Unfortunately, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure like power grids are a popular new type of global warfare, which is a scary reality. We have already seen targeted hacks toward institutions like hospitals, school districts and water treatment plants. Greater remote access and more connections to business networks make electricity transmission and other systems more vulnerable to nations and criminal groups that wish to disrupt operations, according to the Director of National Intelligence’s 2022 Annual Threat Assessment. But thankfully, new technology like Wireless Smart Ubiquitous Network (Wi-SUN) will allow cities to become more connected without being more vulnerable.
Cities worldwide like Tokyo and Miami are still making significant efforts to evolve into smart cities because the benefits of digitalization will improve operational efficiencies and their residents’ quality of life overall. This transformation requires improved infrastructure that enables applications like air quality sensors, methane gas detectors, smart street lighting, waste management, weather stations and traffic lighting systems. But those isolated system connections can present major security challenges.
As city networks get bigger and spread over larger distances, they will need scalable solutions that connect transportation systems, utility grids, health and emergency services and more. Traditionally, these systems have been built on proprietary networks with limited security and flexibility to upgrade. To proactively protect against threats, cities will need to use certification management, mesh networks and other security solutions to connect systems securely.
Wi-SUN, the leading IPv6 sub-gigahertz mesh technology for smart-city and smart-utility applications, promises to modernize cities securely, resiliently and sustainably. Wi-SUN delivers interoperable, multi-service, secure wireless mesh networks to service providers, utilities, municipalities/local governments and other enterprises.
Wi-SUN simplifies smart-city implementations with standard internet protocols and APIs and delivers best-in-class security to protect those connections. (Source: Getty Images)
PKI certification management
The global Wi-SUN Alliance was formed in 2011 to drive the adoption of interoperable smart-utility networks, as described by IEEE 802.15.4g. In May 2022, the alliance selected WISeKey PKI Services to deliver digital certificates to its more than 300 members in nearly 50 countries, including device vendors, silicon vendor utilities and cities with more than 100 million endpoints.
Public key cryptography and digital certificates are used to implement strong authentication, data encryption and digital signatures. The Wi-SUN FAN protocol supports X509 digital certificates for device authentication to ensure IoT security. By allowing servers to verify the authenticity of the source of every incoming communication, they build trust.
Full-featured IPv6 mesh stack
IPv6, the latest updated version of the Internet Protocol, has a 128-bit address that offers more space for future allocation. It also provides greater reliability, faster speeds and better security than its predecessor, IPv4.
With IPSecurity, IPv6 ensures data privacy and data integrity and reinforces routing efficiency. It offers built-in authentication and privacy support for intrusion detection, traffic shaping, network analysis and penetration testing. The Wi-SUN field-area network (FAN) mesh design for self-healing and rerouting during cyberattacks works with the IPv6 protocol.
In a mesh network, each device can speak to its neighbors, which allows its messages to travel a long distance, for example, across smart cities. Wi-SUN FAN’s technical, performance and reliability benefits compared with other low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) solutions include superior coverage and resilience through mesh networking, better interference mitigation through frequency hopping and enterprise-grade security already proven at a very large scale.
As a member of the Wi-SUN Alliance, Silicon Labs’ certified, flagship Wi-SUN solution combines the industry-leading EFR32FG25 (FG25) hardware platform, full-featured IPv6 mesh stack, enhanced security and memory capacity, and advanced development tools to enable secure wireless connectivity for a broad range of applications, from advanced metering infrastructure to street lighting networks, asset management and smart-city sensors like parking, air quality and waste management. With this technology, cities can connect various systems to improve efficiency and reduce costs while enhancing citizen interactions with municipal services.
Security-enabled hardware and software
From a security standpoint, EFR32 Wireless Gecko technology provides comprehensive features for end-to-cloud protection. These include a secure bootloader, efficient cryptographic accelerators for Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), elliptic curve cryptology, the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA), a true random-number generator and a security management unit for precise peripheral access control. Additionally, it integrates Micrium OS for SSL and TLS network security and Zentri device management for secure device deployment and updates in the field.
Secure Vault technology
Secure Vault technology is the most advanced security software suite with the highest PSA Certification Level 3 and will help fortify security in smart cities. With Secure Vault, you can protect your IoT devices against escalating threats while conforming to the quickly evolving cybersecurity regulations. It reduces the risk of IoT ecosystem security breaches by protecting against scalable local and remote software attacks, defending against local hardware attacks and passing testing from independent, third-party laboratories that attempt to infringe security functions for a specified amount of time with sophisticated equipment.
Among other features, Secure Vault offers secure key storage, a physically unclonable function to generate a unique digital fingerprint value every time the chip is booted, and tamper detection to minimize the impact of physical attacks on the electricity grid through meters.
Smart AND secure cities
From improving transportation and the environment to ensuring safety and efficiency, the benefits of IoT for smart cities are endless. But those benefits can be lost quickly without technology to secure the connections supporting a city’s networks.
Wi-SUN’s best-in-class security for large-scale outdoor IoT wireless communication networks in a wide range of applications covering both line-powered and battery-powered nodes is the flexible technology that smart cities need to thrive. Because Wi-SUN is built on standard internet protocols and APIs, developers can extend existing infrastructure platforms to add new or emerging applications that serve a wide range of smart-city workflows. Better yet, they can do it while reducing risks and costs.
About the author
Srinivasa Rao Dukkipati is a senior product marketing manager for wireless, where he supports the proprietary product lines at Silicon Labs India. He has over 30 years of cross-functional experience, mostly in the semiconductor industry, with vast exposure in systems hardware design, customer support management, technical sales and product marketing. Srinivasa holds a Master of Engineering degree in EEE from PSG College of Technology, India.
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