Smart Grids (SGs) constitute the evolution of the traditional electrical grid towards a new paradigm, which should increase the reliability, the security and, at the same time, reduce the costs of energy generation, distribution and consumption. Electrical microgrids (MGs) can be considered the first stage of this evolution of the grid, because of the intelligent management techniques that must be applied to assure their correct operation. To accomplish this task, sensors and actuators will be necessary, along with wireless communication technologies to transmit the measured data and the command messages. Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSANs) are therefore a promising solution to achieve an intelligent management of MGs and, by extension, the SG. In this frame, this paper surveys several aspects concerning the application of WSANs to manage MGs and the electrical grid, as well as the communication protocols that could be applied. The main concerns regarding the SG deployment are also presented, including future scenarios where the interoperability of different generation technologies must be assured.

During the last decade, the smart grid (SG) concept has started to become a reality, mainly thanks to the technical progress achieved in telecommunications, informatics and power electronics, among other domains, leading to an evolution of the traditional electrical grid into an intelligent one. Nowadays, the SG can be seen as a system of smart systems that include cyber and physical parts from different technologies that interact with each other. In this context, intelligent buildings (IBs) constitute a paradigm in which such smart systems are able to guarantee the comfort of residents while ensuring an appropriate tradeoff of energy production and consumption by means of an energy management system (EMS). These interconnected EMSs remain the objective of potential cyber-attacks, which is a major concern. Therefore, this paper conducts a survey, from a multidisciplinary point of view, of some of the main security and privacy issues related to IBs as part of the SG, including an overview of EMS, smart meters, and the main communication networks employed to connect IBs to the overall SG. Future research directions towards a security enhancement from both technical and human perspectives are also provided.

The rapid evolution of electronics and communication technologies in the last years has contributed to the expansion of Precision Livestock Farming applications. In this context, animal geolocation systems applied to extensive farming are interesting for farmers to optimize their daily work organization. Nevertheless, the deployment of these solutions implies several technical challenges which must be resolved, mainly the energy consumption and the suitability of the communication protocols. A recently developed solution that deals with these technical challenges is the e-Pasto platform, which is composed of low power geolocation devices embedded into collars that offer an energetic autonomy of at least seven months, completed with a visualization user interface. The autonomy is assured employing a duty-cycle operation that results in one geolocation position measurement per hour. This work studies the employ of accelerometers to overcome this limitation assuring, at the same time, the required autonomy for the geolocation device. The authors also propose an algorithm that processes the acceleration data in order to identify the steps of an individual. The whole solution (step identification and geolocation) has been validated by means of several experimental tests.

As stated in the literature, Low Power Listening (LPL) duty cycle is one of the most common energy conservation solution for WSN. By using channel check mechanism, the purpose of LPL solutions is to reduce the energy consumption of the listening phase. In this paper, we propose to study the performances and limitations of this kind of solutions. Therefore, we deploy a ContikiMAC LPL on both real and simulated WSN platform to demonstrate the impact of LPL on the energy consumptions of the node radio and microcontroller but also on the application Quality of Service. Based on the obtained results, shortcomings of LPL solutions are highlighted and potential improvements are discussed such as the use of multi-parameter dynamic duty cycle.

L’étude des réseaux de microcapteurs sans fil met clairement en évidence la contrainte principale de l’autonomie en énergie. En effet, ces microcomposants autonomes et communicants appelés aussi nœuds du réseau sont dispersés dans des lieux parfois peu ou pas accessibles. L’objectif de notre travail est de proposer une méthode de conception d’un émetteur-récepteur adapté à ce type de réseaux. Partant d’une modélisation au niveau système mettant en relief la part prépondérante du module radiofréquence sur la consommation moyenne d’un nœud, nous avons développé trois nouveaux outils de conception correspondant à différents niveaux de modélisation de la chaine de communication. Leur utilisation conjointe et les résultats de simulations obtenus nous offrent la possibilité de mettre en relation les spécifications et les performances d’un module radiofréquence avec la consommation. L’association de ces outils dans une méthode de conception itérative nous a permis de dimensionner une chaine de communication en fonction d’une contrainte de consommation. Finalement, nous avons conçu, fabriqué et testé, un amplificateur faible bruit (LNA ou Low Noise Amplifier) à 868 MHz qui présente des caractéristiques très intéressantes en termes de consommation.