Joint optimization of power allocation and relay selection for smart grid neighborhood area networks

Reliability is one of the most important requirements for smart grid communications. Cooperative communications have been considered for smart grid communications to enhance the transmission reliability. In this paper, we propose reduced-complexity algorithms to minimize the total transmission power of cooperative communications while guaranteeing transmission reliability of the smart grid neighbourhood area network (NAN). The joint optimization of relay selection and power allocation is formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem, which has a complexity increasing exponentially with the number of available relay nodes. We simplify the optimization problem and devise two sub-optimal solutions to it. Based on the solutions, we propose two algorithms to jointly optimize the relay selection and power allocation in smart grid NANs. The simulation results demonstrate that our proposed algorithms are able to minimize the total transmission power while satisfying the transmission reliability requirement of smart grid communications.