Abstract-Optimization of energy consumption in future intelligent energy networks (or Smart Grids) will be based on grid-integrated near-real-time communications between various grid elements in generation, transmission, distribution and loads. This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities of communications research in the areas of smart grid and smart metering. In particular, we focus on some of the key communications challenges for realizing interoperable and futureproof smart grid/metering networks, smart grid security and privacy, and how some of the existing networking technologies can be applied to energy management. Finally, we also discuss the coordinated standardization efforts in Europe to harmonize communications standards and protocols.

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This letter proposes a novel hybrid relay and Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS) assisted system for future wireless networks. We demonstrate that for practical scenarios where the amount of radiated power and/or the number of reflecting elements are/is limited, the performance of an IRS-supported system can be significantly enhanced by utilizing a simple Decodeand-Forward (DF) relay. Tight upper bounds for the ergodic capacity are derived for the proposed scheme under different channel environments, and shown to closely match Monte-Carlo simulations.

The non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) well improves the spectrum efficiency which is particularly essential in the Internet of Things (IoT) system involving massive number of connections. It has been shown that applying buffers at relays can further increase the throughput in the NOMA relay network. This is however valid only when the channel signal-to-noise ratios (SNR-s) are large enough to support the NOMA transmission. While it would be straightforward for the cooperative network to switch between the NOMA and the traditional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) transmission modes based on the channel SNR-s, the best potential throughput would not be achieved. In this paper, we propose a novel prioritization-based buffer-aided relay selection scheme which is able to seamlessly combine the NOMA and OMA transmission in the relay network. The analytical expression of average throughput of the proposed scheme is successfully derived. The proposed scheme significantly improves the data throughput at both low and high SNR ranges, making it an attractive scheme for cooperative NOMA in the IoT.

This paper investigates delay constrained performance of a cognitive radio relay network when the cognitive (secondary) user transmission is subject to satisfying spectrumsharing restrictions imposed by a primary user. The primary user allows a secondary user to gain access to its allocated spectrum band as long as certain thresholds on the interference power, on the peak or average values, inflicted on the primary receiver are not exceeded by the transmission of the secondary users. In addition, we assume that the secondary transmitter benefits from an intermediate node, chosen from terminals, to relay its signal to the destination. Considering that the transmission of the secondary user is subject to satisfying a statistical delay quality-of-service (QoS) constraint, we study the maximum arrival rate of the secondary user's relay link while the interference limitations required by the primary user are satisfied. Particularly, we obtain the effective capacity of the secondary network and determine the power allocation policies that maximize the effective capacity of the secondary user's relaying channel. In addition, we derive closed-form expressions for the effective capacity of the channel in Rayleigh blockfading environment under peak or average interference-power constraints. Numerical simulations are provided to endorse our theoretical results.