The remarkable advancement of smart grid technology in the IoT sector has raised concerns over the privacy and security of the data collected and transferred in real-time. Smart meters generate detailed information about consumers' energy consumption patterns, increasing the risks of data breaches, identity theft, and other forms of cyber attacks. This study proposes a privacy-preserving data aggregation protocol that uses reversible watermarking and AES cryptography to ensure the security and privacy of the data. There are two versions of the protocol: one for low-frequency smart meters that uses LSB-shifting-based reversible watermarking (RLS) and another for high-frequency smart meters that uses difference expansion-based reversible watermarking (RDE). This enables the aggregation of smart meter data, maintaining confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity. The proposed protocol significantly enhances privacy-preserving measures for smart metering systems, conducting an experimental evaluation with real hardware implementation using Nucleo microcontroller boards and the RIOT operating system and comparing the results to existing security schemes.

翻译：物联网领域中智能电网技术的显著进步，引发了人们对实时采集与传输数据隐私与安全性的担忧。智能电表生成的用户能耗模式详细信息，增加了数据泄露、身份盗用及其他形式网络攻击的风险。本研究提出一种隐私保护数据聚合协议，采用可逆水印技术与AES加密算法确保数据安全与隐私。该协议包含两个版本：针对低频智能电表的基于LSB位移的可逆水印（RLS）方案，以及针对高频智能电表的基于差值扩展的可逆水印（RDE）方案。该设计实现了智能电表数据的聚合处理，同时保障数据的机密性、完整性与真实性。所提协议显著增强了智能计量系统的隐私保护能力，通过采用Nucleo微控制器开发板与RIOT操作系统进行真实硬件部署实验评估，并将结果与现有安全方案进行对比验证。