Tailoring DDS to smart grids for improved communication and control

Adopting new technologies in smart grid (SG) enables the improvement of reliable communication. A key factor for SG efficiency is reliable data exchange between different components and domains in the system. SG must allow remote and quick reaction for different events. This is not a trivial task especially with large scale power grids, which requires SG to have a reliable communication protocol. Data Distribution Service (DDS) is introduced as a data-centric middleware standard based on publish-subscribe protocol to address communication needs for distributed applications. DDS supports reliable data exchange between different components using various features such as quality-of-service (QoS). In this paper, we describe how DDS can be tailored to support SG to improve the communication of devices in SG. We first give an overview of DDS and discuss the benefits of applying it to the communication system in SG. We then describe communication requirements and constraints in SG. and discuss how DDS can be tailored to SG with respect to the requirements and constraints.