An Approximately Optimal Algorithm for Scheduling Phasor Data Transmissions in Smart Grid Networks

In this paper, we devise a scheduling algorithm for ordering transmission of synchrophasor data from the substation to the control center in as short a time frame as possible, within the realtime hierarchical communications infrastructure in the electric grid. The problem is cast in the framework of the classic job scheduling with precedence constraints. The optimization setup comprises the number of phasor measurement units (PMUs) to be installed on the grid, a weight associated with each PMU, processing time at the control center for the PMUs, and precedence constraints between the PMUs. The solution to the PMU placement problem yields the optimum number of PMUs to be installed on the grid, while the processing times are picked uniformly at random from a predefined set. The weight associated with each PMU and the precedence constraints are both assumed known. The scheduling problem is provably NP-hard, so we resort to approximation algorithms which provide solutions that are suboptimal yet possessing polynomial time complexity. A lower bound on the optimal schedule is derived using branch and bound techniques, and its performance evaluated using standard IEEE test bus systems. The scheduling policy is power grid-centric, since it takes into account the electrical properties of the network under consideration.Comment: 8 pages, published in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, October 201

OSQP: An Operator Splitting Solver for Quadratic Programs

We present a general-purpose solver for convex quadratic programs based on the alternating direction method of multipliers, employing a novel operator splitting technique that requires the solution of a quasi-definite linear system with the same coefficient matrix at almost every iteration. Our algorithm is very robust, placing no requirements on the problem data such as positive definiteness of the objective function or linear independence of the constraint functions. It can be configured to be division-free once an initial matrix factorization is carried out, making it suitable for real-time applications in embedded systems. In addition, our technique is the first operator splitting method for quadratic programs able to reliably detect primal and dual infeasible problems from the algorithm iterates. The method also supports factorization caching and warm starting, making it particularly efficient when solving parametrized problems arising in finance, control, and machine learning. Our open-source C implementation OSQP has a small footprint, is library-free, and has been extensively tested on many problem instances from a wide variety of application areas. It is typically ten times faster than competing interior-point methods, and sometimes much more when factorization caching or warm start is used. OSQP has already shown a large impact with tens of thousands of users both in academia and in large corporations

Robust Statistics

The first example involves the real data given in Table 1 which are the results of an interlaboratory test. The boxplots are shown in Fig. 1 where the dotted line denotes the mean of the observations and the solid line the median. We note that only the results of the Laboratories 1 and 3 lie below the mean whereas all the remaining laboratories return larger values. In the case of the median, 7 of the readings coincide with the median, 24 readings are smaller and 24 are larger. A glance at Fig. 1 suggests that in the absence of further information the Laboratories 1 and 3 should be treated as outliers. This is the course which we recommend although the issues involved require careful thought. For the moment we note simply that the median is a robust statistic whereas the mean is not. --

Bayesian quantum frequency estimation in presence of collective dephasing

We advocate a Bayesian approach to optimal quantum frequency estimation - an important issue for future quantum enhanced atomic clock operation. The approach provides a clear insight into the interplay between decoherence and the extent of the prior knowledge in determining the optimal interrogation times and optimal estimation strategies. We propose a general framework capable of describing local oscillator noise as well as additional collective atomic dephasing effects. For a Gaussian noise the average Bayesian cost can be expressed using the quantum Fisher information and thus we establish a direct link between the two, often competing, approaches to quantum estimation theoryComment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Iterative signal detection for large scale GSM-MIMO systems

Generalized spatial modulations (GSM) represent a novel multiple input multiple output (MIMO) scheme which can be regarded as a compromise between spatial multiplexing MIMO and conventional spatial modulations (SM), achieving both spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE). Due to the high computational complexity of the maximum likelihood detector (MLD) in large antenna settings and symbol constellations, in this paper we propose a lower complexity iterative suboptimal detector. The derived algorithm comprises a sequence of simple processing steps, namely an unconstrained Euclidean distance minimization problem, an element wise projection over the signal constellation and a projection over the set of valid active antenna combinations. To deal with scenarios where the number of possible active antenna combinations is large, an alternative version of the algorithm which adopts a simpler cardinality projection is also presented. Simulation results show that, compared with other existing approaches, both versions of the proposed algorithm are effective in challenging underdetermined scenarios where the number of receiver antennas is lower than the number of transmitter antennas.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Conic Optimization Theory: Convexification Techniques and Numerical Algorithms

Optimization is at the core of control theory and appears in several areas of this field, such as optimal control, distributed control, system identification, robust control, state estimation, model predictive control and dynamic programming. The recent advances in various topics of modern optimization have also been revamping the area of machine learning. Motivated by the crucial role of optimization theory in the design, analysis, control and operation of real-world systems, this tutorial paper offers a detailed overview of some major advances in this area, namely conic optimization and its emerging applications. First, we discuss the importance of conic optimization in different areas. Then, we explain seminal results on the design of hierarchies of convex relaxations for a wide range of nonconvex problems. Finally, we study different numerical algorithms for large-scale conic optimization problems.Comment: 18 page

Measurements, Models, Systems and Design

531 s.