Capacity analysis of a wireless backhaul for metering in the Smart Grid

Many application scenarios envisioned as part of the `Smarter´ Grid depend on an effective underlying communication infrastructure for power distribution. To this end, a linear chain wireless communication architecture is proposed in this work to meet communication requirements at the distribution level of the power grid. A theoretical study is done to understand the capacity limitations of using such linear chain wireless technologies at the distribution level. The application of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) that encourages customer participation in energy delivery is used as a case study to understand the implications of any limitations imposed by the proposed communication architecture.