Challenges in Communication Infrastructure

The communication infrastructure of smart grids consists of two different types of information flow. The first refers to the data received form the sensors and other electrical appliances that are later delivered to the smart meters and second process of information flow refers to the data received from smart meters which can be delivered to data centers of the utility. In order to carry on with the first level of information flow, communication infrastructure requires usage of numerous existing technologies including powder line communication, Wi-Fi and much other such wireless communication system. Similarly for the second level of information flow the communication infrastructures that are required in general include Wi-Fi, the Internet and other cellular communication technologies. Owing to high costs of deployment and huge distributed network smart grid communication involve heterogeneous network technologies (Singh and Advocate 2016). Communication infrastructure is considered to be complex in nature owing to its complicated ecosystem comprising of interconnected systems. It comprises of different types of networks that include broader internet, local area networks, optical backhaul networks and cellular networks. Communication networks find their applications in almost all spheres of life and have the possibility of becoming even more essential in days to come with the evolution of Internet of Things. In this paper, limited infrastructure of communication networks will be discussed along with their implications on the speed of data communication. The potential of Broadband over power lines will be discussed as well along with the possible challenges.

Communication infrastructure is a necessity in the present days as transferring informations needs to be fast and more efficient than before. With the development of wireless networks there is a need of improvised communication infrastructure so that there is no delay in sending and receiving data (Held 2016). Compromising with the data speed will affect almost all spheres be it business, education and many more. A sophisticated communication infrastructure is required to transmit data over large distances. Increase in the network capacity along with stability helps executives to set long term business goals and at the same time paves way for efficient and effective solutions.  

In order to go with the flow of technological advancements, the communication infrastructure needs to be upgraded so that no comprises are made to the speed with which the data is getting transmitted. Three reasons for upgradation are as follows:

1) High level of computing density- The modern network architectures permits large storage along with server density which in turn supports processing capacity. Increasing workload on smaller systems is over clocking but is adjusted by the default redundancy and expansion potential of the current architectures. A network having high capacity helps in pursuing projects of all sizes

Upgradation of Communication Infrastructure

2) Security- Communication network infrastructure should be configured properly to safeguard data from malicious attacks ensuring that the operations depending on theses data are running in a smooth manner. Upgradations in the communication infrastructure will ensure that the systems are working in accordance with the current industry standards thereby preventing security breaches (Miller et al. 2016). Frequent security assessments are also required in the communication networks to find out any malicious attacks and other such activities. Security protocols need to be adhered to so that the communication network is secure form attacks.

3) Future-Proofing- Low term low-cost of ownership can be delivered to the users via regular updates done to the aging communication infrastructure. The longer infrastructure relies on risk of network disruptions and high cost of maintenance. Updating the communication infrastructure at a regular basis will make the same scalable thus supporting future technological innovations.

In this 21^st century, expectation of high speed internet access is always persistent. But in rural areas where internet is too costly or the room in which a person wants to work does not have a telephone access point, BPL is the solution. It is also known as Ethernet Over power (EOP). The creation BPL was an alternative to the other wired internet systems like cable modem, DSL but it was not a success (Lampe, Tonello and Swart 2016). With BPL accessibility to high speed network will be much easier since a computer can be directly plugged into an electrical outlet at home. Developers have combined the technological principles of modems, radio and wireless networking to transmit data over the power lines and into homes at a very high speed of 500kb and 3mb/s. BPL has already been tested in various cities of the United Kingdom and United States.

The broadband signals need to follow path that is followed by the power lines that is the generator, power lines, transformers, substations and households. There exist three different ways in which the broadband services can be provided to the consumers after data is moved from the 7,200 volt line to the 240 volt line. When the data reaches to the transformer one among the three processes listed below takes place:

1) Blast-through transformer- This does not require additional electronic equipments and the users just requires devices that can serve as the medium of interaction in between them and the broadband services being provided through the power lines (Ünsal and Yalç?nöz, 2015). The disadvantage of this process is that the bandwidth being delivered to the houses gets limited.

BPL and its Potential Use

2) Bypass- This involves a bridging device located at the vicinity of transformer. The bypass re-routes the broadband signal around the transformer delivering increased bandwidth to every endpoint.

3) Wireless step off- This process permits the utility to create wireless hotspot at the vicinity of the transformers.

The ordinary telephone line is split into numerous different channels and this facilitates the working of broadband internet. The different channels are used for different purposes like one may be used for transmission of calls, the other for downloads and uploads. Electric signal of low frequency are used for phone calls and signals of high frequency are used for internet data. There are filters which separate the signals which include one going to the telephone and other to the internet modem (Mlynek et al. 2015). If it is possible to send computer data through a telephone line then it can also be channelled through a power line. Some of the Internet providers are utilizing underground power cables and overhead lines for data transmission over long distances to the consumers. The process includes a signal of high frequency containing the broadband data being superimposed on lower frequency signal. There is a requirement of having a little modified outlet possessing an extra socket, after which only plugging in to the socket makes the broadband up and running. BPL can also be used with the traditional telephone or wired broadband to get Internet access to every room in a house. The Ethernet lead from the normal modem needs to plug into an adapter that should fit in the power outlet. Then the home electric circuit transmits the internet to all the rooms as a signal of high frequency superimposed on power supply. Signals can be send up to 200m or 650ft unlike a Wi-Fi router which can offer up to 35m or 115ft. Cheaper data rates are also offered by a BPL connection and it works along with other products related to network on the basis of Ethernet. Encryption is used for the signal protection and no additional wiring is required. A hybrid setup of BPL and Wi-FI is also possible which works really well for large houses and old buildings where there are obstructions for wireless signals. Initially it was thought that BPL would facilitate power companies to provide access to the internet and in this situation the companies would give television, phone, and internet over copper or fibre based networks which would then transmit signals to the customers’ home (Nafi, Ahmed, Gregory and Datta 2016). Satellite connection or cable will not be required but developers of this technology also speculate that BPL will not be accepted as an effective way to deliver Internet access. It may help the subscribers to manage the consumption of energy. The devices like smart meters, thermostats and other appliances would be able to communicate with each other with the help of the high speed transmission of data between power plugs in a building.

Networking Technology for Smart Grids

Electric power lines can be found everywhere in developed countries so it not difficult in setting up of BPL and getting Internet access everywhere. Weaker sections can also afford Internet if BPL comes into picture since it is quicker, cost effective and simple to be deployed unlike high cost broadband. The companies supplying electricity will be able to provide for broadband services to their existing users using the same power lines and this will help to decrease the broadband cost significantly. BPL at home can be combined with the Wi-Fi thus helping to overcome the various limitations like reliability and long distances in the already present wireless and wired networks (Cano et al. 2016). Since it is wired, there is minimum latency and maximum stability thus making it suitable for the activities involving a higher bandwidth like downloading, gaming, video streaming. The speed offered is commendable and configuration is easy. Moreover it is very secure due to the encryption and traffic cannot be intercepted which is a great benefit to the user. Secondly, the data signal will not travel beyond the electrical meter of the house after it crosses the circuit breakers which mean information or data cannot be sniffed by any third party. BPL connections are well suited for providing internet facility to an area with poor Wi-Fi connectivity or a residence that is unable to access the router’s signal. Broadband power lines are scalable and flexible and open up a completely new market of users to the broadband access and usage. This is proving to be one of the driving forces in between BPL industry and power transmission lines. BPL enables machines for networking within an infrastructure and this again happens to be an advantage since no modification or wiring is required to deploy the BPL system (Whitacre, Strover and Gallardo 2015). From the Government’s view point BPL enhances the national security and it would provide a redundant layer for communication, thus allowing more precise and proactive monitoring of power grid.

The concerns related to the interference of the BPL technology have been one of the major drawbacks. The interference characteristics linked to BPL are broadly classified into two different categories that include conducted and radiated. As per the FCC reports and order number 04-245, the access BPL systems are spared from conducted emissions as measuring these will put forward safety hazard resulting from 1-40 kilovolt energy on the power lines (Degauque et al. 2015). Thus the FCC puts stress on complying with the existing radiated emission requirements.

Conclusion

The technology involve in broadband over power lines give rise to issues that relate to RF noise sources detection. Since the year 1951, the International telecommunications Union-Radiocommunications (ITU-R) sector has published a report that specifies the sources of the RF noise (da Silva Costa et al. 2017). As per the reports of ITU-R the various factors that give rise to extrinsic radio noise are as follows:

1) Radiation from the lightning discharges.

2) Radiation from machineries and other electronic equipments.

3) Emissions from hydrometeors

4) Radiation from celestial radio sources

The study considers the fact of unintended radiation from the power transmission lines thus providing a recorded basis to ensure that broadband over power lines do not go on to generate interference.

At present there are no such technical standards from any such recognized organizations that consider the broadband over power lines technology. There does not exist any such standardized methods or techniques that can be used to test the interference related to the technology.  The revised rules of ITU-R provide certain details about where BPL filed strength measurements are to be made (Sharma and Saini 2017). As per the rule, measurements can be made at a distance of 3 meters keeping in mind the ambient emissions. The rules make it clear that the measurements should not be done at distances greater than 30 meters and frequencies exceeding the value of 30MHz.

The utilities providing ISPs with the access to infrastructures in joint services will have to consider the legal issues, the analysis of which will be requiring attention to the services that are to be offered may it be directly or indirectly. The informations including software, data compilations and movies are safeguarded by the help of copyright. Suppose if the utility’s tenant ISP sharing revenue with the utility infringes the copyright, the utility can be liable under certain concepts of indirect infringement in specific situations (Rinaldi et al. 2015). The state regulators have started pushing for disclosures from the providers to the users related to the dangers of peer-to-peer functionality. The access technology plays a vital factor as well.

There are many privacy issues related to the broadband over power lines such as disclosure of information which can be prevented by the help of encryption so that anyone not authorized to access the logical network is prevented from recovering and deciphering the same. Eavesdropping is one of the major attacks and there are even more dangerous attacks that prevent the operation of the network resulting in the collapse of the system. Cryptography can be used to prevent the privacy and security issues in the system (Lopez et al. 2017). Proper registration of a device to the network can be done if the system is based on encryption keys that are known to the authorized devices of the network only. The mechanism relies on secure, reliable as well as simple registration for the network manager or the users of the devices of the network. The functionalities make deployment of the broadband networks easy.   

Conclusion

Broadband over power lines permit simple phase deployment as compared to the other available broadband technologies. Two other important attributes of broadband over power lines are its cost effectiveness and associated low level of risks. Unlike the presently available broadband facilities the broadband over power lines provide stable platform and do not require heavy investments. It is just in place with the technological advancements as the technology will provide broadband delivery services to all those people who have constant electric supply in their houses. The people living in the rural areas will be able to get the broadband services if the technology is adopted. In the era of communication speed BPL is the perfect medium of increasing the internet speeds.  Thus it can be concluded that in order to implement BPL some existing infrastructure need no such changes while some require alterations.

References

Cano, C., Pittolo, A., Malone, D., Lampe, L., Tonello, A.M. and Dabak, A.G., 2016. State of the art in power line communications: From the applications to the medium. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 34(7), pp.1935-1952.

da Silva Costa, L.G., de Queiroz, A.C.M., Adebisi, B., da Costa, V.L.R. and Ribeiro, M.V., 2017. Coupling for power line communications: A survey. Journal of Communication and Information Systems, 32(1).

Degauque, P., Stievano, I., Pignari, S., Degardin, V., Canavero, F., Grassi, F. and Canete, F.J., 2015. Power-line communication: Channel characterization and modeling for transportation systems. IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, 10(2), pp.28-37.

Held, G., 2016. Understanding broadband over power line. Auerbach Publications.

Lampe, L., Tonello, A.M. and Swart, T.G. eds., 2016. Power Line Communications: Principles, Standards and Applications from multimedia to smart grid. John Wiley & Sons.

López, G., Moreno, J.I., Sánchez, E., Martínez, C. and Martín, F., 2017. Noise sources, effects and countermeasures in narrowband power-line communications networks: A practical approach. Energies, 10(8), p.1238.

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Mlynek, P., Misurec, J., Koutny, M., Fujdiak, R. and Jedlicka, T., 2015. Analysis and experimental evaluation of power line transmission parameters for power line communication. Measurement Science Review, 15(2), pp.64-71.

Nafi, N.S., Ahmed, K., Gregory, M.A. and Datta, M., 2016. A survey of smart grid architectures, applications, benefits and standardization. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 76, pp.23-36.

Rinaldi, S., Ferrari, P., Flammini, A., Rizzi, M., Sisinni, E. and Vezzoli, A., 2015. Performance analysis of power line communication in industrial power distribution network. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 42, pp.9-16.

Sharma, K. and Saini, L.M., 2017. Power-line communications for smart grid: Progress, challenges, opportunities and status. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 67, pp.704-751.

Singh, S.M. and Advocate, E.R., 2016. Broadband Over Power Lines a White Paper. State of New Jersey, Division of the Ratepayer Advocate, NJ.

Ünsal, D.B. and Yalç?nöz, T., 2015. Applications of new power line communication model for smart grids.

Whitacre, B., Strover, S. and Gallardo, R., 2015. How much does broadband infrastructure matter? Decomposing the metro–non-metro adoption gap with the help of the National Broadband Map. Government Information Quarterly, 32(3), pp.261-269