Cognitive Radio for Smart Grids: Survey of Architectures, Spectrum Sensing Mechanisms, and Networking Protocols

• Published in: IEEE Communications surveys and tutorials Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 860 - 898
• Main Authors: Khan, Athar Ali, Rehmani, Mubashir Husain, Reisslein, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2016
• Subjects: Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI); Cognitive radio; Cognitive radio network (CRN); Communication architecture; Interference; Reliability; Sensors; Smart grid (SG); Smart grids; Wide area networks; Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI); cognitive radio network (CRN); communication architecture; smart grid (SG)
• ISSN: 2373-745X
• DOI: 10.1109/COMST.2015.2481722

Traditional power grids are currently being transformed into smart grids (SGs). SGs feature multi-way communication among energy generation, transmission, distribution, and usage facilities. The reliable, efficient, and intelligent management of complex power systems requires integration of high-speed, reliable, and secure data information and communication technology into the SGs to monitor and regulate power generation and usage. Despite several challenges, such as trade-offs between wireless coverage and capacity as well as limited spectral resources in SGs, wireless communication is a promising SG communications technology. Cognitive radio networks (CRNs) in particular are highly promising for providing timely SG wireless communications by utilizing all available spectrum resources. We provide in this paper a comprehensive survey on the CRN communication paradigm in SGs, including the system architecture, communication network compositions, applications, and CR-based communication technologies. We highlight potential applications of CR-based SG systems. We survey CR-based spectrum sensing approaches with their major classifications. We also provide a survey on CR-based routing and MAC protocols, and describe interference mitigation schemes. We furthermore present open issues and research challenges faced by CR-based SG networks along with future directions.