Abstract—A large number of sensors are deployed in smart grid for monitoring and metering of the power equipment and other key facilities as well as users’ behavior. The collected information is sent to data processing center for analyzing and processing. Because of the relatively complicated and harsh working conditions of sensors in smart grid, sensor fault occurs frequently. To ensure the normal execution of monitoring and metering, timely and accurate recovery of sensor fault is needed. Therefore, this paper proposes a kind of fault recovery algorithm for WSNs in smart grid. Firstly, sensor fault is classified according to the degree of influence on data monitoring and communication. Then different fault recovery methods are designed according to different fault types, and suitable alternative nodes are selected to restore the network function. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can realize sensor fault recovery using as little communication cost as possible, and extend the lifecycle of sensor network on the premise of ensuring coverage rate of target nodes.

Index Terms—Smart grid, wireless sensors, fault recovery, alternative nodes, coverage rate

Cite: Yanfei Lin, Xingang Wang, Cheng Zhong, Sujie Shao, and Xuesong Qiu, “Fault Recovery Algorithm for WSNs in Smart Grid," Journal of Communications, vol. 11, no. 9, pp. 827-833, 2016. Doi: 10.12720/jcm.11.9.827-833