Performance evaluation of Channel-Aware MAC protocol in smart grid

An Intelligent Distributed Channel-Aware Medium Access Control (IDCA-MAC) protocol is proposed for Home Area Network (HAN), in general, and for Electrical Devices Networks (EDN), in particular, in smart grids. In an EDN, electrical devices generate critical packets, and these must be communicated to their respective mesh clients. The proposed IDCA-MAC protocol employs simultaneous transmission of data packets through a single collision domain. Also, the electrical devices and the mesh client are assumed to be equipped with Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology. The proposed protocol is compatible with the existing IEEE 802.11 standard, and uses channel-aware Medium Access Control (MA-Aware) and the Zig-Zag decoding algorithm. Simulations are carried out using the NS-2 network simulator, and the performance of IDCA-MAC protocol is evaluated for various smart grid scenarios that are of practical significance. It is shown that the protocol is very effective and can be easily adopted in existing smart grids for improved throughput and performance.