Performance Analysis of Smart Grid Network with Energy Harvesting over Mixed RF/PLC Channel

A two-hop-based smart grid (SG) neighborhood area network (NAN) with energy harvesting over mixed fading is proposed. The fading channels considered between two hops are radio frequency (RF) and power line communication (PLC) with a decode-and-forward (DF) relay. Using the Markov chain the active home appliances (HAs) transmit the consumed power information through RF link to the smart meter (SM). The SM acts as a DF relay, retransmitting data to the data aggregator unit (DAU) via the PLC link. The considered RF and PLC links are Nakagami-m and Long-Normal distribution respectively. Moreover, the SM harvests energy from the radio frequency (RF) signal to help for energy efficient with a low latency SG network. Here, a binary phase shift keying modulation scheme is used for information transmission. Similarly, a Markov chain with multi-user selection combining is proposed in the system model for selecting active HAs from multiple HAs. For performance analysis purposes, a closed-form expression for average bit error probability (ABEP) is derived. The numerical and Monte-Carlo simulation results show the effect of the energy harvesting time factor, the impulsive noise scenario in the PLC channel, and the fading severity in the Nakagami-m channel in the SG communication system.