A simulation study of routing protocols for smart meter networks

The automated metering infrastructure in a smart grid system requires a network connecting the smart meters in the households back to the utility's operation desk. The network of choice is a wireless mesh network. While there has been some consensus on the choice of the link layer (Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4-based or similar), the choice of the routing protocol remains an open issue. We evaluate a recently developed protocol in the IETF, called RPL (Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks) for its suitability for large-scale smart meter networks. Via a detailed and realistic simulation study using a standard packet-level simulator, Qualnet, we show that RPL significantly outperforms a commonly used routing protocol for ad hoc/mesh networks, AODV, when traffic is distributed such as congestions are likely. We use Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4 at the 915 Mhz band for the link layer and promote the suitability of its `non-beacon enabled' mode for smart meter networks. Overall, our work demonstrates the performance and scalability of RPL.