Key management scheme for wireless sensor networks in advanced metering infrastructure

The advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is a key component part of the smart grid, and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are playing an increasingly important role in AMI. Cyber security is the prerequisite to ensure reliable operation of AMI. To guarantee communication security of WSNs in AMI, this paper proposes a key management scheme based on the elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). According to the ways of information transmission in AMI, the scheme is categorized as key management processes of unicast communication and multicast communication. In the scheme, the selection of elliptic curve, the calculation of ECC public and private keys in each sensor node, and the establishment, distribution and update of the keys in unicast communication and multicast communication are elaborated. The analysis results show that the proposed key management scheme is secure, and consumes less memory and energy. Thus the demands of AMI on communication security can be satisfied.