Simultaneous Powerline and Wireless Smart Grid Communications Testbed

Junmo Sung and Brian L. Evans, The University of Texas at Austin

Version 2.0 (March 29, 2017) - Version 1.0 (September 14, 2016)

Two-way smart grid communication is enabled by either powerline communication (PLC) or wireless communication technologies. Utilizing both technologies for simultaneous transmission can potentially enhance communication reliability, and many diversity combining schemes have been proposed. However, their assumptions may break under realistic conditions. We have developed a flexible real-time testbed to evaluate various diversity combining schemes over physical channels.

Software Requirements

LabVIEW 2015 SP1
LabVIEW Real-Time Module
LabVIEW FPGA Module
LabVIEW Modulation Toolkit
NI FlexRIO 15.5 (including NI FlexRIO Adapter Module Support)
NI-FGEN 15.0
NI-SCOPE 15.1.1

Hardware Requirements

PXI-1045 chassis (PLC)
- PXI-8106 controller (RTOS)
- PXI-5421 signal generator
- PXI-5122 digitizer
PXI-1082 chassis (Wireless)
- PXIe-8133 controller (RTOS)
- PXIe-7965R FPGA module
- NI-5791 RF adapter module
BNC cables and VERT 2450 antennas
Ethernet router

Hardware does not have to be exactly identical to the above list. The list includes hardware used for code development.

How to run

Run both controllers in the RT mode, and discover them from a desktop/laptop on NI MAX. All of them should be on the same local subnet.
Open two top-level VIs for the PLC and wireless systems. Their names are 'top_wireless.vi' and 'top_PLC.vi', and each of them is located under each PXI RT target in the project explorer.
Set 'Tx', 'Rx' and 'RIO Devices' to your hardware, and run both top-level VIs. You may run either of them first.
When the 'system status' indicator on the PLC system front panel reads 'Ready' and the 'FPGA Running' indicator on the wireless system front panel is ON, click on the 'Send' button on the wireless system front panel. You will see constellation diagrams on both front panels.
Play with controls and modify subVIs as needed.

Reference

J. Sung and B. L. Evans, "Real-Time Testbed for Diversity in Powerline and Wireless Smart Grid Communications", Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Communications Work. Integrating Comm., Control, Comp. Tech. for Smart Grid, May 20-24, 2018, Kansas City, MO, USA, 6 pages.