Delay minimization for reliable data collection on overhead transmission lines in smart grid

Due to the rapid growth of power demand, the aging problem of transmission lines becomes serious and has caused many problems to electric utilities and customers in terms of system reliability, power quality and customer satisfaction. In order to efficiently monitoring the power transmission system, a large number of sensors are deployed on the transmission line to form a Power Line Sensornet (PLSN). For efficient data collection in the PLSN, direct cellular links can be used to improve the delay performance. However, all previous research has an unrealistic assumption that the transmission links in the PLNS are reliable. In this paper, we investigate the reliable data collection problem in PLSNs with lossy wireless links. With the objective of minimizing the delay, we propose a time-efficient algorithm to setup direct cellular links on a subset of nodes in the PLSN. Extensive simulations are conducted to show that our algorithm can significantly improve the delay performance.