408 research outputs found
Disaster Recovery Power and Communications for Smart Critical Infrastructures
In this paper, we propose a framework to leverage electrical microgrids and cellular networks to support post- disaster communications for the public, government and critical infrastructure operation. The framework involves both policy and technical components. The proposed approach is an integration of electrical microgrids to provide power together with self con- figuring wireless mesh communication networks and local edge computing infrastructure to support critical communications and smart infrastructure services/applications in a specific geographic area. Hence, geographic zones which are resilient safe havens are created in a city. We outline the basic components of our approach and discuss open challenges to realizing the visio
Energy sustainable paradigms and methods for future mobile networks: A survey
In this survey, we discuss the role of energy in the design of future mobile
networks and, in particular, we advocate and elaborate on the use of energy
harvesting (EH) hardware as a means to decrease the environmental footprint of
5G technology. To take full advantage of the harvested (renewable) energy,
while still meeting the quality of service required by dense 5G deployments,
suitable management techniques are here reviewed, highlighting the open issues
that are still to be solved to provide eco-friendly and cost-effective mobile
architectures. Several solutions have recently been proposed to tackle
capacity, coverage and efficiency problems, including: C-RAN, Software Defined
Networking (SDN) and fog computing, among others. However, these are not
explicitly tailored to increase the energy efficiency of networks featuring
renewable energy sources, and have the following limitations: (i) their energy
savings are in many cases still insufficient and (ii) they do not consider
network elements possessing energy harvesting capabilities. In this paper, we
systematically review existing energy sustainable paradigms and methods to
address points (i) and (ii), discussing how these can be exploited to obtain
highly efficient, energy self-sufficient and high capacity networks. Several
open issues have emerged from our review, ranging from the need for accurate
energy, transmission and consumption models, to the lack of accurate data
traffic profiles, to the use of power transfer, energy cooperation and energy
trading techniques. These challenges are here discussed along with some
research directions to follow for achieving sustainable 5G systems.Comment: Accepted by Elsevier Computer Communications, 21 pages, 9 figure
Integrating renewable energy resources into the smart grid: recent developments in information and communication technologies
Rising energy costs, losses in the present-day electricity grid, risks from nuclear power generation, and global environmental changes are motivating a transformation of the conventional ways of generating electricity. Globally, there is a desire to rely more on renewable energy resources (RERs) for electricity generation. RERs reduce green house gas emissions and may have economic benefits, e.g., through applying demand side management with dynamic pricing so as to shift loads from fossil fuel-based generators to RERs. The electricity grid is presently evolving towards an intelligent grid, the so-called smart grid (SG). One of the major goals of the future SG is to move towards 100% electricity generation from RERs, i.e., towards a 100% renewable grid. However, the disparate, intermittent, and typically widely geographically distributed nature of RERs complicates the integration of RERs into the SG. Moreover, individual RERs have generally lower capacity than conventional fossil-fuel plants, and these RERs are based on a wide spectrum of different technologies. In this article, we give an overview of recent efforts that aim to integrate RERs into the SG. We outline the integration of RERs into the SG along with their supporting communication networks. We also discuss ongoing projects that seek to integrate RERs into the SG around the globe. Finally, we outline future research directions on integrating RERs into the SG
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