Cellular Communication for Ubiquitous Internet of Things in Smart Grids: Present and Outlook

The Smart Grid is a fundamental breakthrough that will change the current electricity grid significantly. The conventional power grid is a centralized network whereas smart grid is decentralized smart network compromising power network with communication network that will facilitate two way power flows. Therefore, the design of the underlying Information and Communication Technology infrastructure is a critical challenge in this area. For the attainment of a more distributed power generation and storage system, novel communication technologies should be integrated with the power grid. In SG, the development and growth of wireless technologies can be proven as more advantageous. The best option for communicating between far nodes, infrastructure, and intelligent meters is cellular communication technology. With the emergence of the fifth generation (5G) network, mobile cellular networks are evolving to take a strong stance in attempts to achieve large-scale capacity, connectivity and processing. Both the mobile technology of today and the emerging new age of cellular network are deemed useful for the smart grid. The future cellular networks exhibit relevant services in the smart grid for critical and timely applications. Existence and future cellular networks and their vision for smart grid are presented in this article. The central point of this article is to demonstrate the future cellular network in comparison to other wireless communication technologies and new webs in a SG to effectively bring the energy of internet into the future. Benefits and challenges of emerging cellular networks for smart grid are also presented.