Cross-Media Mesh Networks for Smart Home and Smart Grid Applications

A smart power grid demands for efficient and practical solutions for reliable communication. This is achieved in view of demand side management by using narrowband powerline communication as an additional transmission medium for existing wireless sensor and actuator networks. In addition, cross-media mesh networks are proposed to leverage constructively the resulting diversity of the complementary transmission media to improve the reliability and transmission rate of the hybrid low power and lossy network. The implementation of a dual-media transceiver that enables the construction of cross-media mesh networks and powerline channel measurements together with network performance results are presented. Further steps for realization and analysis of hybrid mesh networks are discussed.