A Comparative Study Between LTE and WiMAX Technologies Applied to Transmission Power System

A transmission power system carries the energy produced by generators to load points over long distances and to ensure the power demand is satisfactorily reached, the electric utilities use devices running applications for monitoring, control and protection, in order to maintain system operation in a normal state. These applications mainly require continuous data communication and low latency, which makes crucial to define the appropriate communication technology. In this context, this paper proposes a study which simulates a scenario based on the IEEE 14-bus transmission test system, on NS-3 (Network Simulator 3) tool, using the wireless Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMAX technologies to move data across data links on the system. The simulations generate metrics like delay, throughput and packet loss, to compare the technologies and express the degree of compatibility of each one with the applications tested, which can guide the utilities in choosing the communication technology to be deployed in its system.