Jimmy Jessen Nielsen

Assessment of LTE Wireless Access for Monitoring of Energy Distribution in the Smart Grid

While LTE has been widely rolled out for human-type services, it is also a promising solution for cost-efficient connectivity of the smart grid monitoring equipment. This is a type of machine-to-machine (M2M) traffic that consists mainly of sporadic uplink transmissions. In such a setting, the amount of traffic that can be served in a cell is not constrained by the data capacity, but rather by the signaling constraints in the random access channel and control channel. In this paper, we explore these limitations using a detailed simulation of the LTE access reservation protocol (ARP). We find that 1) assigning more random access opportunities may actually worsen performance and 2) the additional signaling that follows the ARP has very large impact on the capacity in terms of the number of supported devices; we observed a reduction in the capacity by almost a factor of 3. This suggests that a lightweight access method, with a reduced number of signaling messages, needs to be considered in standardization for M2M applications. Additionally we propose a tractable analytical model to calculate the outage that can be rapidly implemented and evaluated. The model accounts for the features of the random access, control channel, and uplink and downlink data channels, as well as retransmissions.

What can wireless cellular technologies do about the upcoming smart metering traffic

The introduction of smart electricity meters with cellular radio interfaces has placed an additional load on wireless cellular networks. Currently, these meters are designed for low duty cycle billing and occasional system check, which generates low-rate sporadic traffic. As the number of distributed energy resources increases, household power will become more variable and thus unpredictable from the viewpoint of the distribution system operator (DSO). Therefore, it is expected that in the near future there will be an increase in the number of wide area measurement system (WAMS) devices with phasor measurement unit (PMU)-like capabilities in the distribution grid, thus allowing utilities to monitor the low voltage grid quality while providing information required for tighter grid control. From a communication standpoint, the traffic profile will change drastically toward higher data volumes and higher rates per device. In this paper we characterize the current traffic generated by smart electricity meters, and we discuss the potential traffic requirements resulting from the introduction of enhanced smart meters, i.e. meters with PMU-like capabilities. Our study shows how GSM/ GPRS and LTE cellular system performance behaves with current generation and next generation smart meter traffic, where it is clearly seen that the PMU data will seriously challenge these wireless systems. We conclude by highlighting the possible solutions for upgrading the cellular standards, in order to cope with the upcoming smart metering traffic.

Location-Based Mobile Relay Selection and Impact of Inaccurate Path Loss Model Parameters

In this paper we propose a relay selection scheme which uses collected location information together with a path loss model for relay selection, and analyze the performance impact of mobility and different error causes on this scheme. Performance is evaluated in terms of bit error rate by simulations. The SNR measurement based relay selection scheme proposed earlier is unsuitable for use with fast moving users in e.g. vehicular scenarios due to a large signaling overhead. The proposed location based scheme is shown to work well with fast moving users due to a lower signaling overhead. The required location accuracy was found to be comparable to the accuracy of standard GPS. As the scheme was found to be highly sensitive to NLOS situations with unknown attenuation, knowledge of obstacle locations obtained either by sensing online or from a map of obstacles, was identified as a prerequisite in these situations. As the location-based scheme relies on a path loss model to estimate link qualities and select relays, the sensitivity with respect to inaccurate estimates of the unknown path loss model parameters is investigated. The parameter ranges that result in useful performance were found to be wide enough to allow them to be estimated in practical systems.

Worst-case traversal time modelling of Ethernet based in-car networks using real time calculus

The paper addresses performance modelling of safety critical Ethernet networks with special attention to in-car networks. A specific Ethernet/IP based in-car network is considered as use-case. The modelling is based on the analytical method Real-Time Calculus (RTC), providing hard bounds on delay and buffer utilization. We show how RTC can be applied on the use-case network. Furthermore, we develop a network simulation, used to evaluate the overestimation. It is found that the delays from RTC is significantly overestimated. The bounds from RTC, however, are guaranteed bounds, which is not the case for the simulated.

On the impact of information delay on location-based relaying: A Markov modeling approach

For centralized selection of communication relays, the necessary decision information needs to be collected from the mobile nodes by the access point (centralized decision point). In mobile scenarios, the required information collection and forwarding delays will affect the reliability of the collected information and hence will influence the performance of the relay selection method. This paper analyzes this influence in the decision process for the example of a mobile location-based relay selection approach using a continuous time Markov chain model. The model is used to obtain optimal relay policies via a heuristically reduced brute-force search. Numerical results show how forwarding delays affect these optimal policies.

Mobility Impact on Centralized Selection of Mobile Relays

This paper considers the impact of node mobility on the selection of tilIe lowest bit error rate (BER) relay path from access point to destination node in a downlink data transmission scenario. The access point uses link signal to noise ratio (SNR) measurements provided by the mobile nodes to select the path either as direct or two-hop via a mobile relay. The impact of delays in the measurement collection procedure in this scheme is analyzed in comparison to an ideal selection and an always direct scheme. An ns-2 and matlab based simulation framework is used to investigate effects of varying scenario parameters on the achieved average BER of data transmissions. The SNR measurement collection is based on periodic hello broadcasts. Results show that increasing node speed can lead to performance that is worse than always transmitting directly. The hello broadcast rate Clm mitigate this effect, however, at the cost of an increase in signaling overhead. We find that discarding old measurements can significantly improve the BER performance without increasing the signaling overhead. This result establishes the importance of joint tuning of the hello broadcast rate and the measurement storage time.

Hybrid Data Fusion and Cooperative Schemes for Wireless Positioning

The wireless hybrid enhanced mobile radio estimators (WHERE) consortium researches radio positioning techniques to improve various aspects of communications systems. In order to provide the benefits of position information available to communications systems, hybrid data fusion (HDF) techniques estimate reliable position information. Within this paper, we first present the scenarios and radio technologies evaluated by the WHERE consortium for wireless positioning. We compare conventional HDF approaches with two novel approaches developed within the framework of WHERE. Yet, HDF may still provide insufficient localization accuracy and reliability. Hence, we will research and develop new cooperative positioning algorithms, which exploit the available communications links among mobile terminals of heterogeneous wireless networks, to further enhance the positioning accuracy and reliability.

Centralized cooperative positioning and tracking with realistic communications constraints

In this paper, we investigate the performance of centralized cooperative positioning algorithms. Compared to traditional positioning algorithms which solely exploit ranging information from anchor nodes, cooperative positioning additionally uses measurements from peer-to-peer links between the users. Since we are proposing a centralized architecture, all information has to be collected at a central entity for position calculation and further provision to the network. Hence, besides position-relevant metrics like accuracy and coverage also communications overhead and latency and their impact on the overall performance will be assessed. As we are considering a dynamic scenario, the cooperative positioning algorithms are based on extended Kalman filtering for position estimation and tracking. Simulation results for ultra-wideband based ranging information and WLAN based communications infrastructure show the benefits of cooperative position and tracking for realistic measurement and mobility models.

Location-based relay selection and power adaptation enabling simultaneous transmissions

Relaying is a well known technique to extend coverage and improve conditions for nodes in the outer coverage region. In this paper we propose a relaying scheme that exploits the spatial separation of relay and destination pairs to improve throughput by allowing simultaneous transmissions. The proposed scheme is a cross-layer optimization for two-hop relaying that uses position information to jointly optimize relay selection and relay transmit power, maximizing Medium Access Control layer throughput. Further, in order to calculate the expected throughput, we apply a probabilistic model that takes into account MAC retransmissions and timing behavior of the IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function mode. Our results show an increase in throughput of approximately 20% is achievable for the proposed scheme when compared to two-hop relaying in the analyzed scenario.

A Tractable Model of the LTE Access Reservation Procedure for Machine-Type Communications

A canonical scenario in Machine-Type Communications (MTC) is the one featuring a large number of devices, each of them with sporadic traffic. Hence, the number of served devices in a single LTE cell is not determined by the available aggregate rate, but rather by the limitations of the LTE access reservation protocol. Specifically, the limited number of contention preambles and the limited amount of uplink grants per random access response are crucial to consider when dimensioning LTE networks for MTC. We propose a low-complexity model of LTEs access reservation protocol that encompasses these two limitations and allows us to evaluate the outage probability at click-speed. The model is based chiefly on closed-form expressions, except for the part with the feedback impact of retransmissions, which is determined by solving a fixed point equation. Our model overcomes the incompleteness of the existing models that are focusing solely on the preamble collisions. A comparison with the simulated LTE access reservation procedure that follows the 3GPP specifications, confirms that our model provides an accurate estimation of the system outage event and the number of supported MTC devices.