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

A reference architecture for cloud-edge meta-operating systems enabling cross-domain, data-intensive, ML-assisted applications: architectural overview and key concepts

Future data-intensive intelligent applications are required to traverse across the cloudto-edge-to-IoT continuum, where cloud and edge resources elegantly coordinate, alongside sensor networks and data. However, current technical solutions can only partially handle the data outburst associated with the IoT proliferation experienced in recent years, mainly due to their hierarchical architectures. In this context, this paper presents a reference architecture of a meta-operating system (RAMOS), targeted to enable a dynamic, distributed and trusted continuum which will be capable of facilitating the next-generation smart applications at the edge. RAMOS is domain-agnostic, capable of supporting heterogeneous devices in various network environments. Furthermore, the proposed architecture possesses the ability to place the data at the origin in a secure and trusted manner. Based on a layered structure, the building blocks of RAMOS are thoroughly described, and the interconnection and coordination between them is fully presented. Furthermore, illustration of how the proposed reference architecture and its characteristics could fit in potential key industrial and societal applications, which in the future will require more power at the edge, is provided in five practical scenarios, focusing on the distributed intelligence and privacy preservation principles promoted by RAMOS, as well as the concept of environmental footprint minimization. Finally, the business potential of an open edge ecosystem and the societal impacts of climate net neutrality are also illustrated.For UPC authors: this research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and FEDER, grant number PID2021-124463OB-100.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

An Electric Vehicle Charging Management Scheme Based on Publish/Subscribe Communication Framework

Motivated by alleviating CO2 pollution, Electric Vehicle (EV) based applications have recently received wide interests from both commercial and research communities by using electric energy instead of traditional fuel energy. Although EVs are inherently with limited travelling distance, such limitation could be overcome by deploying public Charging Stations (CSs) to recharge EVs battery during their journeys. In this article, we propose a communication framework for on-the-move EV charging scenario, based on Publish/Subscribe (P/S) mechanism to disseminate necessary information about CSs to EVs. Concerning privacy issue, those EVs subscribing to such information could then locally make their individual decisions to select desired CSs for charging, rather than applying a centralized manner where private EV information is required to be released through communication. In this paper we propose a novel communication framework for on-the-move EV charging scenario, based on the Publish/Subscribe (P/S) mechanism for disseminating necessary CS information to EVs, in order for them to make optimized decisions on where to charge. A core part of our communication framework is the utilization of Road Side Units (RSUs) to bridge the information flow from CSs to EVs, which has been regarded as a type of cost-efficient communication infrastructure. Under this design, we introduce two complementary communication modes of signalling protocols, namely Push and Pull Modes, in order to enable the required information dissemination operation. Both analysis and simulation show the advantage of Pull Mode, in which the information is cached at RSUs to support asynchronous communication. We further propose a remote reservation service based on the Pull Mode, such that the CS-selection decision making can utilize the knowledge of EVs' charging reservation, as published from EVs through RSUs to CSs. Results show that both the performance at CS and EV sides are further improved based on using this anticipated information

Impact of Interdisciplinary Research on Planning, Running, and Managing Electromobility as a Smart Grid Extension

The smart grid is concerned with energy efficiency and with the environment, being a countermeasure against the territory devastations that may originate by the fossil fuel mining industry feeding the conventional power grids. This paper deals with the integration between the electromobility and the urban power distribution network in a smart grid framework, i.e., a multi-stakeholder and multi-Internet ecosystem (Internet of Information, Internet of Energy, and Internet of Things) with edge computing capabilities supported by cloud-level services and with clean mapping between the logical and physical entities involved and their stakeholders. In particular, this paper presents some of the results obtained by us in several European projects that refer to the development of a traffic and power network co-simulation tool for electro mobility planning, platforms for recharging services, and communication and service management architectures supporting interoperability and other qualities required for the implementation of the smart grid framework. For each contribution, this paper describes the inter-disciplinary characteristics of the proposed approaches

Priority-Based Content Delivery in the Internet of Vehicles through Named Data Networking

Named Data Networking (NDN) has been recently proposed as a prominent solution for content delivery in the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), where cars equipped with a variety of wireless communication technologies exchange information aimed to support safety, traffic efficiency, monitoring and infotainment applications. The main NDN tenets, i.e., name-based communication and in-network caching, perfectly fit the demands of time- and spatially-relevant content requested by vehicles regardless of their provenance. However, existing vehicular NDN solutions have not been targeted to wisely ensure prioritized traffic treatment based on the specific needs of heterogeneous IoV content types. In this work, we propose a holistic NDN solution that, according to the demands of data traffic codified in NDN content names, dynamically shapes the NDN forwarding decisions to ensure the appropriate prioritization. Specifically, our proposal first selects the outgoing interface(s) (i.e., 802.11, LTE) for NDN packets and then properly tunes the timing of the actual transmissions. Simulation results show that the proposed enhancements succeed in achieving differentiated traffic treatment, while keeping traffic load under control

Vehicular-Publish/Subscribe (V-P/S) communication enabled on-the-move EV charging management

Recently, the charging management for Electric Vehicles (EVs) on-the-move has become an emerging research problem in urban cities. Major technical challenges here involve intelligence for the selection of Charging Stations (CSs) to guide drivers’ charging plans, as well as the corresponding communication infrastructure for information dissemination between the power grid and EVs. In this article, a Vehicular- Publish/Subscribe (P/S) communication framework, in conjunction with Public Transportation Buses (PTBs) is provisioned to support on-the-move EV charging management. Benefiting from low privacy sensitivity, we propose a fully distributed charging management scheme concerning the driving intention. Results demonstrate a guidance for the provisioning of V P/Scommunication framework, concerning EV drivers’ experience including charging waiting time and total trip duration. Also, the benefit of V-P/S communication framework is reflected in terms of the communication efficiency. Open research issues of this emerging research area are also presented

Vehicular-Publish/Subscribe (V-P/S) communication enabled on-the-move EV charging management.

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Recently, the charging management for Electric Vehicles (EVs) on-the-move has become an emerging research problem in urban cities. Major technical challenges here involve intelligence for the selection of Charging Stations (CSs) to guide drivers’ charging plans, as well as the corresponding communication infrastructure for information dissemination between the power grid and EVs. In this article, a VehicularPublish/Subscribe (P/S) communication framework, in conjunction with Public Transportation Buses (PTBs) is provisioned to support on-the-move EV charging management. Benefiting from low privacy sensitivity, we propose a fully distributed charging management scheme concerning the driving intention. Results demonstrate a guidance for the provisioning of V-P/S communication framework, concerning EV drivers’ experience including charging waiting time and total trip duration. Also, the benefit of V-P/S communication framework is reflected in terms of the communication efficiency. Open research issues of this emerging research area are also presented.We would like to acknowledge the support of National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) No. 91438117, NSFC No. 91538202, and also the University of Surrey 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) (http://www.surrey.ac.uk/5gic) members for this work