Secure transfer of measurement data in open systems

The liberalization of different markets which are liable to legal metrology accelerates the need for transferring measuring data over open networks. This increases the involvement of communication technology in measuring systems and raises new security threats in legal metrology. The goal of the SELMA (Secure ELectronic Measurement dAta exchange) project is to create technical procedures according to legal requirements which ensure the secure transfer of measured energy data from decentralized meters to the authorized users via open networks. This paper gives an overall view of the research project SELMA and the developed concepts and technologies. The security architecture is presented and the standards and interfaces are described which were specified and afterwards used to implement and deploy a large-scale field trial. SELMA has developed a security architecture to establish trust in the electronic transfer of data from the meter to data acquisition systems and further to the customers. The introduced security mechanisms are based on asymmetric cryptography and more specifically on digital signatures that enable the signed measurement data to be verified and authenticated in conjunction with a suitable key management. Particular security units have been created that contain the necessary security mechanisms. The SELMA architecture represents a best practice solution of strong cryptographic mechanisms to secure a wide range of metrology applications and is compatible with appropriate European directives and guidelines.