Virtual Network Embedding for Delay-Sensitive and Trust-Aware Smart Grid Applications

The combination of network virtualization (NV) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) represents a promising approach to address the challenges of scheduling network resources in delay-sensitive grid asset monitoring systems. Virtual network embedding (VNE) can efficiently allocate sensor device resources, considering Quality of Information (QoI), Quality of Service (QoS), and wireless interference handling. A higher acceptance ratio of VNE in this application translates to more virtual measurement requests (VMRs) being mapped onto the smart grid environment at a time, resulting in faster asset monitoring. However, VNE’s shared and complex nature exposes these networks to security risks. Since secure and high measurement quality with low delay is an indispensable aspect of asset monitoring in many smart grid applications, we implement a trust-aware virtual sensors network (TA-VSN) algorithm to maximize the acceptance rate of the VMRs and minimize the cost of embedding on the monitored environment while improving QoI, QoS, and security. The TA-VSN algorithm achieves a high-quality suboptimal solution faster, which makes it suitable for monitoring smart grid assets. The simulation results show that adding security constraints limits the acceptance ratio but improves average network throughput, and measurement error efficiency, and enhances delay, making the VNE algorithm more practical for delay-sensitive monitoring applications.