A Wireless Relay Assisted LPWAN for Condition Monitoring of Converter Stations

Low power wide area network (LPWAN) is an essential communication technology for the industrial internet of things (IIoT). Moreover, benefiting from its long-range and low power properties, LPWAN is considered as one of the most appropriate approaches for condition monitoring systems with wireless battery-powered sensors. In this work, we aim to evaluate the performance of such an LPWAN with/without wireless relay in power transmission and distribution systems, in particular, in a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converter station hall. In this scenario, a plenty of sensors are attached to the key components of the converter, a relay can be placed along the patrol corridor, while the base station is fixed at the entrance of the corridor. Simulation results show that by introducing relay to the LPWAN, the collision rate of the network can be significantly reduced, i.e., higher data rates, lower power consumption and more sensor nodes can be supported by this relay assisted LPWAN.