Smart Grid 5G Network Slicing

- 5G Smart Grid Applications

Smart grid covers five key links: power generation, power transmission, power transformation, power distribution, and power consumption. Dozens of smart grid communication services need to be deployed in each link, and the requirements of services for SLA, such as latency, bandwidth, and security isolation, are greatly different. 

In accordance with the functions of grid services and security isolation requirements, grid services are divided into two types: production control region and management information region. 

• The production control zone is divided into Safety Zone I and Safety Zone II. The services in the Safety Zone I are directly used to monitor the power system in real time, while the services in the Safety Zone II are only used to detect the power system without controlling. 
• The management information zones are divided into Management Zone III and Management Zone IV/V, which mainly manage the power production and power grid enterprises, such as video monitoring and information-based office.

The 5G smart grid applications involve safe and reliable operation of power grid, so it is different from the public network applications and it has strict requirements for security isolation and SLA guarantee. 

The smart grid services are widely used in various scenarios, including status awareness, control protection, data collection, AI assistance, and robot preventive maintenance. Various types of transmission data, including status data, control instructions, images, and videos, have different requirements for network bandwidth, latency, jitter, bit error rate, and reliability.

- 5G Network Slicing + Smart Grid  

5G network slicing is an ideal choice to enable smart grid services. It divides the 5G network into logically isolated networks, where each one could be seen as a slice. 5G network slicing allows the power grid to flexibly customize specific slices with different network functions and different service level agreement (SLA) assurances according to the different requirements of the various services on a power grid. 

The 5G SA-based power slicing innovation project, a collaboration between China Telecom, SGCC (State-Grid-Corporation-of-China) and Huawei, was initiated in September 2017 and has achieved major breakthroughs in verifying technology feasibility, exploring business feasibility, and fostering the ecosystem.  

Through a rigorous commercial feasibility analysis of 5G power slicing, comparing it to private optical networks, the project concluded that power slicing can better support differentiated service scenarios, and will help power grid enterprises significantly reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of power communication networks, also resulting in a good return on investment ROI for carriers.  

The 5G smart grid innovation project has been proven to be a valuable reference point for cooperation among global operators and enterprises in the 5G era.