A 3 Tier Spectrum Management Scheme and Security Assessment in Synchrophasors

The electric utility industries and distributed energy systems heavily relies on internet, as the primary mode of communication to deliver energy related information through interconnected sensors such as Digital Fault Recorders, Synchrophasors or Phasor measurement units (PMU). These sensors communicate in both wireless and wired network to a centralized system. As studied in many literatures, the internet is vulnerable to many cyber threats [1]. There is an immediate need to find solution on spectrum crunch for communication framework and how to defend against cyber-attacks while sustaining energy delivery function specifically carried by Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and Phasor Data concentrators (PDC) [2]. The paper uses the concept of exploiting antenna directivity by assigning the same frequency to all three directions, and thus co-channel isolation will be increased, and eventually reducing the interference and increasing the channel capacity. The paper also discuss the security challenges that are required in existing TCP/IP networks for PMU and PDC devices.