On IEEE 802.16m overload control for smart grid deployments

Abstract

The evolved vision of the Internet-of-Things predicts tremendous growth in the number of connected human-unattended objects over the following years. However, existing wireless network protocols were not originally designed for such excessive numbers of nodes. Therefore, currently deployed networking solutions are not optimized for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications. To bridge in this gap, IEEE 802.16m cellular technology targets extensive improvements to support M2M communications. As such, performance assessment of an 802.16m-based network with respect to the expected M2M scenarios is topical. In particular, the contention-based procedure for network admission control is very likely to become a bottleneck for the entire system. Therefore, we focus performance assessment of the standardized collision resolution algorithm, used in the random access channel, with respect to M2M. In particular, this paper addresses a Smart Grid use case, where a large number of devices access the network within a relatively short period of time. We discuss specific performance requirements that apply to the considered scenario. Then, an evaluation methodology to investigate the adaptability of the 802.16m system is presented. Finally, we conclude on the capability of the 802.16m technology to support an excessive number of human-unattended devices. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.