Resource allocation in 5G multi-tenancy network slicing for balancing distribution power systems

Abstract

In recent years consumers of power have also started to generate power via renewable sources such as wind and solar. In smart grid distribution systems, controls are applied to regulate the consumption and distribution of energy to save energy and costs. These controls rely on monitoring of the power distribution systems. To monitor these systems sufficiently to optimize power flow can be costly. The advent of fifth-generation (5G) networks presents an opportunity to improve monitoring capabilities at low cost. In the 5th generation of mobile cellular networks, end-to-end network slicing is the critical enabler, such that an infrastructure provider creates various network slices for different Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) to accommodate various services. This work assumes each MVNO is a power company while nodes are sensors and actuators in the power grid. Proper resource allocation for numerous coexisting network slices is vital. We address this issue by proposing a novel scheme in Radio Access Network (RAN) network slicing to maximize spectral efficiency, subject to guaranteeing each sensor and actuator in the power grid receives a minimum requirement of slices. We characterize the fundamental hardness of our problem and develop a greedy heuristic. Next, via simulations on the IEEE 13-, 34- and 37-node test feeders, we show that the proposed algorithm achieves superior performance in terms of served power after balancing the unbalanced distributed power system.