**3.2 Network home area (HAN)**

Some technologies introduced in the Home Network System are ZigBee, WLAN with PLC. The construction of a Building Area Network (BAN) is considered to be more complicated than the Home Area Networks (HAN). The HAN can be classified as a part of the customer network structure; HAN is often used by consumers in the housing and business sectors, using power tools to communicate [21]. It is a combination of connected devices, management software and dedicated LAN. HAN supports communication between smart meters and appliances used in homes, industries or buildings. It supports several other services, including Demand Response, pre-payment, real-time pricing and load control. The essential of the HAN communication system is to include low-cost, low power consumption with secure communication [6, 10, 22].

## **3.3 Neighbourhood area network (NAN)**

NAN is best described as a bridge between WAN and HAN and used in a NAN to collect data of points adjacent with the help of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), which are widely deployed in the whole area. It is a two-way communication technology developed that give information about the control system for smart grids. Compared to WAN, the data rate is not high, and the transmission power is low for short-range transmission. WLAN, PLC and ZigBee are some of the techniques on which the NAN network can be implemented [23].
