Title: Securing RDS broadcast messages for smart grid applications

Authors: Monageng Kgwadi; Thomas Kunz

Addresses: Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada ' Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada

Abstract: Efforts to reduce peak electrical demand have led to the introduction of demand response (DR) programmes for residences. DR programmes allow customers to reduce or shift consumption to off-peak periods in response to price signals. The RDS network is a strong candidate for delivering DR messages due to its low-cost nature and ubiquitous coverage. However, security concerns arise due to the wireless nature of the communication channel. We present evaluations of three candidate cryptographic methods that could be employed to offer source authentication over the RDS network: BiBa, HORSE and elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA). We compare the security offered by the protocols, the bandwidth overhead, computational costs and message reception probability. Simulation results show that, up to a distance of 90 km, all authentication schemes do not affect message reception by the receivers. Beyond that, all the schemes have an effect on message reception due to increased message sizes and receiver bootstrapping for BiBa and HORSE. ECDSA and HORSE outperform BiBa in terms of message reception beyond 90 km. ECDSA, however, offers higher security than HORSE and BiBa but at the cost of increased computational complexity, in particular, at the receivers. In addition, has the highest bandwidth overhead.

Keywords: smart grid; demand response programmes; source authentication; one-way broadcast networks; performance; bandwidth overhead; BiBa; HORSE; ECDSA; elliptic curve digital signature algorithm; cryptography; security; computational costs; message reception probability; simulation; grid computing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAACS.2011.043480

International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems, 2011 Vol.4 No.4, pp.412 - 426

Published online: 24 Jan 2015 *

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