  With the ongoing trends in the energy sector such as vehicular
electrification and renewable energy, smart grid is clearly playing a more and
more important role in the electric power system industry. One essential
feature of the smart grid is the information flow over the high-speed, reliable
and secure data communication network in order to manage the complex power
systems effectively and intelligently. Smart grids utilize bidirectional
communication to function where traditional power grids mainly only use one-way
communication. The communication requirements and suitable technique differ
depending on the specific environment and scenario. In this paper, we provide a
comprehensive and up-to-date survey on the communication technologies used in
the smart grid, including the communication requirements, physical layer
technologies, network architectures, and research challenges. This survey aims
to help the readers identify the potential research problems in the continued
research on the topic of smart grid communications.
