Applications of Soft Computing in Mobile and Wireless Communications

Soft computing is a synergistic combination of artificial intelligence methodologies to model and solve real world problems that are either impossible or too difficult to model mathematically. Furthermore, the use of conventional modeling techniques demands rigor, precision and certainty, which carry computational cost. On the other hand, soft computing utilizes computation, reasoning and inference to reduce computational cost by exploiting tolerance for imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth and approximation. In addition to computational cost savings, soft computing is an excellent platform for autonomic computing, owing to its roots in artificial intelligence. Wireless communication networks are associated with much uncertainty and imprecision due to a number of stochastic processes such as escalating number of access points, constantly changing propagation channels, sudden variations in network load and random mobility of users. This reality has fuelled numerous applications of soft computing techniques in mobile and wireless communications. This paper reviews various applications of the core soft computing methodologies in mobile and wireless communications

Thirty Years of Machine Learning: The Road to Pareto-Optimal Wireless Networks

Future wireless networks have a substantial potential in terms of supporting a broad range of complex compelling applications both in military and civilian fields, where the users are able to enjoy high-rate, low-latency, low-cost and reliable information services. Achieving this ambitious goal requires new radio techniques for adaptive learning and intelligent decision making because of the complex heterogeneous nature of the network structures and wireless services. Machine learning (ML) algorithms have great success in supporting big data analytics, efficient parameter estimation and interactive decision making. Hence, in this article, we review the thirty-year history of ML by elaborating on supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning and deep learning. Furthermore, we investigate their employment in the compelling applications of wireless networks, including heterogeneous networks (HetNets), cognitive radios (CR), Internet of things (IoT), machine to machine networks (M2M), and so on. This article aims for assisting the readers in clarifying the motivation and methodology of the various ML algorithms, so as to invoke them for hitherto unexplored services as well as scenarios of future wireless networks.Comment: 46 pages, 22 fig

Intelligent and predictive vehicular networks

Seeking shortest travel times through smart algorithms may not only optimize the travel times but also reduce carbon emissions, such as CO2, CO and Hydro-Carbons. It can also result in reduced driver frustrations and can increase passenger expectations of consistent travel times, which in turn points to benefits in overall planning of day schedules. Fuel consumption savings are another benefit from the same. However, attempts to elect the shortest path as an assumption of quick travel times, often work counter to the very objective intended and come with the risk of creating a “Braess Paradox” which is about congestion resulting when several drivers attempt to elect the same shortest route. The situation that arises has been referred to as the price of anarchy! We propose algorithms that find multiple shortest paths between an origin and a destination. It must be appreciated that these will not yield the exact number of Kilometers travelled, but favourable weights in terms of travel times so that a reasonable allowable time difference between the multiple shortest paths is attained when the same Origin and Destinations are considered and favourable responsive routes are determined as variables of traffic levels and time of day. These routes are selected on the paradigm of route balancing, re-routing algorithms and traffic light intelligence all coming together to result in optimized consistent travel times whose benefits are evenly spread to all motorist, unlike the Entropy balanced k shortest paths (EBkSP) method which favours some motorists on the basis of urgency. This paper proposes a Fully Balanced Multiple- Candidate shortest path (FBMkP) by which we model in SUMO to overcome the computational overhead of assigning priority differently to each travelling vehicle using intelligence at intersections and other points on the vehicular network. The FBMkP opens up traffic by fully balancing the whole network so as to benefit every motorist. Whereas the EBkSP reserves some routes for cars on high priority, our algorithm distributes the benefits of smart routing to all vehicles on the network and serves the road side units such as induction loops and detectors from having to remember the urgency of each vehicle. Instead, detectors and induction loops simply have to poll the destination of the vehicle and not any urgency factor. The minimal data being processed significantly reduce computational times and the benefits all vehicles. The multiple-candidate shortest paths selected on the basis of current traffic status on each possible route increase the efficiency. Routes are fewer than vehicles so possessing weights of routes is smarter than processing individual vehicle weights. This is a multi-objective function project where improving one factor such as travel times improves many more cost, social and environmental factors

A dynamic approach to rebalancing bike-sharing systems

Bike-sharing services are flourishing in Smart Cities worldwide. They provide a low-cost and environment-friendly transportation alternative and help reduce traffic congestion. However, these new services are still under development, and several challenges need to be solved. A major problem is the management of rebalancing trucks in order to ensure that bikes and stalls in the docking stations are always available when needed, despite the fluctuations in the service demand. In this work, we propose a dynamic rebalancing strategy that exploits historical data to predict the network conditions and promptly act in case of necessity. We use Birth-Death Processes to model the stations' occupancy and decide when to redistribute bikes, and graph theory to select the rebalancing path and the stations involved. We validate the proposed framework on the data provided by New York City's bike-sharing system. The numerical simulations show that a dynamic strategy able to adapt to the fluctuating nature of the network outperforms rebalancing schemes based on a static schedule

Smart charging strategies for electric vehicle charging stations

Although the concept of transportation electrification holds enormous prospects in addressing the global environmental pollution problem, consumer concerns over the limited availability of charging stations and long charging/waiting times are major contributors to the slow uptake of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in many countries. To address the consumer concerns, many countries have undertaken projects to deploy a network of both fast and slow charging stations, commonly known as electric vehicle charging networks. While a large electric vehicle charging network will certainly be helpful in addressing PEV owners\u27 concerns, the full potential of this network cannot be realised without the implementation of smart charging strategies. For example, the charging load distribution in an EV charging network would be expected to be skewed towards stations located in hotspot areas, instigating longer queues and waiting times in these areas, particularly during afternoon peak traffic hours. This can also lead to a major challenge for the utilities in the form of an extended PEV charging load period, which could overlap with residential evening peak load hours, increasing peak demand and causing serious issues including network instability and power outages. This thesis presents a smart charging strategy for EV charging networks. The proposed smart charging strategy finds the optimum charging station for a PEV owner to ensure minimum charging time, travel time and charging cost. The problem is modelled as a multi-objective optimisation problem. A metaheuristic solution in the form of ant colony optimisation (ACO) is applied to solve the problem. Considering the influence of pricing on PEV owners\u27 behaviour, the smart charging strategy is then extended to address the charging load imbalance problem in the EV network. A coordinated dynamic pricing model is presented to reduce the load imbalance, which contributes to a reduction in overlaps between residential and charging loads. A constraint optimization problem is formulated and a heuristic solution is introduced to minimize the overlap between the PEV and residential peak load periods. In the last part of this thesis, a smart management strategy for portable charging stations (PCSs) is introduced. It is shown that when smartly managed, PCSs can play an important role in the reduction of waiting times in an EV charging network. A new strategy is proposed for dispatching/allocating PCSs during various hours of the day to reduce waiting times at public charging stations. This also helps to decrease the overlap between the total PEV demand and peak residential load