Performance assessment of a low power wide area network in rural smart grids

The deployment of smart grid communication networks (SGCN) in urban areas has been possible due to the huge availability of wired and wireless communication technologies. However, in rural areas, those communications options are usually not available, unsuitable and/or too costly, making the deployment of a SGCN more challenging in such a case. On the other hand, the recently introduced low power wide area (LPWA) networks can be suitable candidates to overcome such a problem, with the enablement of low cost, low power and long range wireless communications as required in rural smart grids. Therefore, in this paper, we study the feasibility of LPWANs as SGCNs for rural areas. Through simulations, we assess the performance of LoRaWAN, which is one the main available LPWA technologies, in terms of network performance metrics, such as range, coverage, latency and packet delivery ratio. For the simulations, a real rural power grid scenario has been chosen as a case study, which comprises an approximate area of 4000 km
²
, at South Brazil, and delivers power to more than 200 consumers. Based on the obtained results, we conclude the paper with some considerations that may serve as guidelines for the technicians and engineers working to deploy LPWA networks for rural smart grids. Moreover, we discuss further opportunities and challenges in this field of research.