Lightweight security protocols for smart metering

Some of the application layer protocols being specified for constrained sensor network environment run over User Datagram Protocol (UDP) protocol. Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) is used to protect information being exchanged via these protocols. In several cases, it is desirable to intercept data being exchanged between a sensing device (such as smart meter or a temperature sensor) and a utility company, at an intermediate gateway and take certain decisions there. As large number of devices may contact such a gateway and many of these devices may be using wireless access technologies to communicate with gateway, it is desirable to reduce communication overhead across these wireless interfaces. As some of the end devices, such as temperature sensors installed in a building, may also have limited processing capability, it is also desirable to have lightweight security mechanisms for such devices. This paper proposes lightweight DTLS based security protocols for customer domain of the smart grid.