Smart Grid May Also Carry IPv6 Traffic 70
itwbennett writes "Kevin Fogarty is blogging about new specs outlined by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) that outline the requirements for 'any network designed to carry data instead of just electrons.' What's needed, in short, is 'a Common Information Model for the format of data in the network, interfaces to allow it to go from one device or substation to another, exchanges between control centers and communications protocols that will add security to the net.'"
Re:Growth rate? (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, this "add security to the net" thing has me worried. Don't law enforcement have the capability to shut down power to buildings etc.? Will this give them the capability to shut down internet access too -- perhaps even for an entire block where riots are taking place?
no it won't (Score:2, Insightful)
Broadband over powerlines keeps popping up. It isn't going to happen. Yeah, it sounds like a good idea on paper... You've already got all those copper lines carrying electricity, why not throw a signal in there and do double duty? Except that it just doesn't work. I don't know how many times I've seen it here on Slashdot.
And IPv6? Not any time soon. Maybe not ever. Yeah, I know, we're running out of addresses. NAT is horrible. I know. And I'd love to roll out IPv6 today just for the hell of it (because I don't have enough work to do already). But folks have been talking about IPv6 for years now.
Re:Grid doesn't even carry electrons exactly... (Score:4, Insightful)
All this is, is, hey, we carry a powerful 60Hz signal,
Don't forget high voltage DC, HVDC.
The power companies have vast fiber networks. A piece of glass solves a lot of lightning, grounding, and electromagnetic interference problems. However, you have to be careful with the conductive steel leader line.
It should be the "Smarter Grid" (Score:5, Insightful)
First, the power grid has not been dumb. It has been pretty smart for decades. The Smart Grid is a major upgrade, but it isn't a scratch start from a dumb basis.
The existing grid includes sophisticated control centers and sophisticated microprocessor-based protective devices that sense faults and make corrections. Power grid equipment runs into problems all the time (such as equipment failure, storms, and curious animals) and handles them most of the time without putting the lights out.
The grid has always had two infrastructures: an electrical infrastructure (power lines, transformers, generators, etc.) and an information infrastructure. Decades ago, the information infrastructure was rudimentary. Now it is much more extensive. With the Smart Grid it will be even more extensive and will have much more interface to systems at the customer site. However, major upgrades will be needed to integrate massive increases in intermittent renewable energy such as wind and solar, to manage pluggable electric vehicles, and to vastly improve energy efficiency, reduce costs, and improve reliability. That will require standards. That is what the Smart Grid is doing.
Work on some of the Smart Grid standards, including the ones recently forwarded to FERC for rulemaking, started as long as 25 years ago. Those standards need to be deployed. Others will need to be developed.
Second, the Common Information Model is an abstract data model that covers the utility enterprise. It has little or nothing to do with transmitting data over power lines. That is called Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) and (like real estate having three factors in prices -- location, location, and location) it has three problems: interference, interference, and interference. To make BPL work you have to solve the interference problem.
Smart grid is not about data over power lines (Score:1, Insightful)
I currently work developing smart appliances and load reduction devices. The smart grid is about sending commands and control information to devices that consume (or generate power) on the grid. For example the Texas deployments use a wireless mesh network ( typically 900MHz) to communicate between electric meters, the meters then use ZigBee (2.4MHz) to communicate with devices with in the home. Typical communication is: the time, current price of electricity, future prices for electricity and load reduction commands. None of this information is sent over powerlines. Also the messages are only routeable in a very limited sense and they don't use IPv6 addresses.
Even if the messages did have IPv6 address, do you really think the electric utilities would allow fully routeable traffic on their networks? All the bandwidth would immediately be sucked up with bittorrent and script kiddies would be trying to turn on their neighbors air conditioner in January.