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Multiband and multitier network densification is being considered the most promising solution to overcome the capacity-crunch problem of cellular networks. In this direction, small cells are being deployed within the macro cell (MC) coverage, to off-load some of the users associated with the MCs. This deployment scenario raises several problems. Among others, signalling overhead and mobility management will become critical considerations. Frequent handovers (HOs) in ultradense small cell (SC) deployments could lead to a dramatic increase in signalling overhead. This suggests a paradigm shift toward a signalling conscious cellular architecture with smart mobility management. To this end, the control/data separation architecture (CDSA) with dual connectivity is being considered for the future radio access. Considering the CDSA as the radio access network architecture, we quantify the reduction in HO signalling w.r.t. the conventional approach. We develop analytical models which compare the signalling generated during various HO scenarios in the CDSA and conventionally deployed networks. New parameters are introduced, which can with optimum value significantly reduce the HO signalling load. The derived model includes HO success and HO failure scenarios along with specific derivations for continuous and noncontinuous mobility users. Numerical results show promising CDSA gains in terms of saving in HO signalling overhead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electricity industry is in the midst of revolutionary transition from outdated ageing power infrastructure to an intelligent sophisticated smart grid network utilizing modern communication technologies to enhance power generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption. Smart metering infrastructure is an integral part of the smart power grid revolution. Smart meters, in addition to their primary billing functions, serve as distributed Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) nodes for enhancing grid reliability. Existing ad hoc routing protocols are based on single routing criterion such as hop count. This single routing metric approach can overload and deplete resource constrained smart meters along preferred paths. A protocol is needed which is aware of energy level and traffic congestion of smart metering nodes. In addition, protocol should select route based on link quality for optimal routing. In this paper, a novel WSN ad hoc routing protocol ETL-AODV is proposed for reliable and energy efficient communication of smart metering nodes. Three simulation based case studies are conducted to analyze the performance of the proposed protocol, and relative comparison is provided based on four metrics: (i) packet delivery ratio (PDR), (ii) normalized routing load (NRL) (iii) average energy consumption and (iv) average end-to-end delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]