28,871 research outputs found
Self-Sustaining Caching Stations: Towards Cost-Effective 5G-Enabled Vehicular Networks
In this article, we investigate the cost-effective 5G-enabled vehicular
networks to support emerging vehicular applications, such as autonomous
driving, in-car infotainment and location-based road services. To this end,
self-sustaining caching stations (SCSs) are introduced to liberate on-road base
stations from the constraints of power lines and wired backhauls. Specifically,
the cache-enabled SCSs are powered by renewable energy and connected to core
networks through wireless backhauls, which can realize "drop-and-play"
deployment, green operation, and low-latency services. With SCSs integrated, a
5G-enabled heterogeneous vehicular networking architecture is further proposed,
where SCSs are deployed along roadside for traffic offloading while
conventional macro base stations (MBSs) provide ubiquitous coverage to
vehicles. In addition, a hierarchical network management framework is designed
to deal with high dynamics in vehicular traffic and renewable energy, where
content caching, energy management and traffic steering are jointly
investigated to optimize the service capability of SCSs with balanced power
demand and supply in different time scales. Case studies are provided to
illustrate SCS deployment and operation designs, and some open research issues
are also discussed.Comment: IEEE Communications Magazine, to appea
Unsplittable Load Balancing in a Network of Charging Stations Under QoS Guarantees
The operation of the power grid is becoming more stressed, due to the
addition of new large loads represented by Electric Vehicles (EVs) and a more
intermittent supply due to the incorporation of renewable sources. As a
consequence, the coordination and control of projected EV demand in a network
of fast charging stations becomes a critical and challenging problem.
In this paper, we introduce a game theoretic based decentralized control
mechanism to alleviate negative impacts from the EV demand. The proposed
mechanism takes into consideration the non-uniform spatial distribution of EVs
that induces uneven power demand at each charging facility, and aims to: (i)
avoid straining grid resources by offering price incentives so that customers
accept being routed to less busy stations, (ii) maximize total revenue by
serving more customers with the same amount of grid resources, and (iii)
provide charging service to customers with a certain level of
Quality-of-Service (QoS), the latter defined as the long term customer blocking
probability. We examine three scenarios of increased complexity that gradually
approximate real world settings. The obtained results show that the proposed
framework leads to substantial performance improvements in terms of the
aforementioned goals, when compared to current state of affairs.Comment: Accepted for Publication in IEEE Transactions on Smart Gri
Internet of Things-aided Smart Grid: Technologies, Architectures, Applications, Prototypes, and Future Research Directions
Traditional power grids are being transformed into Smart Grids (SGs) to
address the issues in existing power system due to uni-directional information
flow, energy wastage, growing energy demand, reliability and security. SGs
offer bi-directional energy flow between service providers and consumers,
involving power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization systems.
SGs employ various devices for the monitoring, analysis and control of the
grid, deployed at power plants, distribution centers and in consumers' premises
in a very large number. Hence, an SG requires connectivity, automation and the
tracking of such devices. This is achieved with the help of Internet of Things
(IoT). IoT helps SG systems to support various network functions throughout the
generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy by
incorporating IoT devices (such as sensors, actuators and smart meters), as
well as by providing the connectivity, automation and tracking for such
devices. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on IoT-aided SG
systems, which includes the existing architectures, applications and prototypes
of IoT-aided SG systems. This survey also highlights the open issues,
challenges and future research directions for IoT-aided SG systems
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