Application Scenarios and Analysis of NB-IoT Communication in Substation and Power Internet of Things

Power Internet of Things (IoT) is a comprehensive technology which obtains power system operation and electrical equipment conditions via deploying various intelligent devices with sensing, computing and communication functions in power grid. It can achieve the transmission and processing of information through network, so as to realize the interconnection of all things in power system. Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is a novel approach of low power wide area network (LPWAN) communication technology which exhibits long-distance wireless signal transmission capability with relatively low power dissipation. Due to its low cost and huge connection capacity in networking, NB-IoT has been widely employed in the industrial field and considered to be one of the promising and potential technical schemes to the communication and data transmission issues in IoT. However, the application of NB-IoT in power transmission and transformation especially in substation has been rarely investigated. In this work, the characteristics and merits of NB-IoT communication are presented followed by the application scenarios of NB-IoT in power Internet of Things. Particularly, the structure and application analysis of NB-IoT communication in substation IoT are proposed. Moreover, the challenges and prospects of NB-IoT in substation that need to be resolved in the future are discussed. The advanced NB-IoT communication will facilitate the deployment and application progress of power Internet of Things.