Limited-cluster based networking algorithm of power line communication network for smart power grid

As the power line communication (PLC) network develops with increasingly scale, traditional networking approaches fail to deal with large-scale PLC network. Aimed to deal with this problem, this paper proposes a limited-cluster based networking algorithm (LC-NA) of PLC network for smart power grid, which introduces the cluster concept into PLC networking and defines the node-connectivity to vote cluster-heads in the network. Moreover, the cluster-head is responsible of those nodes only within one hoop. Thus, data packets and control messages are limited within each cluster by only allowing the cluster-heads to trigger flooding in PLC network. The simulation is conducted to prove the validity and the feasibility of this LC-NA. Simulation results shows that the LC-NA is able to reduce the packet loss rate and average time delay performances, compared with traditional flooding approach.