Performance assessment of the PRIME MAC layer protocol

Abstract

The PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) protocol is a very popular multicarrier narrowband PLC protocol that fits the needs of advanced metering infrastructure applications. This paper proposes a performance assessment of the PRIME MAC layer protocol obtained through OMNeT simulations in different scenarios. The contribution of the paper is twofold. The first contribution is an approach to overcome a well-known problem of discrete-event simulators, i.e., the fact that they do not provide functionalities to emulate the continuous effects of signal propagation. To solve this problem, in this paper the channel is modeled based on measurements, made on real testbeds, so our simulator embeds data taken from experiments performed in a real scenario. The second contribution is the assessment of the impact of the modulation scheme on the performance of the PRIME protocol.