I will be giving my presentation titled “The Value of Coordination for Restoring Power and Wireless Networks” at INFORMS 2024.

October 23, 2024, 8:00 AM - 9:15 AM PT in Regency - 701

Abstract: In the aftermath of natural disasters, the rapid restoration of critical infrastructures—in this paper we focus specifically on power and wireless cellular networks—is imperative, yet challenging due to the complexities of their interactions. Cellular networks rely on the power network for electricity to operate, meaning their restoration processes cannot be siloed from power restoration. To support optimal power and cellular network restoration, we develop a framework that prescribes actions that maximize demand served by both networks. We analyze coordination dynamics between power network decision makers and wireless carriers, ranging from perfect coordination—where both power and cellular restoration efforts are optimized simultaneously—to zero coordination—where decision makers make restoration plans and execute independently and without knowledge of the other decision makers’ restoration plans. We apply this framework to a case study in Guayama, Puerto Rico following a 50-year design storm hurricane and thereby explore how coordination can impact restoration outcomes in practice. We find that perfect restoration coordination can significantly improve cellular restoration outcomes at a limited cost to power restoration outcomes, relative to zero coordination. We also explore the impacts of partial coordination, where wireless carriers identify a limited number of critical assets that are prioritized in the power network’s restoration problem. We find that this partial coordination can capture some of the benefits of perfect coordination relative to zero coordination, when carefully executed. Finally, we find that information sharing without modification to power restoration has limited ability to improve cellular restoration outcomes over the zero coordination case.