A Reliable Communication Model based on IEEE802.15.4 for WSANs in Smart Grids.

Creating cyber physical systems (CPSs) based on wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSANs) have great potential to improve the performance of Smart Grids. In addition, IEEE 802.15.4 standard has been widely regarded as an appropriate standard for WSANs, due to some striking and unique features. Due to harsh noisy environments in Smart Grid applications, WSANs require provisioning strict quality of service (QoS). Although analytical models have been studied in the literature, they have not provided a full-fledged model for Smart Grids. In this paper, a new Markov chain model has been proposed that includes MAC-level buffer. By comparison with previous studies, retransmission confines, acknowledgment, packet length variation, saturated traffic and degenerate distribution of packet generation are accounted for. The algorithm has been experimentally implemented and appraised on a platform with self-designed WSAN. The proposed analytical model predicts well our exhaustive experiments. Further, Monte-Carlo simulations validate mathematical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]