A survey on quality of service support in wireless sensor and actor networks: Requirements and challenges in the context of critical infrastructure protection

Wireless sensor and actor networks (WSANs) are likely to become a pervasive technology in the near future due to the special characteristics of these devices and to the great number of applications where it can be applied. One of these applications is the critical infrastructure protection (CIP). In fact, WSANs have actually been identified as having the potential to become an integral part of the CIP. However, in order to achieve that goal, WSANs need to provide a set of features which includes a robust QoS. Unfortunately QoS support mechanisms in WSANs are still largely undeveloped. This paper studies the state-of-the-art of QoS management in WSANs by exploring existing proposals, challenges and open issues in the field. Emphasis is put on QoS in the context of CIP by focusing on the QoS requirements and the needs of CIP applications. Existing middleware and protocols are surveyed and the challenges and open issues in the field are presented.