Rethinking the Contention Resolution Mechanism in WiMAX Networks using Lattice Correlators for Improved Smart Grid Communication Performance

By using experimental measurements of smart grid applications compliant with IEC 61850 in trace-driven WiMAX simulations, we show that the WiMAX MAC protocol efficiency decreases as a function of the number of stations. To avoid this shortcoming, we propose and analyze a novel WiMAX MAC protocol for smart grid applications, which uses lattice correlators to improve the throughput-delay performance significantly. For the considered configurations, the obtained maximum throughput of the proposed MAC protocol outperforms the current WiMAX MAC protocol by up to 41%.