management,
cannot be reconfigured dynamically after the deployment. in Smart Grid.
In Smart Grid, the information network connects a diverse
and large number of nodes, which can incur considerable costs III. USE CASE: ENHANCED DATA EXCHANGE
and workload to configure and manage. Using an underlying Current power grid systems perform monitoring and control
SDN infrastructure, such complexity can be simplified. On the operations using SCADA systems to maintain supply-demand
other hand, the provision for network owners and operators to balance and power quality. However, the current capability of
programmatically control their infrastructure allows new features SCADA systems falls far behind the scalability and reliability
to be introduced quickly into the network OS, which in turn fasten requirements of the power grid development. To achieve greater
the pace of implementing new network services or improving situational awareness of the grid operations on a wider scale,
network performances [5]. Considering the rapidly evolving
a large number of Phasor Measurement Units (PMU) will be
standards and protocols in Smart Grid where applications are
required to be extensible and compatible, it will be extremely deployed in the Smart Grid, each of which generates 30−120
advantageous to support service developments with an SDN samples per second. Meanwhile, there has been an increasing
network infrastructure. deployment in the substations of Intelligent Electronic Devices
(IEDs) which receive sensor data and perform control operations.
B. Cross-domain content-based networking Delivering such amounts of data in a large-scale distributed
In Smart Grid, the information exchange takes place across environment requires a scalable and flexible infrastructure
network domains/regions. SDN provides fine-grained packet to provide low-latency transmission and support one-to-many
classifier and flexible routing, which can facilitate directing a communication modes such as multicast and broadcast. The
chosen subset of traffic through a set of network devices such as current utility communication infrastructure which is primarily a
firewalls and NATs [3]. With the programmable capability of centralized hub-and-spoke model is not sufficiently scalable to
classification based on packet content, service requests such as accommodate such a large number of devices and massive data
interest messages or subscriptions will firstly be sent to and parsed transmission [8].
at the controller, which then instructs the data plane to route the There exist works that aim to address this issue, mainly
contents of interest to the requesting applications [11]. With its through using middleware approaches. In [9], GridStat is
high degree of flexibility for implementing novel networking proposed as a middleware framework which divides the data
solutions, SDN has also been the main driving force in the transferring architecture into management plane and data plane.
development of new information-centric networking (ICN) The management plane allocates resources and adapts the
functionalities, such as content-centric query/response, content- network in reaction to changing power system configurations
name based routing, and in-network content caching [6]. or communication network failures. The data plane utilizes
Such features can improve the efficiency and scalability when a publisher-subscriber (pub-sub) mechanism, in which data
delivering data across network domains/regions in the Smart Grid. producers publish their data to brokers in the management plane,
We will examine in more detail how SDN enhances the data which in turn are responsible for delivering the published data
exchange mechanisms in Smart Grid in the next section. to data consumers who have subscribed to them in a way that
satisfies their quality-of-service (QoS) requirements.
C. Virtualization and isolation
GridDataBus (GDB) [8] is a PMU data sharing middleware
The SDN paradigm also offers the capability of network architecture similarly based on the pub-sub paradigm and an
virtualization, which groups resources into logically isolated overlay GDB network. Publishers (PMU devices) and subscribers
administrative entities, i.e. virtual networks. Virtualization isolates (various power applications) are grouped based on topics such as
different flows of data, which makes it flexible to perform separate
control on traffic with different interest. Unlike other virtualization
technologies such as VLANs or VPNs in which the configuration
of individual switches to create virtual networks is tedious and
error-prone, SDN enables this process to be automated because
an overlay network built on SDN can be reconfigured quickly
according to software instructions.
In [7], network slicing is proposed as a means of sharing the
home network among multiple service providers. The bandwidth
resource of a home network is ‘sliced’ for different services,
(which may include Smart Grid services from utility company)
by deploying OpenFlow – a notable implementation of SDN
architecture, for network virtualization. We take a step further to
envision that the virtualization capability of SDN will benefit the
process of resource aggregation in Smart Grid, which we will
examine in detail in Section VI. Figure 1. Enhanced Data Exchange with SDN in Smart Grid

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data type, location and time, and data is delivered over networks requires proper energy market modeling and operation. To address
that might be owned by different organizations. There are other these needs, the concepts of MicroGrid and Virtual Power Plant
proposed middleware solutions (e.g. [10]) for data exchange in (VPP) have been proposed. Lasseter [13] defines a MicroGrid
power grid. While they might be different in design objectives as a cluster of local DERs and loads operating as a single
or technical implementation, in order to achieve efficient data controllable system that responds to central control signals
transmission and scalability in a distributed environment, the use and provides both power and heat to its local area. A Virtual
of pub-sub mechanisms for data exchange on application layer Power Plant (VPP) refers to a logical aggregation of local and
is commonly adopted. non-local DERs (including energy storages resources) and
Opportunities for SDN: As previously mentioned, SDN can presents them to the rest of the energy system as a single
facilitate cross-domain content-based networking and provide a technical and commercial entity by clustering the DERs in
high degree of network awareness to applications, which leads terms of their geographical, technological and/or commercial
to an application-oriented content-centric network architecture. characteristics [14].
Since the SDN offers a platform for software to control the The control and aggregation of DERs in MicroGrid and VPP
underlying network via SDN controllers, they have an inherent have attracted much attention within the research community.
flexibility to be extended through programmatic interfaces One common approach for DER aggregation and coordination
to include new features such as pub-sub functionalities. By solutions is based on Multi Agent Systems (MAS) and fuzzy
leveraging the knowledge of and capacity to control the network logic control, which are restricted to application layer. Again
layer elements in its view, SDN can provide a new approach we envision that SDN technology which enables scalable and
to pub/sub or other emerging mechanisms with the potential efficient virtual networks would provide a novel underlying
to yield greater performances. communication platform for the control and aggregation of DERs,
A recent example is a pub/sub middleware in [11] which is e.g, photovoltaic (PV) systems, micro-combined heat and power
implemented based on the OpenFlow technology. The idea is that systems (μCHP), and electric vehicles (EVs), as shown in Figure 2.
by operating the pub/sub middleware as an internal component Opportunities for SDN: From a logical point of view, a VPP
of the SDN controller, i.e. control handler, it can have a global is a software component to control energy transactions through
view of the publishers and subscribers, including their locations in coordination and exchange of data among a group of DERs. By
the network. All pub/sub relevant control traffic will be sent to the incorporating the SDN paradigm into the design model of VPP,
control handler of the middleware by OpenFlow switches. When integration and management of DERs will be extended to the
a new subscription is received by the control handler, routing underlying network infrastructure.
optimization will be executed and data path between publishers In a real power distribution use case, different DER may be
and subscribers will be set up by updating data plane flow rules connected to the information network of Smart Grid with different
to enable various communication paradigms on demand, e.g. communication technologies. Consider energy generation systems
group communication. This pub/sub mechanism processes data such as μCHP and PV systems in homes or offices, as well as
and subscriptions in the network layer, which is quite different energy storage systems such as EVs, which are connected to the
from traditional ones based on application layer. It was found that Smart Grid information network by a multitude of wired/wireless
implementing OpenFlow-based pub/sub enables a more efficient technologies. The challenge is that DERs have a distinctive
data dissemination at line-rate speed than application layer based requirement on real-time data monitoring and control, e.g. to
approaches by minimizing switching delays and forwarding data
streams using dedicated network layer hardware.
Our vision is that the design space and opportunities for future
data exchange mechanisms in Smart Grid will be expanded and
enhanced by incorporating SDN, as shown in Figure 1.
IV. USE CASE: VIRTUAL NETWORK FOR DISTRIBUTED ENERGY
RESOURCES AGGREGATION
One of the major developments in Smart Grid in recent years
is the transformation from centralized generation to decentralized
distributed generation. In low voltage (LV) and medium voltage
(MV) networks, there has been an increasing penetration of
DERs, which aims to lower the carbon emission and improve
residential power efficiency and reliability. However, there is no
successful mechanism to control and coordinate these resources at
distribution level, and the current power distribution management
systems (DMS) do not fully take DER integration support into
consideration [12].
Furthermore, DERs are expected to participate actively in
energy market, such as contributing to general power reliability
and stability, and feeding excess energy back to the grid, which Figure 2. DER Aggregation with SDN

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prevent voltage fluctuations, whereas other connected end devices
such as smart appliances exchange data with the grid in a
relatively low frequency and less real-time demanding. Thus,
network bandwidth and QoS have to be guaranteed for DERs
unlike other devices.
SDN allows aggregating DERs with virtual networks by
dynamic software configuration (Figure 2). It can provide perfect
isolation and separation for different aggregation or management
traffic on a single physical connection without interfering with
each other. Network resources for DER communication with the
Smart Grid can be allocated dynamically on-demand based on
software instructions. In such an infrastructure, DERs aggregated
to the same VPP are controlled and communicate in an exclusive
virtual network, which can be easily deployed and configured
by a centralized SDN controller.
As previously mentioned, SDN enhances the data exchange
by facilitating pub-sub or other content-based processing at the
network layer. The monitoring and control data of DER are able Figure 3. Opportunities for SDN in Smart Building Management
to be delivered at line-rate speed along with value-added network
services such as optimized routing and in-network caching, which Meanwhile, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is
enhances not only scalability but also timeliness of data delivery emerging as a powerful tool for the Architecture, Engineering
that is critical for real-time market coordination. and Construction (AEC) industry. It not only offers a detailed
Furthermore, when an aggregation criterion, e.g. geographic information model and 3D representation of the building, but
location restriction, in a VPP is modified, or the energy production also a platform for enhanced inter-disciplinary collaborations
rate of a DER has changed due to seasonal weather conditions, (e.g. between architects, civil, mechanical, and electrical engineers,
which necessitates the relocation of the DER to a different VPP during its construction) as well as the capabilities to manage
aggregation, this can be performed by applications efficiently via change and extend information support throughout the building
their programmatic interfaces to the SDN controller. lifecycle [17]. Recently, there is an increasing interest in using
Similarly, adopting a SDN based design for DER aggregation BIM for post-construction facility management, including the
is beneficial when coping with ‘mobile’ DERs such as EVs that management of Smart Buildings. However, a Smart Building is
join and leave a VPP dynamically. A distributed energy resource more than the integration of BAS, EMS, and BMS for today’s
management system (DERMS) that is aware of the network status intelligent buildings. A sound solution for Smart Building must
can automatically reconfigure to respond to new aggregation take its role in Smart Grid into consideration. The Smart Grid will
changes. A newly joined EV can be dispatched to the virtual require a Smart Building to possess energy intelligence of finer
network of the appropriate VPP, and information channel such granularity (e.g. down to appliance level) than today’s intelligent
as charging rate broadcast from the utility will be set up for buildings, and more importantly, capabilities to support advanced
coordination. The management complexity can be reduced since metering, automated demand response, reaction to real-time
the whole process from networking to aggregation can be handled pricing, and integration of DERs including EVs.
by software services based on SDN extension. Opportunities for SDN: From the energy perspective, a Smart
Building can be viewed as a MicroGrid, where local metering and
V. USE CASE: SMART BUILDING ENERGY MANAGEMENT sensing devices, HVACR controllers, energy loads, and DERs are
In this final use case, we examine the opportunities for SDN monitored and controlled by advanced ICT systems to optimize
in Smart Grid connected building management systems. In the the energy cost, efficiency, and performance. Considering the
developed world, buildings accounts for about 40% of the total rapid development of SDN in campuses and data centers [18],
energy consumption [15]. To lower the carbon footprint and the technology not only helps to build a novel communication
promote building performance, the concept of Smart Building infrastructure for all types of end nodes in a Smart Building, but
has been proposed. One of the key concepts of Smart Building is is also convenient to be extended to suit proprietary deployment
that it “achieves significant energy savings by taking advantage requirements and implement customized energy control and
of improved technology and materials in terms of structure, management functions with different control granularities.
appliances, electrical systems, plumbing, and HVACR (heat, On the other hand, there are efforts to develop BIM-based
ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration) systems” [16]. facility management systems by combining both geometry and
Currently there are Building Automation System (BAS) and semantic data from BIM with real-time sensor information [19].
Energy Management System (EMS) in the industry for intelligent Incorporating SDN, such systems will provide interoperability to
building energy control and management. These systems gather control and manage the communication network by programmatic
data from the sensors and appliances, and communicate with the interfaces to the control plane, and fulfill the data transmission
Building Management System (BMS) to control and monitor all demand for metering/sensing applications as presented in Section
facts of the building, such as lighting, fire, and energy use. III. More importantly, the building energy management will be

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