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

Separation Framework: An Enabler for Cooperative and D2D Communication for Future 5G Networks

Soaring capacity and coverage demands dictate that future cellular networks need to soon migrate towards ultra-dense networks. However, network densification comes with a host of challenges that include compromised energy efficiency, complex interference management, cumbersome mobility management, burdensome signaling overheads and higher backhaul costs. Interestingly, most of the problems, that beleaguer network densification, stem from legacy networks' one common feature i.e., tight coupling between the control and data planes regardless of their degree of heterogeneity and cell density. Consequently, in wake of 5G, control and data planes separation architecture (SARC) has recently been conceived as a promising paradigm that has potential to address most of aforementioned challenges. In this article, we review various proposals that have been presented in literature so far to enable SARC. More specifically, we analyze how and to what degree various SARC proposals address the four main challenges in network densification namely: energy efficiency, system level capacity maximization, interference management and mobility management. We then focus on two salient features of future cellular networks that have not yet been adapted in legacy networks at wide scale and thus remain a hallmark of 5G, i.e., coordinated multipoint (CoMP), and device-to-device (D2D) communications. After providing necessary background on CoMP and D2D, we analyze how SARC can particularly act as a major enabler for CoMP and D2D in context of 5G. This article thus serves as both a tutorial as well as an up to date survey on SARC, CoMP and D2D. Most importantly, the article provides an extensive outlook of challenges and opportunities that lie at the crossroads of these three mutually entangled emerging technologies.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials 201

IEEE 1588 High Accuracy Default Profile: Applications and Challenges

Highly accurate synchronization has become a major requirement because of the rise of distributed applications, regulatory requests and position, navigation and timing backup needs. This fact has led to the development of new technologies which fulfill the new requirements in terms of accuracy and dependability. Nevertheless, some of these novel proposals have lacked determinism, robustness, interoperability, deployability, scalability or management tools preventing them to be extensively used in real industrial scenarios. Different segments require accurate timing information over a large number of nodes. Due to the high availability and low price of global satellite-based time references, many critical distributed facilities depend on them. However, the vulnerability to jamming or spoofing represents a well-known threat and back-up systems need to be deployed to mitigate it. The recently approved draft standard IEEE 1588-2019 includes the High Accuracy Default Precision Time Protocol Profile which is intensively based on the White Rabbit protocol. White Rabbit is an extension of current IEEE 1588-2008 network synchronization protocol for sub-nanosecond synchronization. This approach has been validated and intensively used during the last years. This paper revises the pre-standard protocol to expose the challenges that the High Accuracy profile will find after its release and covers existing applications, promising deployments and the technological roadmap, providing hints and an overview of features to be studied. The authors review different issues that have prevented the industrial adoption of White Rabbit in the past and introduce the latest developments that will facilitate the next IEEE 1588 High Accuracy extensive adoption.This work was supported in part by the AMIGA6 under Grant AYA2015-65973-C3-2-R, in part by the AMIGA7 under Grant RTI2018-096228-B-C32, and in part by the Torres Quevedo under Grant PTQ2018-010198

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

10 Gigabit White Rabbit: sub-nanosecond timing and data distribution

Time synchronization is a critical feature for many scientific facilities and industrial infrastructures. The required performance is progressively increasing everyday, for instance, few tens of nanoseconds for Fifth Generation (5G) networks or sub-nanosecond accuracy on next family of particle accelerators and astrophysics telescopes. Due to this exigent accuracy, many applications require specific timing dedicated networks, increasing the system cost and complexity. Under this context, the new IEEE 1588-2019 High Accuracy (HA) default profile is intensively based on White Rabbit (WR) which can provide sub-nanosecond accurate synchronization for Ethernet networks. However, current WR solutions have not been designed to work properly with high data bandwidth delivery services even in 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) links. On this contribution, the authors propose a new architecture design that enables WR and, consequently, the IEEE 1588-2019 HA profile to be deployed over 10 GbE links solving the already identified data bandwidth problem. Furthermore, this work addresses different experiments needed to characterize the system performance in terms of time synchronization and data transfer. As final result, this contribution presents for the first time in the literature a new WR system which allows high bandwidth data exchange in 10 GbE networks while providing sub-nanosecond accuracy synchronization. The proposed solution maintains the time synchronization performance of existing WR 1 GbE devices with significant advantages in terms of latency and data bandwidth, enabling its deployment in applications that integrate data and synchronization information in the same network.European Union (EU) 725490H2020 ASTERICS 653477AMIGA7 RTI2018-096228-B-C3

Industrial networks and IIoT: Now and future trends

Connectivity is the one word summary for Industry 4.0 revolution. The importance of Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial IoT (IIoT) have been increased dramatically with the rise of industrialization and industry 4.0. As new opportunities bring their own challenges, with the massive interconnected devices of the IIoT, cyber security of those networks and privacy of their users have become an important aspect. Specifically, intrusion detection for industrial networks (IIoT) has great importance. For instance, it is a key factor in improving the safe operation of the smart grid systems yet protecting the privacy of the consumers at the same time. In the same manner, data streaming is a valid option when the analysis is to be pushed from the cloud to the fog for industrial networks to provide agile response, since it brings the advantage of fast action on intrusion detection and also can buy time for intrusion mitigation. In order to dive deep in industrial networks, basic ground needs to be settled. Hence, this chapter serves in this manner, by presenting basic and emerging technologies along with ideas and discussions: First, an introduction of semiconductor evolution is provided along with the up-to-date hi-tech wired/wireless communication solutions for industrial networks. This is followed by a thorough representation of future trends in industrial environments. More importantly, enabling technologies for industrial networks is also presented. Finally, the chapter is concluded with a summary of the presentations along with future projections of IIoT networks

5G Outlook – Innovations and Applications

5G Outlook - Innovations and Applications is a collection of the recent research and development in the area of the Fifth Generation Mobile Technology (5G), the future of wireless communications. Plenty of novel ideas and knowledge of the 5G are presented in this book as well as divers applications from health science to business modeling. The authors of different chapters contributed from various countries and organizations. The chapters have also been presented at the 5th IEEE 5G Summit held in Aalborg on July 1, 2016. The book starts with a comprehensive introduction on 5G and its need and requirement. Then millimeter waves as a promising spectrum to 5G technology is discussed. The book continues with the novel and inspiring ideas for the future wireless communication usage and network. Further, some technical issues in signal processing and network design for 5G are presented. Finally, the book ends up with different applications of 5G in distinct areas. Topics widely covered in this book are: • 5G technology from past to present to the future• Millimeter- waves and their characteristics• Signal processing and network design issues for 5G• Applications, business modeling and several novel ideas for the future of 5