An Efficient and Secure Multidimensional Data Aggregation for Fog-Computing-Based Smart Grid

Abstract

The secure multidimensional data aggregation (MDA) has been widely investigated in smart grid for smart cities. However, previous proposals use heavy computation operations either to encrypt or to decrypt the multidimensional data. Moreover, previous fault-tolerant mechanisms lead to an important computation cost, and also a high communication cost when considering a separate identification phase. In this article, we propose an efficient and secure MDA scheme, named ESMA. Unlike existing schemes, the multidimensional data in ESMA are structured and encrypted into a single Paillier ciphertext and thereafter, the data are efficiently decrypted. For privacy preserving, the Paillier cryptosystem is adopted in a fog computing-based architecture, and to achieve efficient authentication, the batch verification technique is applied. Besides, ESMA is fault tolerant, i.e., even if some of the smart meters fail to send their data, the final aggregation result will not be affected. Furthermore, ESMA can be adapted to respond to other queries than the summation of data. The performance analysis demonstrates the cost efficiency of ESMA both in computation and communication and the scalability as well. For instance, with a 16-bits size for each data type and 500 reporting smart meters, 40 data types can be supported in a single Paillier ciphertext. ESMA also resists various security attacks and preserves the user's privacy.