Blockchain-Based Anonymous Authentication With Key Management for Smart Grid Edge Computing Infrastructure

Achieving low latency and providing real-time services are two of several key challenges in conventional cloud-based smart grid systems, and hence, there has been an increasing trend of moving to edge computing. While there have been a number of cryptographic protocols designed to facilitate secure communications in smart grid systems, existing protocols generally do not support conditional anonymity and flexible key management. Thus, in this article, we introduce a blockchain-based mutual authentication and key agreement protocol for edge-computing-based smart grid systems. Specifically, leveraging blockchain, the protocol can support efficient conditional anonymity and key management, without the need for other complex cryptographic primitives. The security analysis shows that the protocol achieves reasonable security assurance, and the comparative summary for security and efficiency also suggests the potential of the proposed protocol in a smart grid deployment.