This chapter presents related and current research on Smart Grids, Test Beds, AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure), PLC (Power Line Communication), and other emerging fields within OPNET and Power Line Communication. The author emerges in new research trends to provide adequate information on Smart House, Smart Grid communication, Smart Grid design challenges, and PLC and the Smart Grid. This chapter will pave the way for the information in upcoming chapters.
Top1. Test Bed
Simulator and emulation Test Bed users often experience difficulty in generating realistic network topologies and background traffic in their experiments. These issues can be avoided by using test beds that are available on the actual Internet, such as PlanetLab and Federations of Test Beds via the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI).
With real Internet links included in the Test Bed, experimental networks will have real Internet background traffic and are global in scale. However, these internet test beds are not isolated from operational networks and security experiments on these test beds are difficult. Such test beds also lack repeatability (i.e., reproducibility) as the background internet traffic is not controlled by the user.
As for the Test Bed for a Smart Grid, networking was performed on the Physical and the Data Link Layer of the OSI 7 Layer, as indicated in the section in Figure 1. The Test Bed experiment was conducted with Zigbee-based network which is popular in the ROK while both the WiMAX and the PLC-based networks have been implemented with OPNET for the experiments.
In the Transmission Layer, RUDP was tested and presented as the most suitable protocol that has major benefits of both TCP and UDP. Meanwhile, for the Application Layer, an AMI application has been proposed for the PLC by implementing two scenarios. At the same time, an intelligent agent was used for the AMI application to have it tested in the PLC network.
Top2. Smart Grid
Figure 2 shows the recent trend of Smart Grid system in the ROK. The Korean government has announced the ‘Smart Grid Road Map’ and plans to invest 2.75 billion won by 2030 hoping to vitalize relevant industries, starting with construction of a demonstrational complex in Jeju-Do. Their initial Smart Grid model had aimed to advance the element technologies but recently, they are seeking to invigorate the Smart Grid system business internationally by developing several promising business models and more sophisticated convergent systems. The purpose of such a Smart Grid system is to intellectualize the Power Grid first to let the supplier of electric power to adjust the level of power supply and its rates and, on the part of consumers, to control their usage by understanding the price of electricity and their own usage patterns through the smart meters connected to internet. One of the typical methods used in the Smart Metering systems is a Cable TV (CATV) network-based remote metering method.
Figure 2. A trend on the smart grid in ROK
Figure 3 shows present Smart Grid construction status overseas. Although the technologies and markets for the Smart Grid are rapidly developing, centering around the US, the policies related to them assume different forms depending on each nation’s power infrastructure and industrial structure. The US, where there used be a power loss rate as high as 7% and frequent blackout events, has already announced the vision ‘Smart Grid 2030’ in 2003 and is actively proceeding with the development of the Smart Grid-relate technologies and supportive policies by selecting five major technical fields to be focused on and establishing the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) in 2007.