A Reliable IEEE 802.15.4 Model for Cyber Physical Power Grid Monitoring Systems

Cyber physical systems (CPSs) can significantly improve the resiliency of the smart grid. In CPSs, real time and reliable monitoring require an accurate and stable model of the wireless sensor network (WSN)-based monitoring system. Furthermore, WSNs require strict quality of service (QoS) provisioning as the data generated by the monitored equipment is generally delay and reliability-sensitive. QoS provisioning in WSNs has been widely studied in the literature where most of the work addresses the issue by QoS-aware protocol design. However, analytical models that consider delay, throughput, and power consumption have not matured for CPSs. In this paper, we propose a Markov-based model for cluster-tree WSN topologies that enhances the stability of the WSNs. Cluster-tree deployments are particularly of interest to cyber-physical power grid monitoring systems since they are suitable for large-scale deployments. We perform an exhaustive performance evaluation using different traffic and network conditions in star and cluster-tree WSN topologies. Furthermore, we test the accuracy of our model by performing simulations in environments that are consistent with the analytical model.