Integration of Cognitive Radio with Heterogeneous Smart Grid Communication Architecture

The existing power grid is going through a massive transformation with an integration of electrical and communication architectures. Smart grid is a radical approach to overcome the limitations of existing electricity grid. Smart grid is characterized by full duplex communication, distribution automation, renewable energy integration, advanced metering infrastructure, active participation of consumers, fault diagnosis and isolation with self-healing capability, and complete monitoring and control of entire power grid. Integration of information and communication technologies for realization of intelligent grid requires huge amount of spectrum space. Bandwidth is a restricted resource. Cognitive radio technology can facilitate an effective use of available spectrum. This paper is expected to serve as a comprehensive review of application of cognitive radio technology for smart grid communication infrastructure and various spectrum sensing techniques for energy efficiency.