A multi-Authority attribute-based signcryption scheme with efficient revocation for smart grid downlink communication

In this paper, we propose a multi-Authority attribute-based signcryption scheme with efficient revocation for smart grid downlink communications. The proposed scheme allows grid operators and electricity vendors to securely send multicast messages to different groups of consumers. Such secure multicast communication is required in several applications such as firmware update distribution, sending direct load control messages, and sending energy trading requests. Our scheme can ensure the confidentiality and the integrity of the multicasted messages, allows consumers to authenticate the senders of the multicasted messages, achieves non-repudiation property, and allows prompt attribute revocation, simultaneously which are the security requirements of the smart grid downlink communications. Our security analysis demonstrates that the proposed scheme is secure and can thwart various security threats to the smart grid. Our experiments conducted on an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) testbed confirm that the proposed scheme has low computational overhead.