On the Data Aggregation Point Placement in Smart Meter Networks

A smart meter Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) is a significant component for smart grid. The delay- sensitive communication in NAN, such as the interaction of power system control signal, usually requires the maximum allowed delay in the order of a few milliseconds. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate how to shorten the latency and guarantee real-time communications. Since the location of Data Aggregation Points (DAPs) significantly affects the propagation latency between DAPs and their associated smart meters, in this paper, we aim at tackling the DAP placement problem in a delay-sensitive smart meter NAN. Specifically, the DAP placement problem is formulated first. Then, a network partition approach, termed Clustering-based DAP Placement (CDP), is proposed to solve the problem. Extensive simulations are conducted based on an actual neighborhood topology. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed CDP is able to remarkably reduce the maximum propagation latency of data between DAP and their associated smart meters.