Middleware architectures for the smart grid: A survey on the state-of-the-art, taxonomy and main open issues

The integration of small-scale renewable energy sources in the smart grid depends on several challenges that must be overcome. One of them is the presence of devices with very different characteristics present in the grid or how they can interact among them in terms of interoperability and data sharing. While this issue is usually solved by implementing a middleware layer among the available pieces of equipment in order to hide any hardware heterogeneity and offer the application layer a collection of homogenous resources to access lower levels, the variety and differences among them make the definition of what is needed in each particular case challenging. This paper offers a description of the most prominent middleware architectures for the smart grid and assesses the functionalities they have, considering the performance and features expected from them in the context of this application domain

The U.S. M-Business Market: Fad or the future

M-Business is information available on any device, anywhere and at anytime, offering businesses in any industry the potential to expand markets, improve their services and reduce costs. The U.S. m-business market is still in its infancy and is a few years away from becoming a growth market. This is due to a few reasons, which are the lack of standards for connectivity and service, no real applications to support the market and the lack of strong encryption to support m-business and e-commerce. M-business is not a fad but a potential new channel for business operations. This thesis will address the issues of why the U.S. m-business is slow to mature and what is required for the U.S. m-business to become a growth market

Travel Demand Growth: Research on Longer-Term Issues. The Potential Contribution of Trip Planning Systems

INTRODUCTION 1.1 The growth in demand for travel Over the 20 years hm 1965, National Travel Survey (NTS) data shows a 61% growth in total person - km of travel. More detailed analysis suggests that this is made up roughly as follows:- due to increased population 4% due to more journeys 22% due to longer journeys 35% This implies that around 60% of the growth in travel has been due to people travelling further, rather than making more journeys. It is interesting to note, too, that the same phenomenon occurs even in the most congested areas. Between 1975 and 1985, NTS shows an 11% growth in person -km by London residents, at a time when population fell by 5%. In this case, the growth is made up roughly as follows:- due to lost population -5% due to more journeys 4% due to longer journeys 12% It is of course difficult to estimate the extent to which future growth in travel will be generated by longer journeys. The NRTF, which predicts a growth in car-km of between 120% and 180% between 1985 and 2025, is not based on a procedure which enables the effects of journey making and journey length to be separated. However, it is worth noting that if the same pattern were to exist at a national level in future, the predicted growth in car travel due to longer journeys could be equivalent to between 75% and 100% of today's car travel. It seems appropriate to ask whether it is a wise use of scarce resources to provide the infrastructure and energy needed to enable people to carry out their activities further from home. (Continues...