27,767 research outputs found
A Practical Cooperative Multicell MIMO-OFDMA Network Based on Rank Coordination
An important challenge of wireless networks is to boost the cell edge
performance and enable multi-stream transmissions to cell edge users.
Interference mitigation techniques relying on multiple antennas and
coordination among cells are nowadays heavily studied in the literature.
Typical strategies in OFDMA networks include coordinated scheduling,
beamforming and power control. In this paper, we propose a novel and practical
type of coordination for OFDMA downlink networks relying on multiple antennas
at the transmitter and the receiver. The transmission ranks, i.e.\ the number
of transmitted streams, and the user scheduling in all cells are jointly
optimized in order to maximize a network utility function accounting for
fairness among users. A distributed coordinated scheduler motivated by an
interference pricing mechanism and relying on a master-slave architecture is
introduced. The proposed scheme is operated based on the user report of a
recommended rank for the interfering cells accounting for the receiver
interference suppression capability. It incurs a very low feedback and backhaul
overhead and enables efficient link adaptation. It is moreover robust to
channel measurement errors and applicable to both open-loop and closed-loop
MIMO operations. A 20% cell edge performance gain over uncoordinated LTE-A
system is shown through system level simulations.Comment: IEEE Transactions or Wireless Communications, Accepted for
Publicatio
Agent-based transportation planning compared with scheduling heuristics
Here we consider the problem of dynamically assigning vehicles to transportation orders that have di¤erent time windows and should be handled in real time. We introduce a new agent-based system for the planning and scheduling of these transportation networks. Intelligent vehicle agents schedule their own routes. They interact with job agents, who strive for minimum transportation costs, using a Vickrey auction for each incoming order. We use simulation to compare the on-time delivery percentage and the vehicle utilization of an agent-based planning system to a traditional system based on OR heuristics (look-ahead rules, serial scheduling). Numerical experiments show that a properly designed multi-agent system may perform as good as or even better than traditional methods
Comparison of agent-based scheduling to look-ahead heuristics for real-time transportation problems
We consider the real-time scheduling of full truckload transportation orders with time windows that arrive during schedule execution. Because a fast scheduling method is required, look-ahead heuristics are traditionally used to solve these kinds of problems. As an alternative, we introduce an agent-based approach where intelligent vehicle agents schedule their own routes. They interact with job agents, who strive for minimum transportation costs, using a Vickrey auction for each incoming order. This approach offers several advantages: it is fast, requires relatively little information and facilitates easy schedule adjustments in reaction to information updates. We compare the agent-based approach to more traditional hierarchical heuristics in an extensive simulation experiment. We find that a properly designed multiagent approach performs as good as or even better than traditional methods. Particularly, the multi-agent approach yields less empty miles and a more stable service level
A Distributed Demand-Side Management Framework for the Smart Grid
This paper proposes a fully distributed Demand-Side Management system for
Smart Grid infrastructures, especially tailored to reduce the peak demand of
residential users. In particular, we use a dynamic pricing strategy, where
energy tariffs are function of the overall power demand of customers. We
consider two practical cases: (1) a fully distributed approach, where each
appliance decides autonomously its own scheduling, and (2) a hybrid approach,
where each user must schedule all his appliances. We analyze numerically these
two approaches, showing that they are characterized practically by the same
performance level in all the considered grid scenarios. We model the proposed
system using a non-cooperative game theoretical approach, and demonstrate that
our game is a generalized ordinal potential one under general conditions.
Furthermore, we propose a simple yet effective best response strategy that is
proved to converge in a few steps to a pure Nash Equilibrium, thus
demonstrating the robustness of the power scheduling plan obtained without any
central coordination of the operator or the customers. Numerical results,
obtained using real load profiles and appliance models, show that the
system-wide peak absorption achieved in a completely distributed fashion can be
reduced up to 55%, thus decreasing the capital expenditure (CAPEX) necessary to
meet the growing energy demand
Channel strategy: Formulation and adaptation
Inspired by open systems theories like the structural contingency theory (Lawrence and Lorsch 1967), population ecology theory (Hannan and Freeman 1977), and resource dependence theory (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978), several marketing scholars have investigated how channels adapt and organize themselves to cope with their environments. Curiously, however, the implication of such adaptive behaviour (i.e., the better adapted firms are more profitable) has not been investigated in the marketing literature. This paper aims to probe that question. Moreover, unlike previous marketing studies, we articulate the manufacturer's rather than the distributor's point-of-view, because channel strategy decisions are usually in the manufacturer's domain. We scrutinize firms' adaptive responses from a channel structure and channel task perspective. Results show that the better adapted firms deliver superior performance, and that the adaptive responses often occur subtly at the specific channel task level even when the channel structure itself may appear seemingly unaltered.structural contingency theory; population ecology theory; resource dependence theory;
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