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Evaluation of WiMAX Technology in Smart Grid Communications

Ban A. Al-Omar 1, Taha Landolsi 2, and A. R. Al-Ali 2
1. Higher Colleges of Technology, Al-Ain Colleges, UAE
2. Computer Science and Engineering Department, American University of Sharjah, UAE

Abstract—This paper proposes a design of IEEE 802.16 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) network to serve as a wireless communication platform for the smart grid. The grid traffic is classified into five priority classes. The traffic then is scheduled using three scheduling algorithms namely; Class-Based Weighted Fair (CB-WFQ), Class-Based Deficit Weighted Round-Robin (CB-DWRR) and class-based strict priority (CB-SPQ) scheduling. Simulation results show that no more than 450 smart grid devices should be used to satisfy the delay requirement of class 1 and class 2. The results also demonstrate that the CB-SPQ scheduling algorithm provides the best delay performance. As for class 3 applications, results show that in order to satisfy the latency requirements, the maximum number of smart grid devices that can be placed in a cell should not be more than 250. For this application class CB-WFQ outperforms the other scheduling algorithms. For class 4 applications, a cell can accommodate up to 450 smart grid devices, and CB-WFQ scheduling algorithm yields the smallest latency.

Index Terms—Smart grid, traffic classification, WiMAX, queuing systems, Quality of Service (QoS)

Cite: Ban A. Al-Omar, Taha Landolsi, and A. R. Al-Ali, “Evaluation of WiMAX Technology in Smart Grid Communications," Journal of Communications, vol. 10, no. 10, pp. 804-811, 2015. Doi: 10.12720/jcm.10.10.804-811