Bit masking based secure data aggregation technique for Advanced Metering Infrastructure in Smart Grid system

A Smart Grid consists of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU), communication network, etc along with traditional grid equipment to deliver power with minimum disturbances. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is a core component of smart grid that supports various applications like collecting meter reading, monitoring, on-demand applications, etc. It depends on communication network for its appropriate functioning. As like other communication networks, AMI communication network also suffer from various cyber security threats. A security framework is needed for secure communication of data and control messages. Existing security algorithms are not suitable for smart grid data communication because of their large execution time and the requirement of more memory. In this paper, a security framework is proposed using bit masking technique for collecting the smart meter data in AMI communication. The proposed scheme provides trust services, confidentiality and integrity through data encryption and authentication services. The proposed scheme is simulated in Matlab Simulink to evaluate its performance in terms of speed and memory requirement and is compared with the widely used AES algorithm. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme is most suitable for wireless mesh network of AMI communication, and its performance is better than AES algorithm.