%D 2014 %P 58-64 %N 3 %T Information-Centric Networking for Machine-to-Machine Data Delivery: A Case Study in Smart Grid Applications %A KV Katsaros %A WK Chai %A N Wang %A G Pavlou %A H Bontius %A M Paolone %V 28 %O This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. %X Largely motivated by the proliferation of content-centric applications in the Internet, information-centric networking has attracted the attention of the research community. By tailoring network operations around named information objects instead of end hosts, ICN yields a series of desirable features such as the spatiotemporal decoupling of communicating entities and the support of in-network caching. In this article, we advocate the introduction of such ICN features in a new, rapidly transforming communication domain: the smart grid. With the rapid introduction of multiple new actors, such as distributed (renewable) energy resources and electric vehicles, smart grids present a new networking landscape where a diverse set of multi-party machine-to-machine applications are required to enhance the observability of the power grid, often in real time and on top of a diverse set of communication infrastructures. Presenting a generic architectural framework, we show how ICN can address the emerging smart grid communication challenges. Based on real power grid topologies from a power distribution network in the Netherlands, we further employ simulations to both demonstrate the feasibility of an ICN solution for the support of real-time smart grid applications and further quantify the performance benefits brought by ICN against the current host-centric paradigm. Specifically, we show how ICN can support real-time state estimation in the medium voltage power grid, where high volumes of synchrophasor measurement data from distributed vantage points must be delivered within a very stringent end-to-end delay constraint, while swiftly overcoming potential power grid component failures. %K Phasor measurement units, Smart grids, Network architecture, Network topology, Delays, Real-time systems, Information retrieval, Information technology, Content-based retrieval, Power distribution %J IEEE Network %L discovery1448997 %I IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC