Priority aware interference mitigation techniques for coexistence of wireless technologies in smart utility networks

Abstract

In recent years, Smart Grid (SG) is envisioned to be the next generation electric power system by replacing traditional power grid due to its advantage of using two way communications. To implement reliable SG wireless communication networks, IEEE introduced a new wireless standard (IEEE802.15.4g) for Smart Utility Networks (SUNs). However, SUN operates in 2.4 GHz unlicensed band which is overlapped with Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) that leads to coexistence in Smart Utility Networks. In this research, the coexistence problem of SUN is addressed in terms of homogeneous and heterogeneous interferences. To mitigate the homogeneous interference, Contention Access Period (CAP) and Contention Free Period (CFP) of a super frame of IEEE 802.15.4g is used to access the channel using slotted CSMA/CA algorithm by modifying the Backoff Period (BP) and Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) period for different priority data. An analytical model has been developed using Markov Chain Model which evaluates the performance of the proposed model in terms of throughput, channel access delay, probability of successful transmission and collision for nodes with different priority data. Performance evaluation is further investigated by comparing the proposed scheme with the existing PA-MAC. A channel switching mechanism is explored to mitigate the heterogeneous interference by the prediction of Naive Bayes Classifier. Predicted result shows that proposed channel switching mechanism effectively mitigates the heterogeneous interference by choosing the non-overlapping and non-coexisting channel.