Software Defined Networks based Smart Grid Communication: A Comprehensive Survey

The current power grid is no longer a feasible solution due to ever-increasing user demand of electricity, old infrastructure, and reliability issues and thus require transformation to a better grid a.k.a., smart grid (SG). The key features that distinguish SG from the conventional electrical power grid are its capability to perform two-way communication, demand side management, and real time pricing. Despite all these advantages that SG will bring, there are certain issues which are specific to SG communication system. For instance, network management of current SG systems is complex, time consuming, and done manually. Moreover, SG communication (SGC) system is built on different vendor specific devices and protocols. Therefore, the current SG systems are not protocol independent, thus leading to interoperability issue. Software defined network (SDN) has been proposed to monitor and manage the communication networks globally. This article serves as a comprehensive survey on SDN-based SGC. In this article, we first discuss taxonomy of advantages of SDNbased SGC.We then discuss SDN-based SGC architectures, along with case studies. Our article provides an in-depth discussion on routing schemes for SDN-based SGC. We also provide detailed survey of security and privacy schemes applied to SDN-based SGC. We furthermore present challenges, open issues, and future research directions related to SDN-based SGC.Comment: Accepte

Smart Grid Communications: Overview of Research Challenges, Solutions, and Standardization Activities

Optimization of energy consumption in future intelligent energy networks (or Smart Grids) will be based on grid-integrated near-real-time communications between various grid elements in generation, transmission, distribution and loads. This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities of communications research in the areas of smart grid and smart metering. In particular, we focus on some of the key communications challenges for realizing interoperable and future-proof smart grid/metering networks, smart grid security and privacy, and how some of the existing networking technologies can be applied to energy management. Finally, we also discuss the coordinated standardization efforts in Europe to harmonize communications standards and protocols.Comment: To be published in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial

Ambient Intelligence with Wireless Grid Enabled Applications: A Case Study of the Launch and First Use Experience of WeJay Social Radio in Education

Wireless grid and ambient intelligent (AmI) environments are characterized as supportive of collaboration, interaction, and sharing. The conceptual framework advanced for this study incorporated the constructs of innovation, creativity and context awareness while offering emergence theory -- emergent properties, structures, patterns and behaviors -- to frame and investigate a wireless grid enabled social radio application which was theorized to be potentially transformative and disruptive. The unintended consequences and unexpected possibilities of wireless grid and smart environments were also addressed. Using a single case study, drawing upon multiple data collection methods, this research investigated the deployment and use experience of WeJay, an application incubated through the Wireless Grids Innovation Testbed (WiGiT), from the perspective of beta trial participants. Guided by the broad research question -- Do wireless grid enabled applications, such as WeJay social radio, add to the potential for new and transformative outcomes for people, information and technology when deployed in an academic setting? -- this empirical study sought to: a) learn more about the launch experience of this first pre-standards wireless grid enabled application among WiGiT members and selected Syracuse University students and faculty; b) understand how this application was interpreted for use; c) determine whether novel and unexpected uses emerged; d) investigate whether wireless grid enabled environments fostered innovation and creativity; and e) elicit whether a conceptual relationship was emerging between wireless grid and AmI environments, focusing on context-awareness and ambient learning. While this early stage of diffusion and first user sample was a key limitation of the study it was also the core strength. Although challenged by the state of readiness of WeJay, study findings supported the propositions that WeJay fosters innovation and creativity; that novel and unexpected uses were generated; and that the theorized relationship between wireless grid applications and embedded awareness does exist. Recommendations for enhanced tool readiness were made and embedded smartness was found to be both desirable and beneficial. This research makes a contribution as a bridge study for future research while having theoretical and methodological implications for research and practice. Social, emotion/affect, and human-centered computing (HCC) dimensions emerged as rich areas for further research

Multi-radio cooperative ARQ in wireless cellular networks: a MAC layer perspective

Multi-Radio Cooperative Automatic Retransmission Request (MCARQ) schemes are introduced in this paper within the context of hybrid networks which combine long-range and short-range communications. Since the number of wireless devices is incessantly increasing, it is frequently possible to establish a spontaneous cooperative cluster in the close proximity of any wireless device. These devices forming the cluster are connected to both a cellular-based network such as WiMAX, 3G, or LTE and a short-range network based on technologies such as WLAN, Zigbee, Bluetooh, or UWB, among other possibilities. The main idea behind the proposed MC-ARQ scheme is that, upon transmission error through the cellular interface, retransmission can be requested to the wireless grid surrounding the destination device using the short-range interface instead of the primary cellular link. Therefore, besides the cooperative diversity attained with CARQ schemes, the traffic load in the cellular interface is reduced benefiting thus a high number of users and reducing both energy consumption and interference. The Persistent Relay Carrier Sensing Medium Access (PRCSMA) protocol is presented as an example of solution for the MAC layer in this emerging new topic.Postprint (published version

Goodbye, ALOHA!

©2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) to interconnect and Internet-connect everyday people, objects, and machines poses new challenges in the design of wireless communication networks. The design of medium access control (MAC) protocols has been traditionally an intense area of research due to their high impact on the overall performance of wireless communications. The majority of research activities in this field deal with different variations of protocols somehow based on ALOHA, either with or without listen before talk, i.e., carrier sensing multiple access. These protocols operate well under low traffic loads and low number of simultaneous devices. However, they suffer from congestion as the traffic load and the number of devices increase. For this reason, unless revisited, the MAC layer can become a bottleneck for the success of the IoT. In this paper, we provide an overview of the existing MAC solutions for the IoT, describing current limitations and envisioned challenges for the near future. Motivated by those, we identify a family of simple algorithms based on distributed queueing (DQ), which can operate for an infinite number of devices generating any traffic load and pattern. A description of the DQ mechanism is provided and most relevant existing studies of DQ applied in different scenarios are described in this paper. In addition, we provide a novel performance evaluation of DQ when applied for the IoT. Finally, a description of the very first demo of DQ for its use in the IoT is also included in this paper.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Internet Predictions

More than a dozen leading experts give their opinions on where the Internet is headed and where it will be in the next decade in terms of technology, policy, and applications. They cover topics ranging from the Internet of Things to climate change to the digital storage of the future. A summary of the articles is available in the Web extras section

Coverage Characteristics of Symmetric Topologies for Pervasive Sensor Networks

The success of pervasive computing environments comprising ubiquitous loco-dynamic sensing devices is very dependent upon the coverage characteristics (CCs) of the network topology. These characteristics include blanket coverage, network density, affects on surrounding environments and intra-sensor coverage overlaps. This paper presents a systematic mathematical model to quantitatively investigate the effects of CCs and provides a comparison with other well used topologies e.g. hexagonal, triangular and square grid. The paper uses connectivity, density saturation, conflict regions and effectiveness of the topology as quality parameters in simulation studies for a disaster recovery network in various irregular terrains. Numerical as well as simulation results confirm the improved performance of hexagonal topology (HT) in terms of the above mentioned quality parameters which can be used to tune the network design to ensure the required QoS throughout the life of the network