PUF and ID-based key distribution security framework for advanced metering infrastructures

A major challenge for advanced metering infrastructures is to achieve secure, scalable and efficient communication system between meters and the utility. Traditional identity-based cryptosystems offer scalability and security but can be computationally expensive and are complicated when it comes to private key distribution. In this paper we propose a framework based on merging physical unclonable functions (PUFs) and ID-based authentication that combines the benefits of symmetric-key cryptography with identity based cryptosystems and eliminates the risk for key compromise on the hardware level. The PUF enables meter-to-utility security at the application layer as well as secure handling of the ID-based keys. The framework relies on ID-based non-interactive key distribution mechanism to enable hop-by-hop authentication at the link layer thereby prohibiting unauthenticated packets from overloading the network. We simulated the proposed framework using an event driven network simulator in the context of wireless AMI mesh networks. The results show that our methodology is able to thwart a DoS attack by eliminating packet drops and reducing the average packet latency by 8-14×.