An efficient and secure ARP for large-scale IEEE 802.11s-based smart grid networks

Abstract

While Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) can be attractive in terms of deployment cost, convenience and flexibility, their real-life performance in large-scale is still inadequate due to interference and multi-hop communication. In this paper, we target IEEE 802.11s-based WMNs and propose to revise the way they perform Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) in order to improve their scalability and thus make them better suited for SG Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) applications. Specifically, we utilize the proactive Path Request (PREQ) message of layer-2 path discovery protocol of 802.11s, namely HWMP, for piggybacking ARP information. In this way, the MAC address resolution is handled during routing tree creation/maintenance and hence the broadcasting of ARP requests by the smart meters to learn the MAC address of the data collector (i.e., the gateway node) is completely eliminated. Furthermore, since piggybacking the ARP via PREQ may pose vulnerabilities for possible ARP cache poisoning attacks, we also provide authentication from the data collector by using Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). Simulation results with the implementation of IEEE 802.11s in NS-3 simulator show that compared to the original ARP broadcast operations, our approach reduces the end to end delay significantly. The results also demonstrate that the impact of the overhead of authentication on packet delivery ratio is minimal.