Wireless M2M Communication Networks for Smart Grid Applications

Future Smart Grid applications rely on highly reliable and secure connectivity between various infrastructure components from utilities, grid operators and households in order to cover requirements on communications for smart metering and decentralized energy management including electric mobility. Therefore several approaches for communication infrastructures are currently discussed based on different architectural concepts including wired and wireless access and inhouse communication technologies. In this paper we provide an overview on wireless-enabled networking architectures and discuss two exemplary network planning approaches. On one hand, network planning algorithms for the neighbourhood area network (NAN) are introduced. On the other hand, we present results for an integrated, wireless network coverage-aware planning of public and private charge point locations. In addition we address in the paper the design and implementation of embedded, wirelessWeb Services to enable the efficient and reliable data exchange within distributed energy systems. The paper concludes with the comparison of two approaches for the optimal coding of energy-management-related SOAP messages.