Optimized WiMAX Profile Configuration for Smart Grid Communications

Worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) is one of the wireless communication technologies adopted for communication in smart grids. Due to the inherent differences between smart grid and mobile broadband applications, it is important to adjust planning and deployment of wireless technologies, including WiMAX. To this end, WiMAX is being amended to feature a smart grid system profile known as WiGrid. In this paper, we investigate the optimized configuration of this WiGrid profile, i.e., the choice of frame duration, type-of-service to traffic mapping, scheduling strategies, as well as the system architecture, such that smart grid communication requirements are met. The simulation-based evaluation of WiGrid networks with optimized configurations is facilitated through a newly developed WiGrid module for the network simulator-3 environment. Our results indicate that a priority-based scheduler is an appropriate solution for scheduling time-critical smart grid applications. Furthermore, schedulers should be implemented in such a way that grant sizes smaller than the packet size are avoided, and adjusting the uplink/downlink bandwidth ratio to favor uplink traffic is important to achieve the required latency defined for smart grid applications.