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Emerging wireless communication for smart grid applications Chapter 5 197

l Wireless devices for Industrial applications are not ready yet. Nonetheless,
new developments on error correcting codes and protocols have improved
the stability of wireless communication systems.
Therefore, Wi-Fi technology is appropriate for applications that require low
data rates and environments with low interference. Channel assignment of
Wi-Fi systems is variable in the world. As a result of this situation, overlap issue
is occurred in the channels, in other words, limited number of devices are con-
nected to the Wi-Fi network [48]. In addition, interference issue may also lead
to security problems in Wi-Fi applications, especially in Wi-Fi based SG appli-
cations. Security infrastructure of the Wi-Fi systems is implemented by using
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) that is a security standard developed for devices
equipped with wireless internet connections. The Wi-Fi Alliance improved the
WPA to ensure advanced data encryption and better user authentication than
that of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) that is the fundamental security stan-
dard of the Wi-Fi technology. The enhanced version of the WPA is WPA2 that
is approved by the IEEE in 2004. While the WPA is based on Extensible
Authentication Protocol (EAP) and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES),
the WPA2 employs Counter Mode Cipher Block Chaining Message Authenti-
cation Code Protocol (CCMP) that is an AES-based encryption method. The
Wi-Fi Alliance introduced WPA3 as a new security standard in January
2018. This security standard employs 128-bit data encryption in WPA3-
Personal mode while 192-bit data encryption is used in WPA3-Enterprise mode.
The WPA3 standard will reduce security problems occurred by weak passwords
and will make easier configuration transactions of devices without having dis-
play interface.

5.5 Cellular communication technologies
Effective utilization of new ICTs has turned into a significant factor for devel-
oping global economy. One of the most critical factor for the universal ICT is
wireless communications that are able to play a significant role on the advances
of other sectors. European Mobile Observatory (EMO) has reported that mobile
communication market has gained a great revenue level by outdistancing other
major sectors [49, 50]. It is also clear that wireless and mobile communication
technologies should universally continue to evolve for satisfying user demands.
Recently, request of location and time independent communication has turned
into one of the indispensable conditions for everyone, even for all smart things.
In order to meet mentioned requests, the use of mobile communication technol-
ogies is highly suggested because of superiorities of these technologies.
When the development of cellular communication systems is taken into
account from first generation (1G) to fourth generation (4G), it is obvious that
each generation aims to offer more reliable communication system by eliminat-
ing deficiencies of former communication generation. These deficiencies are