Smart grid monitoring with service differentiation via EPON and wireless sensor network convergence

Passive Optical Networks (PON) are recognized as a fundamental component of high-speed network access, and emerge as a solid networking solution for the smart grid. Smart grid aims to incorporate two-way communications between the customers and the utility, for the purposes of advanced monitoring and intelligent control of demand and supply of electricity. At the user-end, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are ideal tools for energy consumption monitoring at residential premises, as well as, event and ambient monitoring at substations, power lines and vaults. In this paper, we target a seamless integration of WSN technology with PONs to provide Quality of Service (QoS) to both the data collected by billions of sensors and to the Fiber-To-The-Home/Building/Curb (FTTX) users in the smart grid environment. We present the design of a Fiber-Wireless Sensor Network (Fi-WSN) gateway where data prioritization is fundamental since ambient data collected from a home will have lower priority than an alarm generated at a smart grid asset. We show that the proposed gateway design is able to offer low delay for high priority packets while maintaining the delay of FTTX traffic and the reliability of the WSN at desired levels under various loads, concentrations of service levels and aggressive/non-aggressive bursting mechanisms.