Modeling AMI network for real-time simulation in NS-3

Utility companies have several challenges: renewable energy generation, greenhouse gas emission regulations, and outages due to power scarcity. To overcome them, it is indispensable to have a smart grid, which combines Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and power systems engineering. Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) network is an integral part of this grid. It collects data in a Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) and forwards it to the utility data collection server via Wide Area Network (WAN). In this paper, we present the architecture of a testbed that emulates sensors, smart meters, and data collection servers in an AMI network. The proposed testbed uses the real-time simulation environment of Network Simulator 3 (NS-3) to interact with real computers. With this platform we compare wireless technologies for NAN, such as WiFi 802.11ah, WiMAX and LTE in terms of throughput of AMI messages and latency of control signaling, including a cyber attack scenario.