1,740 research outputs found
Smart Grid Communications: Overview of Research Challenges, Solutions, and Standardization Activities
Optimization of energy consumption in future intelligent energy networks (or
Smart Grids) will be based on grid-integrated near-real-time communications
between various grid elements in generation, transmission, distribution and
loads. This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities of
communications research in the areas of smart grid and smart metering. In
particular, we focus on some of the key communications challenges for realizing
interoperable and future-proof smart grid/metering networks, smart grid
security and privacy, and how some of the existing networking technologies can
be applied to energy management. Finally, we also discuss the coordinated
standardization efforts in Europe to harmonize communications standards and
protocols.Comment: To be published in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial
Massive M2M Access with Reliability Guarantees in LTE Systems
Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications are one of the major drivers of the
cellular network evolution towards 5G systems. One of the key challenges is on
how to provide reliability guarantees to each accessing device in a situation
in which there is a massive number of almost-simultaneous arrivals from a large
set of M2M devices. The existing solutions take a reactive approach in dealing
with massive arrivals, such as non-selective barring when a massive arrival
event occurs, which implies that the devices cannot get individual reliability
guarantees. In this paper we propose a proactive approach, based on a standard
operation of the cellular access. The access procedure is divided into two
phases, an estimation phase and a serving phase. In the estimation phase the
number of arrivals is estimated and this information is used to tune the amount
of resources allocated in the serving phase. Our results show that the
proactive approach is instrumental in delivering high access reliability to the
M2M devices.Comment: Accepted for presentation in ICC 201
A Delay-Optimal Packet Scheduler for M2M Uplink
In this paper, we present a delay-optimal packet scheduler for processing the
M2M uplink traffic at the M2M application server (AS). Due to the
delay-heterogeneity in uplink traffic, we classify it broadly into
delay-tolerant and delay-sensitive traffic. We then map the diverse delay
requirements of each class to sigmoidal functions of packet delay and formulate
a utility-maximization problem that results in a proportionally fair
delay-optimal scheduler. We note that solving this optimization problem is
equivalent to solving for the optimal fraction of time each class is served
with (preemptive) priority such that it maximizes the system utility. Using
Monte-Carlo simulations for the queuing process at AS, we verify the
correctness of the analytical result for optimal scheduler and show that it
outperforms other state-of-the-art packet schedulers such as weighted round
robin, max-weight scheduler, fair scheduler and priority scheduling. We also
note that at higher traffic arrival rate, the proposed scheduler results in a
near-minimal delay variance for the delay-sensitive traffic which is highly
desirable. This comes at the expense of somewhat higher delay variance for
delay-tolerant traffic which is usually acceptable due to its delay-tolerant
nature.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE MILCOM 2016 (6 pages, 7 figures
- …