For the last three years I have added executive search in Smart Energy as smart meters and remote M2M radios complement my executive search practice in Wireless Systems and Mobile Networks. When you look at the trend that 4G networks are all about “all IP networks” to a large degree, one can easily see where 5G networks using nano technology and cloud computing will benefit smart grids, end-users, R&E networks, and community networks on the mobile Internet through more cognitive applications –  both in radios and mobile apps.

Which brings us to the ultimate marriage between broadband carriers, mobile network operators, and utility providers. Certainly remote access to smart meters is preferred using mobile devices – especially the consumer market. The industrial market has heavily invested in moving from old SCADA type industrial control systems with printers and ethernet connections to wireless enabled Remote Monitoring and Alarm/Access Control. Making all of this work will require comutations that are more intutive and use distributed intelligence – as cognitive radio suggests.

Now for an excerpt from an excellent article by Christine Hertzog

Wireless ubiquitous networks are the communications foundation for the Smart Grid as well as the Internet of Things. Cellular, WiFi, WPAN and other communications technologies and protocols will enable electricity consuming and producing devices to be remotely monitored and managed, which in turn foster optimized awareness and use of resources. And in the best sense of recycling, many of the early lessons learned about Smart Grid deployments can and should be applied to projects focused in smart cities and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Here are a few observations:

1.The growth of wireless communications will stress existing bandwidth allocations of licensed versus unlicensed spectrum. The latest research is focused on cognitive radio technology, which is part of the nascent 5G or fifth generation of wireless technology, and it could help address spectrum stresses by dynamically allocating unused or underutilized licensed spectrum for temporary unlicensed applications.

Adrian Popescu, a leading researcher of the technology and professor based at Sweden’s Blekinge Institute of Technology, stated that “5G focuses on architectural and networking upgrades to 4G,and one of the key features is pervasive wireless computing and communications. Cognitive radiois a promising technology that helps 5G avoid spectrum constraints and thus achieve the vision ofubiquitous networks.”

The concept of cognitive radio is already actively practiced by drivers in major Chinese cities. Here, lane markings, akin to spectrum allocations, are merely suggestions for placement of vehicles, and driverse fluidly shift lanes to avoid congested intersections, sometimes straddling two lanes to create a newand temporary lane. This style of driving also elegantly illustrates the ideas of very decentralized and distributed intelligence, with each vehicle performing as an intelligent agent to optimize routing.

That has interesting implications for the Smart Grid and the larger IoT because it could enable applications that need infrequent transmissions of data that may range from just a few data bits toindicate a change to status to bulkier video communications regarding perimeter intrusions or camera-based inspections of remote sites.
Click here to view the rest of the article from The Energy Collective.