<i>ERMAP</i>: ECC-based robust mutual authentication protocol for smart grid communication with AVISPA simulations

Abstract

Veracious new architectures and authentication protocols have been proposed by researchers to provide better security solutions for smart grid application. This paper analyses and discusses the limitations of the pairing-based authentication protocol proposed by Khalid Mahmood and others. It also proposes an ECC-based robust mutual authentication protocol for smart grid communication with AVISPA simulations called ERMAP that overcomes the limitations of Khalid Mahmood and others authentication protocol. ERMAP does authentication between end-user (Ui) and the smart meter (SMe) along with the authentication between service provider (SPr) and the SMe to add the security strength, which is not done by most of the authentication techniques used in smart grid systems. A formal model of ERMAP protocol has been implemented in the AVISPA tool using high-level protocol specification language (HLPSL). Also the results show better security strength. (SMe) theft issue, DOS attack, and other related attacks are addressed by ERMAP that are essential now a day, but not supported by many of the authentication techniques used in smart grid systems. ERMAP protocol does not need an extra supporting system to ensure (SMe) security. Computation cost and communication overhead of ERMAP is considerably less when compared with most of the other related authentication techniques.