Automatic repeat protocol for distribution automation system through powerline communication

A communication network plays an important role in distribution automation system(DAS). In this paper, a powerline communication network which might span geographically 5-50 km using a bus or tree topology has been introduced. In the powerline communication networks, data signal cannot travel long distance because of attenuation, noise, and distortion. Consequently, we need to insert a number of repeaters into the network to recover the signal power, which causes the flooding problem in the network and lowering of the network performance. In this paper, to solve the flooding problem, an automatic repeat MAC protocol has been devised and applied to a powerline communication network in order to form a composite communication network for DAS. A mathematical performance analysis has been carried out to measure the performance characteristics of the proposed protocol applied to various powerline communication network environments. We also designed a powerline communication network simulator to verify the mathematical results. The results of the mathematical analysis and the simulation estimate the performance of the powerline communication network to which the proposed protocol applied.