Smart grid traffic modeling and scheduling using 3GPP LTE for efficient communication with reduced RAN delays

There has been a dramatic improvisation in communication technologies during the last two decades. This in turn has evolved as a great source of strength to ideas regarding implementation of smart grids. This paper has three basic emphasis areas. At first, it presents a smart grid top to down hierarchy tree based traffic model by considering the different types of information carrying traffic travelling between multiple nodes of a smart grid. This is done by analyzing the multiple functions performed by a smart grid. After that 3GPP LTE is addressed as the most promising communication backbone for smart grid environment. Its performance has been analyzed in terms of high data rates, improved coverage and reduced Scheduling and Transmission delays. In the end, a priority based queuing technique for smart grid traffic is proposed by categorizing the smart grid traffic into different classes with each class representing a different type of information/data. This results in reducing the queuing delays of traffic at end and intermediate nodes. It has been shown through results that the proposed traffic modeling, scheduling and queuing result in reduced Random Access Network (RAN) delays.