An identity-based secure communication scheme for advanced metering infrastructure in smart grid

Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is designed to collect power consumption information of households for the utility companies and provide real-time price for customers to allow them make informed choices about energy usage. As AMI is a key component in smart grid, cyber security should be considered prior to the AMI system applications to ensure reliable and secure operations of smart grid. This paper proposes an identity-based secure communication scheme for AMI. In our proposed scheme, the limited computing ability of the smart appliances in AMI is considered as well. Furthermore, we specify an identity-based key updating protocol to periodically refresh all public/private key pairs. Our proposed scheme is an easy-to-deploy solution for AMI systems.