Wireless network deployment for intelligent fault indicators - A case study with ZigBee

This paper studies the wireless ZigBee network deployment for distribution feeders, especially, for the intelligent fault indicators mounted on distribution feeders. Researches reveal that ZigBee is suitable for constructing the communication network within distribution automation and/or smart grids; however, the network deployment should be carefully evaluated to make sure that the communication quality, packet error rate for example, is acceptable. Therefore, communication quality evaluation software for ZigBee network deployment which makes use of Google map is designed in this paper. The proposed software can be used to select the candidate locations for intelligent fault indicators placement by inspecting the terrain and possible obstacles from Google map and then the actual field test can be conducted. Different test scenarios including urban feeders, suburban feeders and mountainous feeders with respect to different transmitting range and obstacles can be conducted in the proposed software. The ZigBee network deployment procedure for distribution feeder is also recommended. Experimental results demonstrate the validity of the proposed system.