A survey on guaranteeing availability in smart grid communications

Availability is the most important security objective in smart grid communications. In this paper, we present a review of the work related to guaranteeing availability in smart grid communications. The work reviewed is separated into three categories: defences against attacks, guarantee of critical real-time systems, and extension of communications availability. Because of significance of providing the seamless service from electrical power systems, defences against various attacks, i.e., false data injection attacks in smart grid have been researched. Moreover, the critical real-time systems in the smart grid require very short estimated maximum latency, i.e., 4 milliseconds. These systems continuously monitor the state of the electrical power grid, and a disruption in communications can cause a loss of power. Such delay-sensitive traffic should be guaranteed for the minimum latency. To increase availability of communications in smart grid, network architecture using cognitive radio technologies has been designed. Lastly, we suggest the open research issues for guaranteeing the availability in smart grid.