Secure Communication Architecture for Dynamic Energy Management in Smart Grid

open access articleSmart grid takes advantage of communication technologies for efficient energy management and utilization. It entails sacrifice from consumers in terms of reducing load during peak hours by using a dynamic energy pricing model. To enable an active participation of consumers in load management, the concept of home energy gateway (HEG) has recently been proposed in the literature. However, the HEG concept is rather new, and the literature still lacks to address challenges related to data representation, seamless discovery, interoperability, security, and privacy. This paper presents the design of a communication framework that effectively copes with the interoperability and integration challenges between devices from different manufacturers. The proposed communication framework offers seamless auto-discovery and zero- con figuration-based networking between heterogeneous devices at consumer sites. It uses elliptic-curve-based security mechanism for protecting consumers' privacy and providing the best possible shield against different types of cyberattacks. Experiments in real networking environment validated that the proposed communication framework is lightweight, secure, portable with low-bandwidth requirement, and flexible to be adopted for dynamic energy management in smart grid

Achieving Energy Saving through Proxying Applications on behalf of Idle Devices

AbstractSeveral studies in the past have revealed that network end user devices are left powered up 24/7 even when idle just for the sake of maintaining Internet connectivity. Network devices normally support low power states but are kept inactive due to their inability to maintain network connectivity. The Network Connectivity Proxy (NCP) has recently been proposed as an effective mechanism to impersonate network connectivity on behalf of high power devices and enable them to sleep when idle without losing network presence. The NCP can efficiently proxy basic networking protocol, however, proxying of Internet based applications have no absolute solution due to dynamic and non-predictable nature of the packets they are sending and receiving periodically. This paper proposes an approach for proxying Internet based applications and presents the basic software architectures and capabilities. Further, this paper also practically evaluates the proposed framework and analyzes expected energy savings achievable under- different realistic conditions

Design and Implementation of UPnP-based Energy Gateway for Demand Side Management in Smart Grid

Legacy electrical grids are urged to evolve towards smart grids, the smarter power delivery system that relies heavily on ICT. Numerous smart grids applications are expected to be developed for efficient management and utilization of electricity at the demand side such as home automation, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), dynamic energy pricing, efficient load management, etc. For easing and boosting the development of new demand side services, the concept of Home Energy Gateway (HEG) has recently been proposed in literature. It involves communication with the utility as well as with devices at the consumer sites. The literature still lacks a comprehensive HEG design that could provide all essential features such as zero-configuration, auto-discovery, seamless plug & play communication, interoperability and integration, customers privacy and communication security.This paper addresses the HEG challenges in an effective way through the design of suitable communication frameworks and a security mechanism for enabling strong protection against cyber attacks. The proposed system effectively copes with the interoperability and integration issues between plethora of heterogeneous devices at the consumer sites. The devices in proposed system inherit plug & play features and support zero-configuration and seamless networking. Further, the proposed system design is technology-agnostic and flexible enough to be adopted for the implementation of any specific demand side service. This paper also evaluates the proposed system in real-networking environment and presents performance metrics

Il recupero dei beni culturali di Gandhara. I suoi usi nell’attuale Khyber- Pukhtunkhwa

Summary This paper is divided into three parts. The first part gives a brief introduction to Gandhara in terms of geography and research activities in a historical perspective. The second part discusses the need for community involvement in Gandhara archaeology and the importance of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) in the field. The last part demonstrates the social, cultural, environmental, economic, political and religious returns as a result of these activities.         Riassunto L’articolo di divide in tre parti:  la prima fornisce una breve introduzione a Gandhara dal punto di vista geografico e delle attività di ricerca in una prospettiva storica. La seconda parte tratta del bisogno di un coinvolgimento della comunità nell’archeologia e l’importanza della Gestione delle Risorse Culturali (GRC), mentre la terza, infine, dimostra un ritorno in termini sociali, culturali, ambientali, economici, politici e religiosi come risultato di tali attività. RésuméL’article se compose de trois parties : la première donne une courte introduction de Gandhara du point de vue géographique, et des activités de recherche au niveau historique. La deuxième partie parle de la nécessité que la communauté soit impliquée dans l’archéologie, et de l’importance dela Gestiondes Ressources Culturelles (GRC). Enfin, la troisième partie montre un retour en termes sociaux, culturels, écologiques, économiques, politiques et religieux, comme résultat de ces activités. Zusammenfassung Der Artikel ist in drei Teile unterteilt: der erste liefert eine kurze Einführung in die geographische Lage und die Forschungstätigkeit in Gandhara unter historischen Gesichtspunkten. Der zweite Teil befasst sich mit dem Bedürfnis, die Gemeinschaft in die archäologische Tätigkeit einzubeziehen, und mit der Bedeutung des Kulturgütermanagements (GRC), während der dritte Teil die Ergebnisse dieser Tätigkeit im Hinblick auf ihre soziale, kulturelle, umwelttechnische, wirtschaftliche, politische und religiöse Auswirkung ausweist. Resumen El artículo se divide en tres partes: la primera presenta una breve introducción sobre Gandhara desde el punto de vista geográfico y de las actividades de investigación con perspectiva histórica. La segunda parte se ocupa de la necesidad de la participación de la comunidad en la arqueología y la importancia de la Gestión de los Recursos Culturales (GRC); mientras que la tercera, y última, parte demuestra el retorno en términos sociales, culturales, medioambientales, económicos, políticos y religiosos como resultado de dichas actividades. РезюмеСтатья делиться на три части. Первая содержит короткое вступление о Гандхаре с точки зрения географии и исследовательской деятельности в исторической перспективе. Вторая часть посвящена необходимости привлечения народа к археологии и важности Управления Культурными Ресурсами. В третьей части показывается как результат этой исследовательской деятельности отдача в социальном, культурном, экологическом, экономическом, политическом и религиозном плане. 摘要该文章分为三个部分：第一部分从地理位置上和历史角度的研究上简短地介绍了健驮逻国。第二部分介绍了考古学社会参与的必要性和文化资源管理(GRC)的重要性，最后第三部分强调了这些项目在社会、文化、环境、经济、政治和宗教方面存在的积极影响。Summary This paper is divided into three parts. The first part gives a brief introduction to Gandhara in terms of geography and research activities in a historical perspective. The second part discusses the need for community involvement in Gandhara archaeology and the importance of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) in the field. The last part demonstrates the social, cultural, environmental, economic, political and religious returns as a result of these activities.         Riassunto L’articolo di divide in tre parti:  la prima fornisce una breve introduzione a Gandhara dal punto di vista geografico e delle attività di ricerca in una prospettiva storica. La seconda parte tratta del bisogno di un coinvolgimento della comunità nell’archeologia e l’importanza della Gestione delle Risorse Culturali (GRC), mentre la terza, infine, dimostra un ritorno in termini sociali, culturali, ambientali, economici, politici e religiosi come risultato di tali attività. RésuméL’article se compose de trois parties : la première donne une courte introduction de Gandhara du point de vue géographique, et des activités de recherche au niveau historique. La deuxième partie parle de la nécessité que la communauté soit impliquée dans l’archéologie, et de l’importance dela Gestiondes Ressources Culturelles (GRC). Enfin, la troisième partie montre un retour en termes sociaux, culturels, écologiques, économiques, politiques et religieux, comme résultat de ces activités. Zusammenfassung Der Artikel ist in drei Teile unterteilt: der erste liefert eine kurze Einführung in die geographische Lage und die Forschungstätigkeit in Gandhara unter historischen Gesichtspunkten. Der zweite Teil befasst sich mit dem Bedürfnis, die Gemeinschaft in die archäologische Tätigkeit einzubeziehen, und mit der Bedeutung des Kulturgütermanagements (GRC), während der dritte Teil die Ergebnisse dieser Tätigkeit im Hinblick auf ihre soziale, kulturelle, umwelttechnische, wirtschaftliche, politische und religiöse Auswirkung ausweist. Resumen El artículo se divide en tres partes: la primera presenta una breve introducción sobre Gandhara desde el punto de vista geográfico y de las actividades de investigación con perspectiva histórica. La segunda parte se ocupa de la necesidad de la participación de la comunidad en la arqueología y la importancia de la Gestión de los Recursos Culturales (GRC); mientras que la tercera, y última, parte demuestra el retorno en términos sociales, culturales, medioambientales, económicos, políticos y religiosos como resultado de dichas actividades. РезюмеСтатья делиться на три части. Первая содержит короткое вступление о Гандхаре с точки зрения географии и исследовательской деятельности в исторической перспективе. Вторая часть посвящена необходимости привлечения народа к археологии и важности Управления Культурными Ресурсами. В третьей части показывается как результат этой исследовательской деятельности отдача в социальном, культурном, экологическом, экономическом, политическом и религиозном плане. 摘要该文章分为三个部分：第一部分从地理位置上和历史角度的研究上简短地介绍了健驮逻国。第二部分介绍了考古学社会参与的必要性和文化资源管理(GRC)的重要性，最后第三部分强调了这些项目在社会、文化、环境、经济、政治和宗教方面存在的积极影响

Elgamal Elliptic Curve Based Secure Communication Architecture for Microgrids

open access articleMicrogrids play an important role in today’s power systems as the distributed generation is becoming increasingly common. They can operate in two possible modes: (i) standalone and (ii) grid-connected. The transitional state from standalone to grid-connected mode is very critical and requires the microgrid to be synchronized with the main grid. Thus, secure, reliable and trustworthy control and communication is utmost necessary to prevent out-of-sync connection which could severely damage the microgrid and/or the main grid. Existing solutions consume more resources and take long time to establish a secure connection. The objective of the proposed work is to reduce the connection establishment time by using efficient computational algorithms and save the resources. This paper proposes a secure authentication and key establishment mechanism for ensuring safe operation and control of the microgrids. The proposed approach uses the concept of Elgamal with slight modification. Private key of the sender is used instead of a random number. The proposed modification ensures the non repudiation. This paper also presents a system threat model along with security network architecture and evaluates the performance of proposed algorithm in protecting microgrid communication against man in the middle attacks and replay attacks that could delay the packets to damage the system and need to be detected. Mathematical modeling and simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs better than the existing protocols in terms of connection establishment, resource consumption and security level

Localization performance evaluation of extended kalman filter in wireless sensors network

This paper evaluates the positioning and tracking performance of Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) in wireless sensors network. The EKF is a linear approximation of statistical Kalman Filter (KF) and has the capability to work efficiently in non-linear systems. The EKF is based on an iterative process of estimating current state information from the previously estimated state. Its working is based on the linearization of observation model around the mean of current state information. The EKF has small computation complexity and requires low memory compared to other Bayesian algorithms which makes it very suitable for low powered mobile devices. This paper evaluates the localization and tracking performance of EKF for (i) Position (P) model, (ii) Position-Velocity (PV) model and (iii) Position-Velocity-Acceleration (PVA) model. The EKF processes distance measurements from cricket sensors that are acquired through time difference of arrival between ultrasound and Radio Frequency (RF) signals. Further, localization performance under varying number of beacons/sensors is also evaluated in this paper. © 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version