  Technical advances in ubiquitous sensing, embedded computing, and wireless
communication are leading to a new generation of engineered systems called
cyber-physical systems (CPS). CPS promises to transform the way we interact
with the physical world just as the Internet transformed how we interact with
one another. Before this vision becomes a reality, however, a large number of
challenges have to be addressed. Network quality of service (QoS) management in
this new realm is among those issues that deserve extensive research efforts.
It is envisioned that wireless sensor/actuator networks (WSANs) will play an
essential role in CPS. This paper examines the main characteristics of WSANs
and the requirements of QoS provisioning in the context of cyber-physical
computing. Several research topics and challenges are identified. As a sample
solution, a feedback scheduling framework is proposed to tackle some of the
identified challenges. A simple example is also presented that illustrates the
effectiveness of the proposed solution.
