1. A method to simulate a communication network with a plurality of nodes in a Smart Grid electricity network, comprising a processor: determining one or more sources for traffic over the communication network by selecting one or more parameters associated with each of the one more sources of traffic for each of a plurality of communication protocols, the one or more parameters including at least a packet size and a transmit time; determining transmit times for the one or more sources of traffic for each of the plurality of communication protocols by selecting one or more parameters including at least a simulation time and a delay; creating inter arrival times, weights and distributions of traffic sources; creating a plurality of traffic models for the one or more sources based on each of the prior steps; inputting each of the plurality of traffic models into a network simulator.