Title: UWB wireless: a scheme for SCADA communications in offshore wind farms

Authors: Hojjat Salehinejad; Siamak Talebi; Masoud Rashidinejad

Addresses: Department of Electrical Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran ' Department of Electrical Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran; Advanced Communications Research Institute, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Electrical Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran

Abstract: Utilisation of reliable communication technologies for data communication is a key challenge in smart grids. Due to specific characteristics of offshore wind farms (OWFs), wireless data communications is of interest for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) communication between wind towers. The ultra-wideband (UWB) communication technology is one of the state-of-the-art communication technologies suitable for inexpensive, low-data rate, outdoor, long-range, communication applications. However, in order to employ it in OWFs, its link modelling and performance must first be well analysed comprehensively. In this paper, the UWB communication channel is modelled in OWFs and with respect to sea surface conditions as the signal reflection surface, performance of the UWB link subject to several metrics such as range-data rate, range-bit error rate (BER), and path loss are analytically and numerically evaluated. The obtained results clearly illustrate superior capabilities of UWB technology in this application, promising a bright future in advancing the proposed ideas.

Keywords: offshore wind farms; OWF; smart grid; supervisory control and data acquisition; SCADA; ultra wideband; UWB communications; wind power; wind energy; UWB wireless; link modelling; sea surface conditions; signal reflection surface; range data rate; range BER; bit error rate; path loss.

DOI: 10.1504/IJUWBCS.2015.077098

International Journal of Ultra Wideband Communications and Systems, 2015 Vol.3 No.2, pp.59 - 67

Accepted: 18 Sep 2014
Published online: 21 Jun 2016 *

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