An emerging class of wireless networks, named embedded wireless sensor and actuator networks has potential benefits for real-time monitoring and control of power system infrastructure. Monitoring and control applications have stringent requirements on reliability, delay and security. The use of wireless technologies to meet monitoring and control application requirements is a challenge. This is because wireless media is highly unpredictable due to path loss, shadow fading and ambient noise. This book assesses the impact of harsh power system environment on reliable and timely information exchange in wireless sensor systems. A combined networking and information theoretic approach is used to assess the impact of impulsive noise on the capacity and data transfer reliability in wireless sensor systems. A channel- aware optimal slot allocation scheme that ensures efficient utilization of the wireless link and guarantee delay is also developed.