Performance Assessment of Smart Meter Traffic over LTE Network Using SDR Testbed

In the smart grid, a variety of smart meters will be deployed to support diverse services, such as energy distribution management, grid monitoring and management, and the integration of renewable energy resources. On the power distribution side, regular Smart Meters (SMs) generale low-rate data traffic for system maintenance, billing, and more. In contrast, on the transmission side, a number of enhanced Smart Meters (eSMs), including Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), among others, are deployed and can generate much higher data rates. Naturally, monitoring the grid becomes much easier for utility providers using real-time information provided by eSMs for timely control of the grid. Nonetheless, how to deliver such large data volumes with high data rates generated by eSMs is a significant challenge. To address this issue, in this paper, we consider the transmission of eSM data over Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network as a potential solution and assess its viability through practical evaluation. Specifically, we design a Software Defined Radio (SDR) testbed that uses the srsLTE library to create an LTE network and conduct Hardware-In-theLoop (HIL) simulation to assess the effectiveness of transmitting the eSM data over LTE. In our experiments, we simulate data traffic from eSMs based on the IEEE C37.118.2 standard for streaming protocol and packet structure, as well as the IEC 61850 standard for data transmission rate and error rate. Our investigation demonstrates how sporadic eSM data traffic in a neighborhood area network (NAN) can challenge a real-world LTE network system, and additionally shows the effectiveness of transmission scheduling of eSM data traffic locally within the NAN.