In this paper we present a QoS-aware solution to manage heterogeneous wireless and Broadband PLC communications infrastructures for Smart Electricity Networks (SENs). The proposal is related to the framework of the ITU Next Generation Network of the ITU and it is based on a QoS Broker architecture. This paper explains how QoS capabilities of different transport technologies are leveraged to attain end-to-end QoS and how it is used in the case of PLC plus IEEE 802.11e networks. This architecture will allow for better managing of the QoS in the SEN domains and it should facilitate the interoperability with other technologies.

This paper presents a first approach to a new QoS aware routing suitable for wireless and wired ad-hoc networks. The proposed algorithm is based on artificial intelligent techniques. Actually, it is a merge between a genetic algorithm and the TBR (ticket based routing) algorithm. A better TBR performance is pursued in order to use the result in ubiquitous sensor access networks. It has been necessary to choose a routing protocol as a starting point and to define how artificial intelligent techniques will be applied in order to improve the overall performance. The resulting algorithm is an evolution of TBR, an on-demand routing protocol for ad-hoc networks that provides quality of service. The performance of TBR has been improved by reducing the load of routing packets in the network and by minimizing the communication latency due to its on-demand behavior. Moreover, with the genetic algorithm, the likelihood of finding the route optimum using several metrics has been increased. The main goal is the implementation of an approach that will make possible a future formal specification of evolutionary routing algorithm for USN. In this paper, first simulation results are presented. Moreover, the chromosome coding, crossover and mutation operators and the fitness evaluation formula are described.

The present paper presents a Markov chain model of polling in noisy multi-hop systems typical of power line communications (PLC) as well as of other systems. The model includes the transmission of a backwards error indication packet (BEIP) to the master when the transmission is blocked in one of the downstream hops as well as the possibility to reduce the global time-out value below that strictly necessary to avoid having two simultaneous polls within the system. Two case studies are presented; the OPERA PLC access broadband specification and a narrow band PLC based automatic meter reading (AMR) system. Explicit formulas for the delay in these systems and curves representing the behavior of the studied cases are given.