Introduction to the Issue on Signal and Information Processing for Critical Infrastructures

The papers in this special section focus on the use of signal and information processing for critical infrastructures. Critical infrastructures such as the smart electric power grid, gas and water utility networks, transportation networks, and communication networks are crucially supporting quality of life and economic growth. Future critical infrastructures are envisioned to integrate sensory data acquisition, communication and computation technologies, and signal processing to offer improved services to their end-users. Such an integration promises to have profound effects in improving societal welfare by enabling more efficient, open, consumer-centric, environmentally-friendly and resilient modern critical infrastructures. Thus, the design mantra for the evolution of critical infrastructures can be described, in part, as knowledge is power. At the heart of many technological challenges underlying the vision of evolved critical infrastructures is the need for signal and information processing.