A review on smart grid network security issues over 6LoWPAN

Abstract

With the evolution of the IoT initiative, data security has become of utmost importance, especially in the area of Smart Metering. The data being transferred across the smart Grid contains sensitive information, which, if not protected from the hands of data thieves would pose a serious security threat. The threat would primarily come in form of informed predictions of the lifestyles of their victims i.e. when they watch TV, when they switch off their loads to go to work and so on. Due to this security threats, the network on which this data transfer is performed will have to be secured. The 6LoWPAN is the network on which the metering devices (which are basically low-power, low-processing devices) will communicate with each other and the Data Analysis Module. Since the 6LoWPAN is the IPv6 for low power devices, it inherits the security and privacy functionalities of the IPv6. This paper will be focused on the techniques of protecting the 6LoWPAN from attacks. It will also talk about the different attacks as well as their methods of protection as regards to the Routing Protocol Layer.