ABSTRACT
The intelligent monitoring and control enabled by modern information and communication technologies (ICT) have become essential to realize the objectives envisioned from smart electricity distribution networks. With the emerging smarter electricity distribution networks, a large amount of data needs to be transmitted between the smart network entities and the electric utilities for analysis, control and real-time pricing. A mesh network is a flexible network consisting of a group of nodes, where new nodes can join the group and each node can act as an independent router. Global system mobile (GSM) technology with data rates up to 14.4 kbps and global packet radio system (GPRS) with data rates up to 170 kbps are employed for cellular networks. Power Line Communication is a technique that uses existing power lines to transmit high-speed data signals from one device to another. One critical aspect of the information and communications technologies of smart distribution network is cyber-security, which includes physical and system security.
