A lightweight IPsec‐based energy home area networks

Abstract

The smart grid is a complex architecture that involves several networks to exchange data among smart grid domains. The smart meter communicates with intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) through the home area network (HAN) to improve the energy management inside home. This communication can be vulnerable to significant attacks (eavesdropping, spoofing, replay, etc). In this paper, we propose an adaptive IPsec solution for the energy HAN that considers the constrained computational capacity of the devices and the wide range of IED manufacturer. The goal of the proposed solution is to guarantee confidentiality, authentication, and antireplay in providing end‐user energy efficiency. Simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate the latency and the success rate for HAN low‐latency applications when security is provided by using IPsec. Furthermore, we compare performances of the proposed solution with one of the most supported solution proposed by the ZigBee alliance and called Smart Energy profile.