Communications network emulation for smart grid test-bed

Wide Area Monitoring and Control (WAMC) of power grids is one application of emerging smart grid technologies. A key feature of smart grids is the use of two-way digital communication between Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs), and system operators and controllers. The performance and security of the communications network is critical in this application. This work developed an emulation of a communication network as a component of a smart grid test-bed. The test-bed consists of a physical emulation of a power system, a number of IEDs, a Phasor Data Concentrator (PDC) and user interface for data acquisition and control connected via a local area network. Network emulation was integrated using Riverbed Modeler, a communications network emulator, utilizing the software's SITL (System-in-the-Loop) capability to interface the IEDs and physical hardware with the network emulation using real-simulation gateways. The emulation enables modeling of various networks and the analysis of operation of the communications network for WAMC applications. This paper presents a methodology of network emulation for this application and analyzes the performance of the emulation as a communications network for smart grid test-beds.