A random switching traffic scheduling algorithm in wireless smart grid communication network

One of the key technologies of smart grid is an efficient, reliable and secure two-way communication system for meter data collection. Because of the advantages of muti-hop communication, self-organizing, self-healing and reliability, wireless muti-hop communication technology becomes an ideal choice for smart grid meter data collection. However, forming wireless mesh network with advanced electricity devices (smart meters) which have the communication capabilities for meter data collection faces challenge on communication performance of network caused by application layer data traffic. When a large number of data occur in emergence, some smart meters (the last hop nodes) which are in pivotal location will face great communication pressure and probably lead to extremely data congestion. With the idea of load balancing, this paper proposes a new random switching traffic scheduling algorithm based on meter data collection tree. Simulation data show that the new algorithm can create a balanced meter data collection tree, significantly reduce the packet loss ratio of the burst data and release congestion of system.