Resumen: Smart grid integrates modern information and communication technologies with the electrical grid for improved efficiency and reliability. In smart grid, the communication infrastructure is composed of wide area networks (WANs), neighborhood area networks (NANs), and home area networks (HANs). There are many real-time applications demanding low-latency communication technologies, such as wide area protection, urgent demand response, and real-time operations. However, the coexistence of various smart grid applications leads to a competition of limited network resources, leading to negative impacts on communication latency, system reliability, etc. To improve the performance of communication latency, multicast and broadcast technologies are efficient approaches, especially for networks with limited bandwidth and large scalability. This chapter offers a systematic introduction to the multicast and broadcast technologies for real-time applications in smart grid, including low-latency multicast to minimize end-to-end delay for wide area control, low-latency multicast for multiple multicast trees with shared links in WANs, and low-latency constrained broadcast in NANs. Aspects of problem formulation, problem-solving, and illustrative examples have been addressed.
