Lightweight Authentication and Key Agreement for Smart Metering in Smart Energy Networks

Abstract

Smart meters (SMs) are considered as foundational part of the smart metering infrastructure (SMI) in smart energy networks (SENs). SM is a digital device that makes use of two-way communication between consumer and utility to exchange, manage and control energy consumptions within a home. However, despite all the features, an SM raises several security-related concerns. For instance, how to exchange data between the legal entities (e.g., SM and utility server) while maintaining privacy of the consumer. To address these concerns, authentication and key agreement in SMI can provide important security properties that not only to maintain a trust between the legitimate entities but also to satisfy other security services. This work presents a lightweight authentication and key agreement that enables trust, anonymity, integrity and adequate security in the domain of SEN. The proposed scheme employs hybrid cryptography to facilitate mutual trust (authentication), dynamic session key, integrity, and anonymity. We justify the feasibility of the proposed scheme with a test-bed using 802.15.4 based device (i.e., SM). Moreover, through the security and performance analysis, we show that the proposed scheme is more effective and energy efficient compared to the previous schemes.