Performance evaluation of Sub 1 GHz wireless sensor networks for the smart grid

Wireless communication in the sub 1GHz band is going to be one of the key enabler for the wireless smart grid. As part of the smart grid, home area networks (HAN) have to be reliable, robust, and secure. Frequency bands at 2.4 GHz are widely used, e.g., by Wi-Fi and ZigBee systems, but are highly congested. Frequency bands below 1 GHz, such as the ISM (industry, scientific and medical) 920/950MHz bands, offer less interfered wireless channels. There are few wireless transceivers available in the consumer market, which operate in the 950MHz ISM band. However, a thorough performance evaluation of the transmission characteristics is missing. We conducted a performance analysis of 950MHz transceivers which we deployed in a multi-node network setup to emulate a wireless HAN system. We contribute on details regarding the data rate of sub 1 GHz wireless sensors and the related error statistics. We discuss the transmission boundaries and investigate the optimal modulation schemes of sub 1GHz wireless sensors.