A network deployment strategy for home area networks in smart grid

Reliability is one of the most concerned issues in wireless communications for smart grid, especially in the home area network(HAN) where the smart meter data are collected. In this paper, we model the HAN as a wireless mesh network that deploys cooperative transmissions for improving link reliability. We then define a new reliability performance metric that depends not only on the channel model but also on the locations of smart meters. Based on the reliability performance metric, we propose a smart meter deployment strategy to maximize the communication reliability. The performance of the proposed HAN deployment strategy is applied to a real home environment. The simulation results show that the proposed deployment strategy is effective in guaranteeing reliability for smart-grid communications.