Securing RDS broadcast messages for smart grid applications

Efforts to reduce peak electrical demand have led to the introduction of demand response (DR) programmes for residences. DR programmes allow customers to reduce or shift consumption to off-peak periods in response to price signals. The RDS network is a strong candidate for delivering DR messages due to its low-cost nature and ubiquitous coverage. However, security concerns arise due to the wireless nature of the communication channel. We present evaluations of three candidate cryptographic methods that could be employed to offer source authentication over the RDS network: BiBa, HORSE and elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA). We compare the security offered by the protocols, the bandwidth overhead, computational costs and message reception probability. Simulation results show that, up to a distance of 90 km, all authentication schemes do not affect message reception by the receivers. Beyond that, all the schemes have an effect on message reception due to increased message sizes and receiver bootstrapping for BiBa and HORSE. ECDSA and HORSE outperform BiBa in terms of message reception beyond 90 km. ECDSA, however, offers higher security than HORSE and BiBa but at the cost of increased computational complexity, in particular, at the receivers. In addition, has the highest bandwidth overhead.