Sharif Digital Repository

Ubiquitous power-law as a fingerprint of Self-Organized Criticality (SOC) is used for describing catastrophic events in different fields. In this paper, by investigating the prerequisites of SOC, we show that SOC-like dynamics drive a correlation among disturbances in Iranian bulk power systems. The existence of power-law regions in probability distribution is discussed for empirical data using maximum likelihood estimation. To verify the results, long time correlation is evaluated in terms of Hurst exponents, by means of statistical analysis of time series, including Rescaled Range (R/S) and Scaled Windowed Variance (SWV) analysis. Also, sensitivity analysis showed that for correct... 

In this paper, we consider the problem of optimum rate adaptation and power allocation to maximize the delay-limited throughput (DLT) in a time-correlated 2×1 MISO Rayleigh fading channel with Hybrid ARQ in Chase-Combining mode (HARQ-CC). To this aim, we have first formulated the DLT equation based on the outage probability for 2×1 MISO-HARQ channel. We show that exact analytical calculation of the outage probability is not tractable. Therefore, we approximate the outage probability using a log-normal approximation approach. Based on such approximation, optimal rate and power allocations are derived. Finally, using Monte-Carlo simulation, we show that the approximation method provides... 

This paper investigates the performance of a smart distribution system comprised of multi-microgrids during emergency conditions. It also proposes a hierarchical scheme for outage management in such a system to enhance the security of supply during contingencies. This goal is achieved through sharing the available generation and storage capacities among different microgrids. In this regard, at first, a well-organized framework is devised in order to introduce the roles and tasks of each player in operation stage of a multi-microgrids system. Based on this framework, the general optimization model that needs to be evaluated in the proposed outage management scheme is formulated. Then, various... 

Cognitive radio and cooperative networks are increasingly regarded as revolutionary technologies that utilise the radio spectrum efficiently. In this study, spectrally encoded (spread-time) code division multiple access (SE-CDMA) scheme is proposed as a flexible and adaptable technique for physical layer of cognitive relay networks. All primary and secondary users transmit their signals to a common base station (BS) and then the BS selects one of the cognitive secondary users based on feedback information to relay the primary user's (PU's) data. To study the efficiency of the system, two scenarios are considered. In the first scenario, the secondary users transmit their information using the... 

This study presents an efficient fractional frequency reuse scheme for macrocell network which uses six directional antennas to cover the outer region and analyses the performance. Cross-tier interference between macrocell and femtocell networks leading to throughput and outage probability degradation is a major issue in two-tier networks when femtocells are deployed in co-channel with macrocells. In this study, the received interference from the macrocell network to femtocell network is analysed. Then, based on the degree of received interference, an algorithm for orthogonal resource allocation to femtocells with low cross-tier interference is presented. According to the introduced scheme,... 

Competition in the electric power industry urges utilities to not only reduce the investment costs, but also to reasonably cut the operation and maintenance expenses as much as possible, while keeping both power quality and reliability requirements met. Reliability-centred maintenance (RCM) has been proven to be in response to this dilemma in power systems and has been yet successfully applied in various engineering contexts. This study introduces a novel approach, as of the first steps of RCM implementation in composite power generation and transmission systems, to identify the critical components for the main sake of a more focused maintenance management. Criticality evaluation is, here,... 

In the United States electricity market standard, when several transmission service requests (TSRs) are made for a specific pair of power injection/extraction points, the independent system operator (ISO) must allocate the available transmission capability (ATC) associated with the pair to the requests. An ATC allocation must determine the amount of accepted requests as well as the priority of the accepted requests during emergencies. The requests could have different types (recallable/non-recallable), tariffs, and time frames and these factors must be properly considered in ATC allocation. This paper proposes a method for optimal ATC allocation in the planning horizon which incorporates the... 

In recent years, STT-RAMs have been proposed as a promising replacement for SRAMs in on-chip caches. Although STT-RAMs benefit from high-density, non-volatility, and low-power characteristics, high rates of read disturbances and write failures are the major reliability problems in STTRAM caches. These disturbance/failure rates are directly affected not only by workload behaviors, but also by process variations. Several studies characterized the reliability of STTRAM caches just for one cell, but vulnerability of STT-RAM caches cannot be directly derived from these models. This paper extrapolates the reliability characteristics of one STTRAM cell presented in previous studies to the... 

In this letter, we introduce a decentralized compute-and-forward (DCMF) protocol to solve the rank failure problem in compute-and-forward (CMF) ad hoc multi-user multi-relay networks without a central coordinator. In sufficiently strong inter-relay links, we show that the DCMF scheme can reach the same achievable rate as in the successive centralized CMF (SCCMF), which is a modified version of the previously introduced centralized CMF in using our proposed successive method for a fair comparison. We evaluate the outage probability and rate of the proposed strategy, and compare the results with those of the conventional CMF and decode-and-forward, and the SCCMF  

Reliability of the power distribution unit (PDU) is very important in electrical systems. Since any failure in this unit leads to system failure. A commonly used method for increasing the reliability of a dc PDU is using the redundant modules. If a fault occurs in a voltage regulator of PDU, it is replaced by its redundant module. In conventional redundancy, each dc voltage regulator has its exclusive redundant modules. Therefore, if both a regulator and its redundant modules fail, the system is stopped. It is an important drawback since the exclusive redundant modules of other voltage regulators may not be used, but, the PDU cannot use them instead of faulty regulators. In this paper, the... 

This paper deals with the application of Fast Fourier Transform Base Method (FFTBM) with signal mirroring (FFTBM-SM) to assess accuracy of MELCOR code. This provides deeper insights into how the accuracy of MELCOR code in predictions of thermal-hydraulic parameters varies during transients. The case studied was modeling of Station Black-Out (SBO) accident in PSB-VVER integral test facility by MELCOR code. The accuracy of this thermal-hydraulic modeling was previously quantified using original FFTBM in a few number of time-intervals, based on phenomenological windows of SBO accident. Accuracy indices calculated by original FFTBM in a series of time-intervals unreasonably fluctuate when the... 

This study presents an efficient handoff algorithm for heterogeneous networks comprising macrocells, microcells, picocells, and femtocells. The proposed algorithm is based on call admission control (CAC) for selecting target base station (BS) from a list of neighbouring candidate BSs, as well as using the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) as decision method. The introduced algorithm takes into account multiple criteria including measured received signal strength (RSS) and signal-to-interference-plus noise ratio (SINR), predicted RSS and SINR, and number of free resource blocks of neighbouring BSs. With the use of TOPSIS, neighbouring BSs are ordered... 

Observability of complex systems/networks is the focus of this paper, which is shown to be closely related to the concept of contraction. Indeed, for observable network tracking it is necessary/sufficient to have one node in each contraction measured. Therefore, nodes in a contraction are equivalent to recover for loss of observability, implying that contraction size is a key factor for observability recovery. Here, developing a polynomial order contraction detection algorithm, we analyze the distribution of contractions, studying its relation with key network properties. Our results show that contraction size is related to network clustering coefficient and degree heterogeneity.... 

Sectionalizing switches play a crucial role in enhancing service reliability to the end users of distribution networks. However, they might encounter failures, thereby causing interruptions in the networks. The existing switch placement models consider only the pros of switches in improving service reliability, while they fail to deem switches cons in possible failures and thus increasing system interruptions. This study intends to show the importance of switch failure in the switch placement problem and the extent to which switch failure alters the switches allocation in a network. To do so, we develop a novel model based on mixed integer programming format to integrate the impacts of... 

Observability of complex systems/networks is the focus of this paper, which is shown to be closely related to the concept of contraction. Indeed, for observable network tracking it is necessary/sufficient to have one node in each contraction measured. Therefore, nodes in a contraction are equivalent to recover for loss of observability, implying that contraction size is a key factor for observability recovery. Here, using a polynomial order contraction detection algorithm, we analyze the distribution of contractions, studying its relation with key network properties. Our results show that contraction size is related to network clustering coefficient and degree heterogeneity. Particularly, in... 

The hierarchical coexistence of femtocells and macrocells is a promising approach for heterogeneous networks (HetNets), dealing mainly with indoor coverage issues and providing high data rates in cellular networks. As for any HetNet, mobility management with handoff issues on top, should be studied prior to hindering the successful deployment of these networks. The current study introduces a new handoff algorithm in hierarchical macro/femtocell HetNets based on the combination of quality of service metrics for efficient network selection including: received signal strength, co-channel interference level, and outage probability of each of femtocell and macrocell networks. The proposed... 

Nowadays, large-scale power outages induced by ever-growing natural disasters are increasing at a galloping rate. In this regard, this paper aims at improving the resilience of power distribution systems in facing high impact low probability (HILP) events in the planning phase of the system. To this end, optimal switch placement along with the optimal distribution line hardening strategies is proposed to mitigate the repercussions of the natural calamities. So, decreasing the failure probability of the distribution lines alongside the optimal placement of remote-controlled switches (RCSs) to increase the maneuvering capability of the system, the system operator would be able to strengthen... 

Multicast service is considered as a useful transmission mode for future mobile social services to deliver the traffic to multiple mobile users simultaneously. Device-to-device (D2D) multicast communication enables multiple proximate users to share the contents of their common interests directly. This paper aims to present a relay selection scheme for multi-source network-coded D2D multicast communication underlying heterogeneous cellular network which consists of macrocells and femtocells. We propose two methods for selecting efficient relays from the set of femtocell base stations (FBSs). The first method, named destination-blind relay selection, identifies those idle FBSs that can... 

We derive, evaluate, and discuss upper bounds on ergodic and outage capacities for a three-node relay network. The considered relay network has ultra-wideband (UWB) radio channels between the source, destination, and relay nodes. The derived bounds indicate that ergodic and outage capacities of the considered UWB-linked network increase up to 300% when a relay between the source and the destination is used. Furthermore, the bounds indicate that there is an optimum position for the relay node between the source and the destination, where ergodic capacity is maximized. Our numerical results shows that for the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenario, with the same signal to noise ratio on all links,... 

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are developing rapidly owing to flexible deployment and access services as the air base stations. In this paper, by taking the realistic assumption of imperfect channel state information at transmitter (CSIT), we investigate the robust and secure design of downlink UAV network while considering the worst-case outage constraints due to communication link uncertainties. In our proposed heterogeneous network, comprised of both UAV-cells and macro-users, rate splitting technique is deployed by UAV base-station (UAV-BS) to enhance the system performance in terms of security, power saving, and robustness against imperfect CSIT. Through our proposed design, we...