A Modular Framework for Evaluating Smart Grid Communication Protocols over Mobile Networks

This work introduces a modular framework for analyzing the transmission overhead in mobile networks that arises from typical protocols used in the energy industry. Our framework can emulate these protocols using a real LTE-M cell. In particular, the LTE band 72 in the 450 MHz frequency range is evaluated which is currently deployed in Germany for smart grid applications. Compared to previous work, we focus our analysis on the average LTE resource block utilization in the uplink using up to five real devices. Two traffic profiles were provided by different energy industry companies as typical use cases in a smart grid. Our results reveal that the utilization of the uplink resource blocks increases linearly with an increasing number of devices. These results can be used to better understand the scalability of smart grid applications over mobile networks.