Planning Tool for Fast Roll-Out of G.hn Broadband PLC in Smart Grid Networks: Evaluation and Field Results

Broadband Power Line Communications (BPL) has the potential to play a significant role in smart metering and smart grid, due to its ability to transfer data with high rate and low latency over the existing infrastructure. The current planning and design of BPL networks for smart grid is manual, experience based, time consuming, and sub-optimal. In order to automate the planning process, compare multiple scenarios, and optimize the roll-out taking into account various input criteria and constraints, a planning tool is needed. In this paper, evaluation and validation results from the field test of an BPL planning tool for smart grid networks are presented. Two network setups has been first initiated in the laboratory to validate the concept of the BPL planning tool. The BPL planning tool has been then evaluated in the field. The simulation results of the BPL planning tool were fitting with the results of the field test.