Flexible channel selection mechanism for cognitive radio based last mile smart grid communications

Smart grid (SG) operation requires a reliable, accurate and effective communication link between the distributed meters and the control center. However, dedicating a portion of the spectrum is difficult due to the spectrum scarcity problem. Cognitive radio (CR) technology has been nominated as a good candidate for SG communications due to its efficiency and flexibility. Indeed, channel selection in CR-based SG systems is still an open issue, and it is investigated in this paper. The paper proposes a novel channel selection mechanism that is able to adapt the selection criteria based on the type of transmitted data. The proposed mechanism is proven to provide high performance compared to the non-adaptable mechanisms.