Cost-Efficient QoS-Aware Data Acquisition Point Placement for Advanced Metering Infrastructure

In an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), data acquisition points (DAPs) are responsible for collecting traffic from several smart meters and automated devices and transmitting them to the utility control center. Although the problem of optimized data collector placement has already been addressed for wireless broadband and sensor networks, the DAP placement is quite a new research area for AMIs. In this paper, we investigate the minimum required number of DAPs and their optimized locations on top of the existing utility poles in a distribution grid, such that the smart grid quality of service requirements can best be provided. In order to solve the problem for large-scale AMIs, we devise a novel heuristic algorithm using a greedy approach for identifying potential pole locations for the DAP placement and the Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm for constructing reliable routes. We employ the characteristics of medium access schemes from the IEEE 802.15.4g smart utility network (SUN) standard and consider mission-critical and non-critical smart grid traffic. The performance and the time complexity of our algorithm are compared with those obtained by the IBM CPLEX software for small scenarios. Finally, we apply our devised DAP placement algorithm to examples of realistic smart grid AMI topologies.