This paper primarily deals with the design of an Information and Control Technology (ICT) network for an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) on the IEEE 34 node radial distribution network. The application is comprised of 330 smart meters deployed in the low voltage system and 33 data concentrators in the medium voltage system. A power line carrier (PLC) communication system design is developed and simulated in Network Simulator 3 (NS-3). The simulation result is validated by comparing the communication network performance with the minimum performance requirements for AMI. The network delay of a single data frame is calculated and compared with the simulation delay. The design methodology proposed in this article may be used for other smart grid applications. The secondary goal is to provide AMI network traffic based on the IEC Std. 61968 and a discussion on whether or not AMI could possibly be a source of big data on the future power grid.
Keywords: advanced metering; communication network; cyber-physical systems; network simulator 3; power line communication; smart grid.