Strong authentication countermeasures using dynamic keying for sinkhole and distance spoofing attacks in smart grid networks

This paper presents a proposal to provide secure communications in smart grid / utility metering networks using RPL (Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks). The RPL protocol provides optimal routing performance in some wireless sensor networks and may become a strong standard in utility metering networks. However, the protocol does have numerous security flaws which should be addressed prior to its use in critical infrastructure such as automated metering infrastructure (AMI). Among those flaws, this paper examines the sinkhole and distance spoofing attacks; in addition, it proposes modifications to RPL addressing routing vulnerabilities, including using node-to-node encrypted authentication with dynamically served encryption keys and key-compromising detection using data mining. Simulation results show that the proposed resolution provides good performance characteristics for use in utility grid networks.