ABSTRACT
Real-time and reliable data communications in the smart grid are essential for its
successful automation and control processes. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are
anticipated to be widely utilized in a broad range of smart grid applications due to
their numerous advantages and unique features. Despite these advantages, the use of
WSNs in such critical applications has brought forward a new challenge of fulfill-
ing the quality of service (QoS) requirements. Providing QoS support in WSNs is
a challenging issue due to the highly resource-constrained nature of sensor nodes,
unreliable wireless links, and harsh operation environments. In WSN-based smart
grid automation and control processes, real-time and reliable monitoring requires
optimizing certain network parameters. This consequently requires an accurate and
stable model that resembles the utilized network protocol. In the literature, QoS pro-
visioning in WSNs has been considered by developing QoS-aware protocols irre-
spective of actual mathematical models’ behavior. Analytical models that consider
delay, throughput, and power consumption have not matured for QoS provisioning
in smart grid applications.
