SELINDA: A secure, scalable and light-weight data collection protocol for smart grids

Security in the smart grid is a challenge as an increasing number of sensors and measurement devices are connected to the power grid. General purpose security protocols are not suitable for providing data security to devices with limited memory, computational power and network connectivity. In this paper, we develop a secure and light-weight scalable security protocol that allows a power system operator (PO) to collect data from measurement devices (MDs) using data collectors (DCs). The security protocol trades off between computations and device memory requirements and provides flexible association between DC and MDs. These features allow data to be securely transferred from MDs to PO via mobile or untrustworthy DCs. We analyze the complexity and security of the protocol and validate its performance using experiments. Our results confirm that our proposed protocol collects data in a secure, fast and efficient manner.

I. Introduction

The proper operation of the smart grid relies on the quality of data collected from a vast number of sensors and measurement devices (MDs). The data collection needs to be efficient and secure in order for smart grids to be economical and dependable. Efficiency and scalability arguably require a hierarchical data collection framework to be adopted [1]. Fig. 1 shows a simplified hierarchical data collection model. Data collectors (DCs) collect data from MDs, and send the data to a control center, typically owned by the power operator (PO). Each DC is responsible for collecting data from multiple MDs, and therefore the PO only needs to communicate with a few DCs directly, keeping the number of connections to maintain manageability.