Network Architecture, Security Issues, and Hardware Implementation of a Home Area Network for Smart Grid

This paper discusses aims, architecture, and security issues of Smart Grid, taking care of the lesson learned at University of Pisa in research projects on smart energy and grid. A key element of Smart Grid is the energy home area network (HAN), for which an implementation is proposed, dealing with its security aspects and showing some solutions for realizing a wireless network based on ZigBee. Possible hardware-software architectures and implementations using COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) components are presented for key building blocks of the energy HAN such as smart power meters and plugs and a home smart information box providing energy management policy and supporting user's energy awareness.