Optimal Resource Allocation for Smart Grid Applications in High Traffic Wireless Networks

As the Smart Grid continues to develop and become a major part of each nation's most significant piece of infrastructure, the power grid, it will require a robust and efficient communications network. The data transmitted by the Smart Grid is vital to the security and reliability of the power grid and increases its efficiency and fault handling abilities. Also, Smart Grid data should be transmitted with highest priority to decrease latency and provide high accuracy. However, wireless communications networks are already burdened with high traffic from increasing mobile, tablet and fixed broadband services. Therefore the telecommunication resources must be efficiently allocated to ensure continuing high QoS for pre-existing users and also enable Smart Grid applications to operate within strict latency, accuracy, and reliability constraints. This research utilizes population theory Lotka-Volterra (LV) equations to optimally share telecommunications subcarriers between User Equipment (UE). The proposed algorithm incorporating LV equations easily adapts to the dynamics of a telecommunications environment and provides higher average throughput than the Proportional Rates Constraints algorithm and the Maximum Sum Rate algorithm. The LV algorithm was also able to pre-allocate subcarriers to Smart Grid UEs to ensure reduced transmission latency thereby ensuring the strict communications requirements of the Smart Grid are satisfied.