The fifth generation (5G) wireless network technology is to be standardized by 2020, where main goals are to improve capacity, reliability, and energy efficiency, while reducing latency and massively increasing connection density. An integral part of 5G is the capability to transmit touch perception type real-time communication empowered by applicable robotics and haptics equipment at the network edge. In this regard, we need drastic changes in network architecture including core and radio access network (RAN) for achieving end-to-end latency on the order of 1 ms. In this paper, we present a detailed survey on the emerging technologies to achieve low latency communications considering three different solution domains: 1) RAN; 2) core network; and 3) caching. We also present a general overview of major 5G cellular network elements such as software defined network, network function virtualization, caching, and mobile edge computing capable of meeting latency and other 5G requirements.

A Survey on Low Latency Towards 5G: RAN, Core Network and Caching Solutions

Integrating the various embedded devices and systems in our environment enables an Internet of Things (IoT) for a smart city. The IoT will generate tremendous amount of data that can be leveraged for safety, efficiency, and infotainment applications and services for city residents. The management of this voluminous data through its lifecycle is fundamental to the realization of smart cities. Therefore, in contrast to existing surveys on smart cities we provide a data-centric perspective, describing the fundamental data management techniques employed to ensure consistency, interoperability, granularity, and reusability of the data generated by the underlying IoT for smart cities. Essentially, the data lifecycle in a smart city is dependent on tightly coupled data management with cross-cutting layers of data security and privacy, and supporting infrastructure. Therefore, we further identify techniques employed for data security and privacy, and discuss the networking and computing technologies that enable smart cities. We highlight the achievements in realizing various aspects of smart cities, present the lessons learned, and identify limitations and research challenges.

Smart Cities: A Survey on Data Management, Security, and Enabling Technologies

Many network applications, eg, industrial control, demand ultra-low latency (ULL) However, traditional packet networks can only reduce the end-to-end latencies to the order of tens of milliseconds The IEEE 8021 time sensitive networking (TSN) standard and related research studies have sought to provide link layer support for ULL networking, while the emerging IETF deterministic networking (DetNet) standards seek to provide the complementary network layer ULL support This paper provides an up-to-date comprehensive survey of the IEEE TSN and IETF DetNet standards and the related research studies The survey of these standards and research studies is organized according to the main categories of flow concept, flow synchronization, flow management, flow control, and flow integrity ULL networking mechanisms play a critical role in the emerging fifth generation (5G) network access chain from wireless devices via access, backhaul, and core networks We survey the studies that specifically target the support of ULL in 5G networks, with the main categories of fronthaul, backhaul, and network management Throughout, we identify the pitfalls and limitations of the existing standards and research studies This survey can thus serve as a basis for the development of standards enhancements and future ULL research studies that address the identified pitfalls and limitations

Ultra-Low Latency (ULL) Networks: The IEEE TSN and IETF DetNet Standards and Related 5G ULL Research

Internet of Things (IoT) is a connection of people and things at any time, in any place, with anyone and anything, using any network and any service. Thus, IoT is a huge dynamic global network infrastructure of Internet-enabled entities with web services. One of the most important applications of IoT is the Smart Grid (SG). SG is a data communications network which is integrated with the power grid to collect and analyze data that are acquired from transmission lines, distribution substations, and consumers. In this paper, we talk about IoT and SG and their relationship. Some IoT architectures in SG, requirements for using IoT in SG, IoT applications and services in SG, and challenges and future work are discussed.

https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5134/4/1/22/pdf

Internet of Things in Smart Grid: Architecture, Applications, Services, Key Technologies, and Challenges

To satisfy the increasing demand of mobile data traffic and meet the stringent requirements of the emerging Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications such as smart city, healthcare, and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), the fifth-generation (5G) enabling technologies are proposed and utilized in networks As an emerging key technology of 5G and a key enabler of IoT, multiaccess edge computing (MEC), which integrates telecommunication and IT services, offers cloud computing capabilities at the edge of the radio access network (RAN) By providing computational and storage resources at the edge, MEC can reduce latency for end users Hence, this article investigates MEC for 5G and IoT comprehensively It analyzes the main features of MEC in the context of 5G and IoT and presents several fundamental key technologies which enable MEC to be applied in 5G and IoT, such as cloud computing, software-defined networking/network function virtualization, information-centric networks, virtual machine (VM) and containers, smart devices, network slicing, and computation offloading In addition, this article provides an overview of the role of MEC in 5G and IoT, bringing light into the different MEC-enabled 5G and IoT applications as well as the promising future directions of integrating MEC with 5G and IoT Moreover, this article further elaborates research challenges and open issues of MEC for 5G and IoT Last but not least, we propose a use case that utilizes MEC to achieve edge intelligence in IoT scenarios

Toward Edge Intelligence: Multiaccess Edge Computing for 5G and Internet of Things

The modern smart grid is a development of traditional power grids that incorporates information and communication technology to deliver electricity from suppliers to consumers to improve reliability, efficiency, infrastructure, power system availability, sophisticated metering technology, and energy management approaches. Because smart grids connect millions of devices - wired and wireless, data transmission becomes increasingly complicated and exposed to hackers. In this paper, we reviewed the MITRE ATT&CK architecture, highlighted smart grid vulnerabilities, described the SCADA system, and looked at the primary attacks that may compromise the smart grid system. The security mechanisms that can be employed in smart grids to prevent attackers from gaining access to the system and to secure communications from eavesdropping and other forms of information theft are also discussed. Lastly, cryptographic method is discussed on the issue of securing data communication in smart grids.

A comprehensive review on Smart Grid Data Security

NAND flash storage is a common digital storage architecture, because of its affordability and mature design, NAND flash is a dominant storage technology used in embedded systems, and general purpose computers in the form of solid state drives (SSD). The use of SSD in datacenters is less common, because of reliability and cost concerns of the storage, its use in datacenters is an area of active research. Other aspects of the technology being investigated are stacked layers of memory cells, optimization of flash controller algorithms, SSD and digital forensics, and storage class memories. The future challenges and directions for research are provided at the end.

Survey of Solid State Drives, Characteristics, Technology, and Applications

The photovoltaic system is generally intermittent in nature because of instability in weather such as irradiance and temperature. Therefore it is critical to stabilize the output voltage when a PV module supplies power to wide range of loads. In order to address this issue, boost converter under variable irradiance has been used to extract maximum power from photovoltaic panels applying the conventional Perturb and Observe maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm in this paper. The unregulated boost converter output considered as input to a buck converter which is controlled by a Proportional Integral controller in order to stabilize the output voltage for different resistive loads. It has been shown that the controller has been successfully capable of regulating the output voltage for wide variation of loads and varying irradiance. The integrated system is built and analyzed in MATLAB/Simulink environment.

Voltage Regulation of Photovoltaic System with varying Loads

In the smart grid, smart meters, and numerous control and monitoring applications employ bidirectional wireless communication, where security is a critical issue In key management based encryption method for the smart grid, the Trusted Third Party (TTP), and links between the smart meter and the third party are assumed to be fully trusted and reliable However, in wired/wireless medium, a man-in-middle may want to interfere, monitor and control the network, thus exposing its vulnerability Acknowledging this, in this paper, we propose a novel two level encryption method based on two partially trusted simple servers (constitutes the TTP) which implement this method without increasing packet overhead One server is responsible for data encryption between the meter and control center/central database, and the other server manages the random sequence of data transmission Numerical calculation shows that the number of iterations required to decode a message is large which is quite impractical Furthermore, we introduce One-class support vector machine (machine learning) algorithm for node-to-node authentication utilizing the location information and the data transmission history (node identity, packet size and frequency of transmission) This secures data communication privacy without increasing the complexity of the conventional key management scheme

Key Management and Learning based Two Level Data Security for Metering Infrastructure of Smart Grid

For the harmonious operation among various entities, smart grid requires sharing and processing a huge amount of data and information. In the regard, cloud computing can provide the leverage of storage, processing and management of data using a shared pool of configurable resources over the Internet. In some cases of control and monitoring, low latency data processing is mandatory. To address this, we propose two types of priority data processing in the cloud for the smart grid applications. In the first type of data processing called preemptive priority, the priority data is processed ceasing the processing of an on-going general packet. On the other hand, in the second type called as non-preemptive priority, the priority packet is processed after the execution of an ongoing general packet. The general packets are processed on first come first served. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of the two data processing methods in the scenario of a smart grid. Based on the results, preemptive data processing is recommended for extreme latency critical data while non-preemptive is suitable for latency critical data.

Imtiaz Parvez

Papers

A comprehensive review on Smart Grid Data Security

Survey of Solid State Drives, Characteristics, Technology, and Applications

Voltage Regulation of Photovoltaic System with varying Loads

Key Management and Learning based Two Level Data Security for Metering Infrastructure of Smart Grid

Latency Critical Data Processing in Cloud for Smart Grid Applications