Received April 20, 2021, accepted June 7, 2021, date of publication June 14, 2021, date of current version

June 22, 2021.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3088843

Robust Online Overhead Transmission Line

Monitoring With Cost Efficiency in
Smart Power Grid
HUICHEOL SHIN 1 , (Student Member, IEEE), YUJAE SONG 1, (Member, IEEE),
AND PENG-YONG KONG 2 , (Senior Member, IEEE)
1 Maritime ICT Research and Development Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Busan 49111, South Korea
2 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Corresponding author: Yujae Song (yjsong@kiost.ac.kr)
This work was supported in part by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, South Korea (Development of Information Communication
Technology (ICT)-based Port State Control (PSC) countermeasure technology and core equipment for implementation of the International
Maritime Organization (IMO) ballast water management convention project), and in part by the Basic Science Research Program through
the National Research Foundation of Korea, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, under Grant NRF-2020R1F1A1074175.

ABSTRACT In this work, we investigate a cost-efficient strategy to implement robust online overhead
transmission line monitoring for stable energy transfer in smart power grid. As a first step, we first present
an analytical framework to evaluate communication performances of wireless sensor networks installed for
the real-time monitoring of overhead power transmission line, wherein each tower performs fountain code
(FC)-based transmission for guaranteeing transmission reliability between each tower and a substation. Then,
we evaluate communication performances given in terms of successful FC-based transmission probability
and its end-to-end delay for each tower. Further, our analysis helps formulate an optimization problem
that aims at minimizing the total number of activated wide area network (WAN) communication modules
deployed on towers(i.e., minimizing the total monetary cost required to use WAN communications), while
simultaneously supporting three different types of communication quality of service (QoS) requirements
(e.g., reliability, delay, robustness).To find the solution of the problem, we propose the Path Decision in the
order of the Farthest Towers (PDFP) algorithm, which enables to find a suboptimal-solution of the problem in
real-time. The key idea of PDFT algorithm is that paths (i.e., whether to use a WAN communication module)
are sequentially determined in the order of towers farthest from the substation. To identify the validity of
the proposed algorithm, we conduct performance evaluations with using public topological and geometrical
information of an actual national power grid in Korea. Performance evaluation results show that the proposed
PDFT algorithm can find towers that need to activate their WAN communication modules for guaranteeing
diverse QoS requirements in real-time, as compared to an optimal-solution algorithm without significant
difference in total number of activated WAN communication modules.

INDEX TERMS Smart power grid, overhead transmission line monitoring, cost efficiency, robust online
sensing data transmission.

I. NOMENCLATURE providers and consumers for the improvements of efficiency,

Main symbols in this paper are summarized in Table 1. reliability and safety [1]–[3]. As a smart grid component,
continuous monitoring of overhead transmission lines can
II. INTRODUCTION be crucial for dynamic thermal rating, real-time structural
Smart grid is an electric power grid that utilizes advanced awareness, and precise fault location identification [4]–[6].
information and communication technologies and ensures Transmission towers are typically erected to support the
two-way flow of information and electricity between energy weight of overhead transmission lines over some designed
distance. On each tower, a set of sensors are installed to moni-
The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and tor the tranmission lines. These sensors perform measurement
approving it for publication was Matti Hämäläinen . and transfer the collected data to a dedicated substation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
VOLUME 9, 2021 86449
 H. Shin et al.: Robust Online Overhead Transmission Line Monitoring With Cost Efficiency
TABLE 1. Main symbols.
At the substation, the received data is forwarded to the control
center via high-speed communcation links such as optical
fibers. The control center analyzes the data to indentify
the physical status of transmission lines and to determine
the corresponding proper control operations for a desired
goal [7]. For continuous monitoring of transmission lines,
the collected data must arrive at the control center within
a certain delay while satisfying an acceptable reliability.
The predetermined delay and reliability thresholds become
the communication quality-of-service (QoS) requirements.
According to [8], the Department of Energy, United State of
86450
America has suggested specific values for these QoS require-
ments, in which the desired packet delay is between 20 and
200 ms, and the required reliability is between 99.9990 and
99.9999%. Traditionally, communications between various
components, for example, control centers, substations, trans-
mission lines, and towers, in a power transmission grid are
limited. The control center gathers information from the
substations in every few seconds via slow private lines, for
example, the dialup modem link. With the development of
new technologies, such slow communication lines may be
replaced by high bandwidth and low latency communications,
e.g., optical fiber communications, to support emerging smart
grid applications. [9] described a case where narrow-band
communication solutions (range of 100 bit/s) are replaced
by the fiber optics solutions that provide broadband com-
munication highways (range of 100 Mbit/s). In [10], a net-
work architecture adopting optical fiber communications for
the monitoring of power transmission lines through wireless
sensors was investigated. Despite the interest in using optical
fiber communications in smart grid, optical fiber deployment
can be difficult and expensive because the transmission line
extends across unpopulated mountainous and forested areas
that have no existing infrastructure [11].
As an alternative to optical fiber communications, wireless
sensor networks (WSNs) have been considered a promising
solution for online transmission line monitoring because of
their characteristics such as low cost, easy installation, fault
tolerance, and large-scale coverage. The concept of utilizing
WSNs to support substation automation was investigated
in [12].
In [13], ZigBee and general packet radio service technol-
ogy were considered in the transmission line monitoring for
ensuring normal transmission of signals, even in areas where
there is no telecommunication service. The broadband over
power lines-enhanced network model called BPLeNM was
investigated in [14], which is suitable to efficiently trans-
fer the generated data of WSNs in overhead high-voltage
power grids to the substations. The authors of [7] devel-
oped a clustering algorithm to balance the network’s energy
consumption and a hybrid media access control protocol to
handle traffic variability. In [15], a hybrid transmission line
monitoring network was investigated, where different types
of communication technologies were utilized in the hierarchi-
cal network. The work of [11] presents accurate probability
distribution models for topological and geometrical parame-
ters for WSNs in transmission line monitoring.
Further, a heterogeneous network architecture, wherein a
WSN coexists with a wide-area netowrk (WAN), e.g., cellular
or satellite, responsible for direct communication without
relaying from a tower to a control center, was adopted to over-
come the shortcomings of WSN such as short communication
range, long end-to-end delay, and the difficulty of reliable
communication [16], [17]. To implement this architecture,
WAN communication modules (which is also referred as
WAN module, interchangeably) should be deployed on the
top of each tower, similar to relay nodes. The work of [16]
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H. Shin et al.: Robust Online Overhead Transmission Line Monitoring With Cost Efficiency
presented a hybrid hierarchical network architecture for the
real-time situational awareness of electrical transmission
power grid. The network consists of a combination of wired,
wireless and cellular technologies for guaranteeing low cost
real-time data monitoring with wireless sensors. In [17],
a heuristic algorithm based on genetic strategy was described
to find the optimal locations of cellular transceivers for
improving network performance given in terms of bandwidth
and end-to-end delay.
Although there are existing works adopting WSN-WAN
heterogeneous networks for overhead transmission line mon-
itoring in smart power grid, there is a lack of investigation on
the dynamic activation of WAN modules on towers accord-
ing to a change in the time-varying link qualities between
towers. Instead, most of existing works only covers issues on
where to install WAN modules among towers along a power
transmission line [18]–[20]. The work of [18] considered the
installation of WAN modules on all towers, but it can be
prohibitively expensive if there is a large number of towers.
As a cost-efficient solution, the work of [19] considered the
installation of WAN modules only on selected towers. For
this, an optimization problem was formulated to determine
the number and locations of WAN-enabled towers, such that
the installation and operational cost is minimized without
compromising multiple QoS requirements given in terms of
delay, connectivity, and bandwidth. In [20], to reflect the
fact that cellular network coverage may not be available in
unpopulated areas, satellite communications with universal
coverage was considered as an alternative to the cellular
networks. Then, the differences in performance and cost
characteristics were reflected in deciding which type of WAN
connection should be used for each towers. Nevertheless,
studies on the dynamic activation of WAN module at each
tower from time to time might be crucial. This is because
additional consideration on WAN module’s dynamic acti-
vation after its installation on tower can offer more degree
of freedom to reduce the total number of activated WAN
modules (i.e., minimizing the total monetary cost required to
use WAN communications) through using the characteristics
of time-varying wireless channels between towers along the
transmission line.
In the following, we highlight our main contributions:
• For reliable sensing data transfer from each tower to a
substation, we adopt fountain code (FC)-based transmis-
sion in a communication network for overhead trans-
mission line monitoring in smart power grid. Following
FC-based transmission, each tower sends coded packets
with a pre-determined redundancy instead of original
packets for reserving necessary degree of freedom. Since
FC-based transmission does not require any feedback
mechanism, it can be easily implemented in the commu-
nication network in practice. Under the considered trans-
mission scenario, we evaluate performances in terms
of successful FC-based transmission probability and its
end-to-end delay to measure communication QoSs in the
network.
VOLUME 9, 2021
• Our analysis helps formulate an optimization problem
that aims at minimizing the total number of activated
WAN modules on towers (i.e., minimizing the total
monetary cost required to use WAN communications for
transmission line monitoring), while supporting three
different types of communication QoS requirements
(e.g., delay, reliability, and robustness). To find the solu-
tion of the problem, we propose the Path Decision in the
order of the Farthest Towers (PDFT) algorithm, which
finds a suboptimal-solution of the problem in real-time.
The key idea of PDFT is that paths (i.e., whether to
use the WAN module) are sequentially determined in
the order of towers farthest from the substation. Such
a real-time algorithm enables the dynamic activation of
WAN module on each tower according to a change in
fast time-varying link qualities between towers.
• With public topological and geometrical information
of an actual national power grid in Korea, we conduct
extensive performance evaluations to show the validity
of the proposed PDFT algorithm. Through performance
evaluations, it is identified that the proposed PDFT algo-
rithm can find towers that need to activate their WAN
modules in real-time, without significant difference in
the number of activated WAN modules as compared to
an optimal-solution algorithm.
III. SYSTEM MODEL
A. NETWORK MODEL
We consider an overhead power transmission line system that
consists of towers, power transmission lines, and a substation,
as illustrated in Figure 1. In the figure, white circles and
lines stand for the geometrical location of towers and the
actual alignment of a transmission line along the towers in
Miryang-si, South Korea.
For power transmission line monitoring, each tower is
equipped with different types of sensors: accelerometers,
magnetic field sensors, strain sensors, and temperature sen-
sors. Table 2 describes the measurement elements of each
sensor. Similar to [20], all sensors except for temperature sen-
sors produce two measurements at each sampling instance,
wherein each measurement produces a 4-byte floating point
number. At a sampling rate of 850 Hz, each sensor generates
unprocessed data with a size of 51 kilobits every second at
each tower. After processing, only a quarter of the data will
be transmitted by each tower at approximately 102 kbps.
Each tower has one communication relay that communi-
cates with sensors on the same tower by utilizing short-range
(≤100 m) communication protocols such as Zigbee. Each
relay collects information on transmission line monitoring
from the sensors and then transmits the aggregated data to
another relay on a nearby tower or directly to a substation by
utilizing long-range (≥100 m) communication protocols such
as long-range Wi-Fi.
Since the short-range and long-range communication pro-
tocols considered above are low-cost and unregulated com-
munication, we refer to them as non-WAN communications.
86451
 H. Shin et al.: Robust Online Overhead Transmission Line Monitoring With Cost Efficiency
FIGURE 1. Illustration of overhead power transmission line.
TABLE 2. Sensors installed at each tower for transmission line monitoring.
Whereas, in this context, WAN communications stand for
more expensive and regulated communication protocols such
as cellular and satellite communications. Note that, compared
with single-hop transmission between sensors and a relay,
it is more challenging to satisfy communication QoS require-
ments, especially end-to-end delay, in multi-hop transmission
between relays and a substation. This is because of the rela-
tively long distance between them and the additional delay
suffered at each intermediate hop. Thus, this work focuses
on long-range communications in multi-hop transmission
between towers. In addition, we also consider the utiliza-
tion of WAN communication, for which a WAN module
is installed at each tower. By activating the WAN module,
a tower can directly send its data to the substation, regardless
of its location, without communication error. Again, the main
difference between non-WAN and WAN communications is
that, unlike WAN communication, non-WAN communica-
tion does not require monetary cost to transmit information
because of the use of a communication protocol operating in
the unlicensed spectrum.
As mentioned previously, a relay plays a role in a commu-
nication hub that aggregates data from sensors at the same
tower and re-transmits data to nearby towers or a substation.
This architecture enables us to simplify the wireless commu-
nication network, in which each tower can be considered as
a communication node embracing the relay and the sensors
installed on it. Hereafter, we use terms ‘‘node’’ and ‘‘tower’’
interchangeably. We denote N = {1, 2, . . . , |N |} as a set of
86452
all towers along a transmission line, where |N | is the total
number of towers along the line. The last tower in the network
(i.e., |N |) is assumed to be a virtual tower that is connected to
a control center of substation via a high-speed wired link (e.g.,
optical wired link), such that there is negligible transmission
delay between them. In the network, each tower generates an
end-to-end traffic flow towards a common destination (i.e.,
the control center). We denote Linfo as the number of bits
in an original data block, which is generated by all sensors
installed at a tower, to be transmitted to the control center. The
original traffic block is divided into M packets with fixed size
Linfo
Lpac = M because of adopting a time-slot-based medium
access protocol. All the individual traffic flows have their own
communication QoS requirements.
We represent the communication network of the power
transmission line monitoring system as graph G = {N , L}.
For G, the vertices are the set of towers N , and arcs L are
composed of all wireless communication links between two
towers. Note that link lij can connect tower i to tower j if
and only if the achievable data rate of link (i, j) denoted
by
rij is greater than rmin , such that L = lij |rij ≥ rmin . Here,
rmin is the minimum data rate required to transmit a packet
of size Lpac , such that it can be a criterion that determines
link availability. In addition, the data rate of link (i, j) is
determined as
 
gij ptx
rij = B log 1 + , (1)
N0
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H. Shin et al.: Robust Online Overhead Transmission Line Monitoring With Cost Efficiency
FIGURE 2. TDMA-based time slot and frame structures for FC-based
transmission among towers.
where B is the bandwidth of a channel, ptx is the transmit
power of the relay at each tower, N0 is the additive noise
power, and gij is the channel quality of link (i, j), which will be
determined later in this section. In graph G, path pi denotes
a loop-free sequence of concatenated links between tower i
and the control center, such that
pi = lij , ljk , . . . , lq|N | ⊆ L.

tower, the lower
bound of the service rate of a traffic flow
is 1/ Tf M 0 max .
At each tower, different traffic flows arrive randomly and
independently. These flows include the flow that originates
from the tower and the others that are routed through this
tower. Packets from different flows are held in separate
queues before being transmitted in their respective allocated
time slots. To ensure the stability of the queueing system,
the service rate of a traffic flow should be larger than its arrival
rate, such that Tf M10 max ≥ λ, where λ is the arrival rate of a
1
traffic flow. Thus, we adopt Tf = λM 0 max .
B. CHANNEL MODEL
Hereafter, we call a wireless communication link between
towers i and j as link (i, j). The channel quality of link (i, j)
at time t, denoted by gij (t), consists of a large-scale path loss
and a small-scale fading
(2) 2
gij (t) = ḡij (t) hij (t) ,
In graph G, the established links are assumed to operate
in different frequency channels in the unlicensed band. That
is, there is no interference between them when transmitting
data simultaneously. This assumption is reasonable because,
in 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, there are enough non-overlapping
channels. Further, along a path, each link is shared to
support multiple traffic flows in a time-division multiple
access (TDMA) manner, as illustrated in Figure 2. For this,
the time is divided into time slots, which are organized into
periodic TDMA frames. Each time slot is fitted to transmit a
Lpac
packet of size Lpac , that is, Ts = rmin , and each TDMA frame
has a fixed duration of Tf . We set thej lengthkof a TDMA frame
as Tf = δTs , where δ is set to δ = min
r Tf
Lpac .
For reliable data transmissions from each tower to a control
(3)
where ḡij (t) and hij (t) are the large-scale and small-scale
components of the channel, respectively. We assume that
all towers in the same power transmission line are in the
line-of-sight (LoS) of each other. Regarding the large-scale
path loss, we adopt a simple model in which the path loss
is a function of the distance between two towers dij and a
path-loss exponent η as follows:
 η
dij
ḡij (t) = κ , (4)
d0
where κ is the unitless constant depending on factors such
as antenna characteristics, and d0 is the close-in reference
distance. We consider the free-space propagation model in
which η = 2 and κ = GT GR µ2 , where GT and GR are the
2

center, we adopted FC-based transmission [21]. Under the (4πd0 ) L

FC-based transmission, a transmitter sends coded packets antenna gains of the transmitter and receiver, respectively; µ
with a predetermined redundancy over a simplex link, and a is the carrier wavelength in meters, and L ≥ 1 is the system
receiver checks each received packet; it discards packets with loss factor that is not related to propagation.
error, until the necessary degree of freedom for successful Concerning multi-path fading, we adopt Rician fading
decoding is achieved, or packet transmission is finished at because of the LoS nature of the considered communication
the transmitter. More specifically, the original traffic flow channel. Thus, the probability density function (PDF) of the
Linfo (in bits) generated at each tower for transmission line small-scale coefficient can be presented as
monitoring is divided into M packets with a fixed size Lpac = hij hij 2 + sij 2
!
hij sij
!
Linfo
,


0 frice hij = 2 exp − I0 (5)
M (in bits). Then, it is encoded into Mij ≥ M packets σij 2σij2 σij2
for link (i, j) by applying FC, and they are transmitted via
link (i, j) (i.e., from tower i to tower j). The receiver can where sij and 2σij2 are the specular amplitude and average
successfully decode the original traffic flow if and only if power of the non-LoS multipath components of link (i, j),
M out of packets Mij 0 are successfully decoded regardless respectively, and I0 (·) is the zero-order modified Bessel func-
of the order of packet transmission. Note that the number tion [22]. Finally, when monitoring data are transmitted from
of encoded packets Mij 0 ∈ M , M 0 max can vary depending
 
tower i to tower j over the Rician fading channel, the bit
on the channel quality of the chosen link and time instance error probability denoted by eij for conventional (two-symbol
to seamlessly guarantee the required communication QoS observation) differentially coherent detection of DBPSK is
constraint, where Mmax 0 is the maximum allowable number presented by [23]
of encoded packets for a traffic flow. It is assumed that,
Kij γij
   
in a TDMA frame of each tower, only one time slot is 1 1 + Kij
eij = exp − , (6)
allocated for the traffic flow of each tower. As such, at each 2 1 + Kij + γij 1 + Kij + γij

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 H. Shin et al.: Robust Online Overhead Transmission Line Monitoring With Cost Efficiency

where Kij denotes the Rician K-factor, which is defined as the
s2ij
ratio of specular to defuse energies, that is, . Because each
2σij2
link is assumed to exploit a separate channel in the unlicensed
band, we do not consider interference from other relays.
branch-and-bound, described in Algorithm 1, to find the solu-
tion to (8). Algorithm 1 utilizes the characteristic of increas-
ing function, which makes it possible to find the solution
faster. In Algorithm 1, ε is the maximal tolerable error; P̂ is
Pij in the previous iteration, and d·e is the ceiling function.

IV. QOS METRICS OF WSNs FOR OVERHEAD POWER

TRANSMISSION LINE MONITORING Algorithm 1: Optimal Mij 0 Decision Algorithm for Suc-
In this section, we derive three different types of communica- cessful FC-Based Transmission Among Towers
Input: M , Mmax 0 , P∗ , and ε.
tion QoS metrics of WSNs (e.g., reliability, delay, and robust- 1
ness) required for robust online overhead power transmission 2 Initialize the searching range of branch-and-bound
line monitoring. method M̄min , M̄max as M̄min = M and
M̄max = Mmax 0 .

A. COMMUNICATION QoS #1: SUCCESSFUL FC-BASED 3 Initialize the temporal memory P̂ = 0.

TRANSMISSION PROBABILITY 4 while do
Let βij be the successful packet transmission probability 5 Set m as the middle of the searching range, i.e.,

L
of link (i, j). With (6), βij is defined as βij = 1 − eij pac . m = M̄min +2 M̄max .
As such, we can define the probability of successful FC-based 6 With (7), compute the probability of successful
transmission of link (i, j), which is the probability of receiving FC-based transmission of link (i, j) under a given
at least M packets when sending Mij 0 packets, as follows: m, i.e., Pij (m).
7 if Pij (m) ≤ P∗ then
Mij 0 
Mij 0 Change the searching range as

X
M 0 −m 8
0
βijm 1 − βij ij .


Pij Mij = (7)
m M̄min = M̄min +2 M̄max and M̄max = M̄max .
m=M
9 else
Note that, because Mij 0 in (7) is a discrete variable, it is 10 Change the searching range as M̄min = M̄min and
difficult to prove the characteristic of function (7) in a
M̄max = M̄min +2 M̄max ;
mathematical way. Instead, we identify it through numerical
11 end
simulations.  
if Pij (m) − P̂ ≤ ε then
 
12
Through the simulations, it is identified that as the num-
ber of Mij 0 increases, the probability of successful FC-based 13 Terminate Algorithm 1;
transmission increases. That is, (7) is an increasing function 14 end
with respect to Mij 0 . In contrast, an increase in Mij 0 will 15 Set P̂ = Pij (m)
lead to an increase in the total transmission time required to 16 end
successfully deliver the original M packets between towers i 17 return: Mij 0 = dme
and j. Thus, it is necessary to find the minimum Mij 0 for all
the established links L, which satisfies the communication
reliability condition: the probability of successful FC-based
B. COMMUNICATION QOS #2: END-TO-END DELAY OF
transmission between two linked towers should be larger than
FC-BASED TRANSMISSION
the pre-determined level P∗ , which can be formulated as the
following optimization problem: As the first step to compute an end-to-end delay of a traffic
flow produced at each tower, we derive the per-link delay
min Mij 0 of link (i, j), denoted by τij , under the given Mij 0 . When
lij ∈L
transmitting the arriving packets at tower i, the first packet
s, t, P Mij 0 ≥ P∗ .


(8) may need to wait until the start of the next TDMA frame.
This waiting time is a random variable following a uniform
Because the optimization problem (8) involves integer pro-  
gramming, we can choose one of the various methods such as distribution within the range 0, Tf , such that the average
T
branch-and-bound, cutting-plane, and group-theoretic tech- waiting time is determined as 2f . Then, we can express the
niques introduced in [24] to achieve a solution to the prob- per-link delay of link (i, j) to transmit Mij 0 as
lem. In this work, we adopt the branch-and-bound method,
τij Mij 0


which is essentially a strategy of ‘‘divide and conquer.’’
The idea of the method is to partition the feasible region δ  
Tf X 1 Lpac
+ Mij 0 − 1 Tf + (i − 1) Ts + , (9)


into more manageable subdivisions and then, if required, =
2 δ rij
further partition the subdivisions. Generally, there are a i=1
number of ways to divide the feasible region; as a conse- where rij ≥ rmin is the achievable data rate of link (i, j). In the
quence, there are a number of branch-and-bound algorithms. equation, the first, second, and last represent the average
We adopt an optimal Mij 0 decision algorithm based on waiting time and transmission time of Mij 0 −1 packets, and the

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H. Shin et al.: Robust Online Overhead Transmission Line Monitoring With Cost Efficiency
average transmission time of the last packet. Through some
manipulations, (9) can be rewritten as

Tf Lpac Ts (δ − 1)
τij Mij 0 = + Mij 0 − 1 Tf + . (10)


+ its WAN module to transmit only its own data. This approach
2 rij 2
We define a path pi as a loop-free sequence of concatenated
links from tower i to the control center, such that it can be
presented as follows:
pi = lij , ljk , . . . , lq|N |

(11)
With (10) and (11), we finally present the end-to-end delay
to transmit the packets from tower i to the control center under
a given path pi as follows:
X constraints defined in (8), (13), and (14):
Di (pi ) = τij . (12)
lij ∈pi
Thus, we can set the communication relay condition that
the end-to-end delay of tower i should be smaller than the
pre-determined level D∗ as follows:
Di (pi ) ≤ D∗ .
C. COMMUNICATION QOS #3: ROBUSTNESS
Depending on the network topology, there may exist mul-
tiple paths between two nodes. In particular, we refer to
node-disjoint paths if they do not have any common inter-
mediate node.
In our context, robustness stands for securing multiple
disjoint-paths between each tower and its destination (i.e.
substation), which satisfy the predetermined end-to-end delay
requirement D∗ . Securing multiple disjoint-paths enables
seamless data transmission between them, in the event of
sudden failure of specific links along a chosen path for a
variety of reasons, such as physical equipment failure and
severe interference from other wireless networks. For exam-
ple, by sending the same information of a tower via different
node-disjoint paths, the receiver can have a greater degree of
freedom when decoding the information for each tower.
Let Ri be the set of all node-disjoint paths between tower
i and the control center. Then, we can set the robustness
constraint that the number of node-disjoint paths between
tower i and the control center denoted by |Ri | should be larger
than the pre-determined level R∗ :
|Ri | ≥ R∗ .
V. PROBLEM FORMULATION AND ITS SOLUTION
A. PROBLEM FORMULATION
We define xi , i ∈ N \ |N | as a binary variable with value 1
if the WAN module at tower i is activated, and 0 otherwise.
We assume that, if the WAN module at tower i is activated,
it directly transmits the original M packets (without FC)
to the control center via a WAN link, but it can still be
utilized as a relay to transfer the packets from other towers
via non-WAN links. More specifically, a tower not having
available time slots within its TDMA frame because of the
packet transmission of other towers activates its WAN module
VOLUME 9, 2021
to transmit only its own data. However, it does not activate its
WAN module to transmit other towers’ packets, even though
there is no available time slot. That is, each tower can activate
is reasonable because data transmission via WAN links, such
as satellite and cellular links, obviously increases monetary
cost as more information is sent. In addition, if xi = 1,
the communication QoS and robustness requirements are
assumed to be satisfied because WAN links are controlled
through radio resource management at a centralized entity to
satisfy user requirements.
We aim to minimize the number of activated WAN modules
installed at towers while satisfying all communication QoS
X
min xi
x
x∈N
s.t. Pij ≥ P∗ ,
Di ≤ D∗ ,
(13) |Ri | ≥ R∗ ,
xi ∈ {0, 1} , (15)
where x = x1 , x2 , . . . , x|N −1| is the set of binary variables
 
xi for all towers except for virtual tower |N |.
B. PROPOSED ALGORITHM
The optimization problem (15) with a set of variables
x belongs to the class of nonlinear integer programming
problems. As such, to achieve an optimal solution of the
problem (15), a variety of global optimization techniques
may be adopted, which were introduced in [25]. In practice,
however, their use is limited because they cannot find the
optimal solution of the problem (15) in real time. But we need
the real-time solution of the problem according to the changes
in channel qualities between towers in graph G.
Instead of finding the optimal solution of the problem (15),
we propose an algorithm to find a suboptimal solution, which
is called the PDFT algorithm. The proposed PDFT algorithm
is described in Algorithm 2. Under the proposed PDFT algo-
rithm, to send monitoring information to the control center,
each tower sequentially determines its paths guaranteeing
the considered communication QoS constraints. A tower that
cannot satisfy the constraints should turn on its WAN module.
(14) The key idea of PDFT is that paths (i.e., whether to use
the WAN module) are sequentially determined in the order
of towers farthest from the control center. This is because,
when solving the problem (15), the main difficulty is to
satisfy the end-to-end delay constraint described in (13).
For instance, although there are enough time slots avail-
able at each link along a candidate path, if the end-to-end
delay constraint is not satisfied, the WAN module should
be turned on. This phenomenon is more likely to occur as
towers get farther from the control center. Thus, by checking
the communication QoS constraints in the order of towers
farthest from the control center, PDFT can perfectly sat-
isfy the communication QoS constraints even though it is
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 H. Shin et al.: Robust Online Overhead Transmission Line Monitoring With Cost Efficiency
Algorithm 2: Proposed PDFT Algorithm
Input: G, P∗ , D∗ , R∗ , rmin , M , Mmax0 , ε, and L
1 info .
2 Determine the available links of G satisfying rij ≥ rmin ;
3 Compute the minimum Mij 0 for available links with
Algorithm 1;
4 Under given Mij 0 , compute the per-link delay of
FC-based transmission for available links with (10),
which is used as the weight of link in G;
5 Initialize i = 0. repeat
6 Update i = i + 1;
7 Execute Dijkstra’s algorithm [26] to find path pi with
minimal end-to-end delay in weighted graph G;
8 if Di (pi ) ≥ D∗ then
9 Set xi = 1;
10 Terminate this iteration for tower i.
11 end
12 while |Ri | < R∗ do
13 Update the remaining δij along path pi ;
14 Remove links without remaining time slots.
Remove intermediate nodes consisting of pi
from graph G;
15 Execute the same procedure as in line 7;
16 if Di (pi ) ≥ D∗ then
17 Set xi = 1;
18 Restore all time slots and links (removed at
lines 13 and 14) due to the utilization of
tower i;
19 Terminate this iteration for tower i;
20 end
21 end
22 until i = |N − 1|;
23 return: x = x1 , x2 , . . . , x|N −1|
 (15). Table 4 shows performance comparison between the
a heuristic algorithm. Through PDFT, we can significantly
reduce the computational time required to find a solution for
(15). More importantly, the paths found by PDFT have no
significant performance difference as compared to those iden-
tified by an optimal-solution algorithm, i.e., the full-search
algorithm.
C. COMPLEXITY ANALYSIS
The computational complexity of the proposed PDFT algo-
rithm can be written in the Big-O notation [27]. First,
the computational complexity for finding a path from one
node to the substation is O(|N | |p|), where |N | is the number
of all nodes in the transmission line and |p| is the number
of nodes constituting the path. Then, the above computation
with complexity O(|N | |p|) is repeatedly needed until total R∗
node-disjoint paths satisfying D∗ secures for a tower, such
that its computational complexity is O(|N | |p| R∗ ). Finally,
total |N − 1| iterations of the computation with complexity
O(|N | |p| R∗ ) are required to find total R∗ node-disjoint paths
satisfying D∗ for all towers, such that the computational com-
plexity of the proposed PDFT algorithm is O(|N |2 |p| |R|).
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TABLE 3. Parameter configuration.
VI. PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS
We have conducted extensive performance evaluations to
identify the validity of the proposed algorithm, by comparing
its performance with those of baseline algorithms introduced
in this section. Table 3 shows the typical values of parameters
used in our performance evaluation. We set the packet size
and packet arrival rate same as per-tower traffic rate stated in
Section III, which follows the realistic traffic model in [18].
To identify the validity of the proposed algorithm through
experimental verification, we have configured a linear net-
work topology with a substation at only one end, by using
public topological and geometrical information of an actual
national power grid in Miryang-si, Korea, which is illustrated
in Figure 1.
First, we check how close the solution of the proposed
PDFT algorithm is to that of an optimal-solution algorithm,
i.e., a full-search algorithm, in solving optimization problem
proposed and the optimal-solution algorithms, according to
a change in the number of towers along a transmission line
(i.e., |N |) and communication QoS requirements (i.e., D∗ and
Q∗ ). In the table, ‘‘Solution list’’ refers to a list of integer
numbers indexing respective towers that activate its WAN
module. For instance, in case of |N | = 18, D∗ = 300ms,
Q∗ = 99.995 % of Table 4, the proposed PDFT algorithm
activates WAN modules at towers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 14 and 16,
whereas the optimal-solution algorithm makes the activation
of WAN modules at towers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 14 and 17.
From Table 4, it is identified that two algorithms can pro-
duce different solution lists, even though they satisfy all the
communication QoSs. The optimal-solution algorithm finds
an optimal solution of problem (15) by sequentially checking
all feasible solutions for the problem. If multiple solutions
satisfying all the requirements are found, the optimal-solution
algorithm recognizes the solution found for the first time
as an optimal-solution. Compared with the optimal-solution
algorithm, the proposed PDFT algorithm does not search the
entire solution space to find the solution of problem (15),
as described in Algorithm 1. Moreover, it is identified that,
although solution lists might be different, total number of
towers activating WAN module are almost same between two
algorithms. On the other hand, Table 4 presents significant
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TABLE 4. Performance comparisons between the proposed and optimal-solution algorithms.

FIGURE 3. Computational times until finding the solution of (15) under a

change in |N |.

performance difference in terms of computation time, which

measures elapsed time to find the solution of problem (15)
under a chosen algorithm. For example, as the number of
towers |N | increases from 12 to 18, the computational time
for the optimal-solution algorithm increases from 2.78 to
275.41 sec, whereas the proposed PDFT algorithm has a
slight difference in computational time even if the number of
towers N increases. Such performance difference is clearly
illustrated in Figure 3.
Figure 3 illustrates the computational times under a
change in the number of towers |N |. For performance
comparison, we compare the performance of the proposed
PDFT algorithm with that of the full-search algorithm [25] FIGURE 4. Performance comparison between the proposed and the
optimal-solution algorithms.
which finds an optimal-solution of the problem (15).
Hereafter, the full-search algorithm is also referred as
the optimal-solution algorithm, interchangeably. Further, This is because, as |N | increases, the size of all feasible
in the proposed PDFT algorithm described Algorithm 2, solutions for the optimal-solution algorithm exponentially
we adopt Dijkstra’s algorithm to find a path with minimal increases in the scale of 2|N | . Also, Figure 3 shows that
end-to-end delay under graph G. To identify the validity under the proposed algorithm, adopting Dijkstra’s algorithm
of using Dijkstra’s algorithm in the proposed algorithm, in the proposed algorithm performs better than other existing
we compare the performance of the proposed algorithm path-decision algorithms, which can contribute to additional
with that adopting other algorithms, e.g., Genetic algo- reduction in computational time.
rithm [28] and Path-Decision provided in Matlab (PD-M) Figure 4 presents performances in terms of total number
algorithm [29]. From Figure 3, it is identified that as |N | of towers with activated WAN communication module under
increases, the computational time of optimal-solution algo- a change in |N | and communication QoS requirements (i.e.,
rithm increases incomparably with that of the proposed PDFT D∗ and Q∗ ). From the results in Figure 4, we would like to
algorithm, regardless of chosen path-decision algorithms. describe two observations. Firstly, in Figure 4, regardless of

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 H. Shin et al.: Robust Online Overhead Transmission Line Monitoring With Cost Efficiency

FIGURE 5. The location of towers activating WAN modules.

chosen algorithms, as |N | increases, the number of towers

with activated WAN module almost linearly increases. This
is because the increase in |N | indicates the increase in the
total amount of traffic in the network, which is transmitted
to a control center. This makes it difficult to simultaneously
guarantee diverse communication QoS requirements for all
towers without the help of WAN. As such, more towers need
to activate their WAN modules to guarantee the requirements.
Secondly, Figure 4 shows that, regardless of a change in |N |,
D∗ , and Q∗ , the performance (i.e., total number of towers
activating WAN module) of the proposed PDFT algorithm
is almost identical to that of optimal-solution algorithm,
while satisfying all the communication QoS requirements.
More specifically, in the considered simulation environment,
the number of towers with activated WAN module between
FIGURE 6. Plot of maximum delays among all towers achieved by the
the proposed PDFT and the optimal-solution algorithms is proposed algorithm.
same, even though the specific locations of such towers
along the power transmission line may be different. Whereas,
as illustrated in Figure 3, the difference in the computation increase in the number of towers |N | (i.e., an increase in the
times until finding the solution of (15) between them is total amount of traffic) in the network. From Figure 6, it is
significant. Therefore, we can conclude that the proposed identified that the proposed PDFT algorithm can meet the
PDFT algorithm is more practical than the optimal-solution end-to-end delay requirement D∗ regardless of a change in
algorithm, when deciding which tower’s WAN module to |N |. More specifically, in case of D∗ = 400 ms, the maximal
active for robust online power transmission line monitoring end-to-end delay among towers, achieved by the proposed
under fast time-varying wireless channel scenario. PDFT algorithm, increases until |N | = 16 and then maintains
Figure 5 shows the locations of towers activating WAN it under 400 ms. This is because until |N | = 16, the num-
module under different D∗ and Q∗ . Figure 5 shows that, ber of towers activating WAN modules is same, such that
in case of D∗ = 200 ms, towers located at the beginning the maximal end-to-end delay increases as |N | increases.
of transmission line activate their WAN modules. Whereas, Whereas, after |N | = 16, additional towers increase the
in case of D∗ = 300 ms, some of towers at the end of amount of network traffic, and cause an increase in delay.
the transmission line activate their WAN modules. This is In face of such escalating delay, the PDFT algorithm dynam-
because as D∗ is tight, towers that are relatively far from the ically activates WAN modules at more towers and maintain
control center cannot satisfy the end-to-end delay require- the maximum delay below the threshold D∗ . This is indeed
ment regardless of the design of the path, without their WAN a confirmation of the PDFT’s capability in meeting stringent
module activations. QoS requirements.
Figure 6 shows the maximum end-to-end delay achieved
among the considered towers. What we identify from Figure 6 VII. CONCLUSION
is that whether the proposed PDFT algorithm can satisfy For robust online transmission line monitoring, we proposed
the end-to-end delay requirement (i.e., D∗ ) regardless of an the PDFT algorithm that minimizes the total number of

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H. Shin et al.: Robust Online Overhead Transmission Line Monitoring With Cost Efficiency
activated WAN modules on towers, while guaranteeing three
communication QoS requirements. Performance evaluations
illustrated that even though the proposed algorithm finds
a sub-optimal solution, it satisfies all the considered QoS
requirements. Further, the proposed PDFT algorithm signifi-
cantly reduced computational time in finding a solution of the
problem without a big difference in the number of activated
WAN modules, compared with the full-search algorithm that
finds an optimal solution of the problem.
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HUICHEOL SHIN (Student Member, IEEE)
received the master’s degree in engineering from
Korea Maritime and Ocean University (KMOU),
South Korea, in 2021. Since 2018, he has been
conducting research on maritime communication
with the Maritime ICT Research and Develop-
ment Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science
and Technology (KIOST). His research interests
include the establishment and analysis of commu-
nication networks in marine/underwater and smart
grid communication.
YUJAE SONG (Member, IEEE) received the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from the Korea
Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
(KAIST), South Korea, in 2016. He was a Visit-
ing Scholar in communication systems with KTH
Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, in 2015.
Since 2016, he has been a Senior Researcher
with the Maritime ICT Research and Develop-
ment Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and
Technology. His research interests include design,
analysis, and optimization of various wireless communication systems,
including 5G, maritime/underwater, and smart grid communications.
PENG-YONG KONG (Senior Member, IEEE)
received the B.Eng. degree (Hons.) in electrical
and electronic engineering from Universiti Sains
Malaysia, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and
computer engineering from the National Univer-
sity of Singapore. He was an Adjunct Assis-
tant Professor with the Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering, National University
of Singapore. He was a Research Scientist with
the Institute for Infocomm Research, Agency for
Science, Technology and Research, Singapore. He was an Engineer with
Intel, Malaysia. He is currently an Associate Professor with the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates. His research interests include the broad area of
computer and communication networks and cyber-physical systems.
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