Abstract
The advent of Fifth Generation (5G) networking infrastructures as well as the future “Beyond 5G (B5G)” present challenges for their optimized and resilient operations as well as opportunities for enabling many important applications, such as electric powergrids, transportation systems, smart cities, and more. In this chapter, DDDAS-based methodologies are presented to support optimized and resilient design and operation management of 5G/B5G communications infrastructures and of electric powergrids; the latter in the context of microgrids which have emerged as a viable solution to the growing number of distributed renewable energy sources that are being incorporated into the electrical grid. Specifically, the electricity distribution systems have evolved to consist of multiple competitive and cooperative microgrids. Therefore, enhanced communication infrastructure is important for improving efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of the energy generation, transmission, and distribution of the powergrid, composed of traditional (continuous) as well as variable (renewable) energy sources, and serving multiple classes of consumers with multiple levels of priorities. Issues associated with the collection and processing of data increase as the complexity of the powergrid system increases. Dynamic Data Driven Applications Systems (DDDAS)-based approaches of modeling, dynamically integrated with instrumentation, have demonstrated promising results for controlling the time-varying and complex operations within a single microgrid. However, applying such enhanced methods for the operation of today’s complex powergrids can be substantially hampered due to network delays and result in mission-critical operation deficits. The advent of 5G&B5G can provide the support needed for the optimized management of the powergrids through DDDAS-based approaches, which require a communications infrastructure that is reliable, secure, and to support data-intensive environments amidst extreme circumstances. At the same time, the DDDAS-based methods akin to those used for ensuring optimized design, operations, and resilience in powergrids can also be used for optimizing the design, management, operation, and resilience for the 5G and B5G infrastructures themselves. This chapter investigates how current and next-generation wireless technology (5G and B5G) can be incorporated into large-scale applications of DDDAS that involve automatic control of dynamic systems, such as powergrids; at the same time, the chapter also highlights the possible use cases of 5G/B5G networks technologies that are enabled within the DDDAS framework. As validation, a numerical study is presented on tertiary control of multiple microgrids considering different networks, demonstrating the effect of network properties on the cost-efficiency of the system with a stochastic environment. Finally, an open research field is introduced leveraging the DDDAS framework to enhance dynamic adaptive resource allocation in 5G/B5G based on diverse performance requirements of the associated heterogeneous multi-component, multilayer, communications infrastructures and services, such as eMBB, mMTC, URLLC, and 3GPP and Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) interoperability directions.