As part of the smart-grid integration, power utility networks are moving away from old legacy communications infrastructure and toward Ethernet transport and Internet Protocol networks, also known as “packet-based networks.” The new networks will provide benefits to the smart grid such as IP-based supervisory control and data acquisition systems, advance substation automation, and video surveillance. Packet transport is a better fit for the type of communications an advanced grid uses because of its low operating expense and high capacity, but as utilities make the conversion to packet-based networks they will be faced with a decision of which packet technology to use for their network.
Read the full article here: The Evolution in Utility Networks
