An access control scheme in IoT-enabled Smart-Grid systems using blockchain and PUF

IoT-enabled Smart Grid (IoT-SG) is an emerging paradigm that enables the bi-direction communication of IoT devices and hardware to efficiently collect and transmit the consumer's information over the Internet. However, the underlying open communication network and resource-constrained capabilities of devices invite manifold challenges and threats in terms of security and privacy. To alleviate such issues, we designed a private blockchain-based access control protocol for IoT-SG using Physically Unclonable Function (PUF). Our protocol allows the Service Provider (SP) and smart meters to transfer the data in an efficient and secure manner. The participating SPs form the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network, and each peer node is responsible for securely creating the blocks from the gathered data. Thereafter, all the peer nodes employ a voting-based consensus mechanism to verify and add the recently created block into the blockchain network. We have rigorously validated the security of our protocol under the Random or Real (RoR) model. The testbed results and security feature analysis show that our protocol is more efficient than competing ones while it also provides significant security properties.

Automated summary

IoT-enabled Smart Grid (IoT-SG) is a paradigm that enables efficient and secure bi-directional communication between IoT devices and hardware for data collection and transmission. The protocol uses a private blockchain and Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) to ensure security and privacy. The protocol allows Service Providers (SPs) and smart meters to transfer data securely and efficiently in a peer-to-peer network, using a voting-based consensus mechanism to add blocks to the blockchain. Rigorous testing and analysis show that the protocol is efficient and provides significant security properties.