An enhanced public key infrastructure to secure smart grid wireless communication networks

It is expected that the smart grid will radically add new functionalities to legacy electrical power systems. However, we believe that this will in turn introduce many new security risks. With the smart grid´s backbone communication networks and subnetworks, there are possible scenarios when these subnetworks can become vulnerable to attacks. Ensuring security in these networks is challenging because most devices are resource constrained. In addition, different protocols that are used in these networks use their own set of security requirements. In this article, the security requirements of smart grid communication networks are firstly identified. We then point out that although public key infrastructure (PKI) is a viable solution, it has some difficulties to satisfy the requirements in availability, privacy preservation, and scalability. To complement the functions of PKI, we introduce some novel mechanisms so that those security requirements can be met. In particular, we propose a mechanism to efficiently resist Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, and some suggestions to the security protocol design for different application categories.