Secure Communication Networks in the Advanced Metering Infrastructure of Smart Grid

[Abstract] In this paper, a security protocol for the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in smart grid is proposed. Through the AMI, customers and the service provider achieve two⁃way communication. Real⁃time monitoring and demand response can be applied because of the information exchanged. Since the information contains much privacy of the customer, and the control messages need to be authenticated, security needs to be ensured for the communication in the AMI. Due to the complicated network structure of the AMI, the asymmetric communications, and various security requirements, existing security protocols for other networks can hardly be applied into the AMI directly. Therefore, a security protocol specifically for the AMI to meet the security requirements is proposed. Our proposed security protocol includes initial authentication, secure uplink data aggregation, secure downlink data transmission, and domain secrets update. Compared with existing researches in related areas, our proposed security protocol takes the asymmetric communications of the AMI and various security requirements in smart grid into consideration.

[Keywords] smart grid; advanced metering infrastructure; network security; privacy