Analysis of cooperative transmissions as an enabling technology for smart grid data aggregation: An experimental perspective

Smart meters are being deployed worldwide on a trial basis and are expected to enable remote reading and demand response among other advanced functions, by establishing a two-way communication network. A possible technique for transmitting data to the aggregation point is the use of cooperative communication in the neighborhood area network. This paper presents an experimental comparison between cooperative networks located in disparate environments, in terms of range extension and bit error rate as the performance metrics. Transmissions have been achieved using universal software radio peripheral (USRP) platforms. The cooperative transmission (CT) tests are performed over a multiple hop network that uses the binary phase shift keying (BPSK) scheme.