What is PD IEC TR 62351‑90‑2 - Power systems management and associated information exchange about?
PD IEC TR 62351 is a series on Power systems management and associated information exchange. Power systems management and associated information exchange allow our customers to select important power supply parameters over a digital communication interface. PD IEC TR 62351‑90‑2 is a technical report, that addresses the need to perform Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) on communication channels secured by IEC 62351. The main focus is the illustration of the state-of-the-art of DPI techniques that can be applied to the various kinds of channels, highlighting the possible security risks and implementation costs. Additionally, beyond state-of-the-art proposals are also described in order to circumvent the main limits of existing solutions.
It is to be noted that some communications secured by IEC 62351 are not encrypted, but only add integrity and non-repudiation of the message – however, they are mentioned here for the sake of completeness around IEC 62351 and DPI.
Who is PD IEC TR 62351‑90‑2 - Power systems management and associated information exchange about for?
PD IEC TR 62351‑90‑2 on Power systems management and associated information exchange is useful for:
- Telecommunication sector
- IT sector
- Administration sector
- Software engineers
- Design engineers
Why should you use PD IEC TR 62351‑90‑2 - Power systems management and associated information exchange about?
Power systems management and associated information exchange enables the power supply to communicate important information about the status of the power system upstream to the system or board management controller. PD IEC TR 62351‑90‑2 analyses the impact of encrypted communication channels in power systems introduced with the IEC 62351 series. As defined in IEC 62351 an encrypted channel can be employed when communicating with IEDs and encryption can be adopted at message level as well. For example, the use of encrypting TLS setups according to IEC 62351-3 introduces some difficulties when Deep Packet Inspection is needed to inspect the communication channel for monitoring, auditing, and validation needs. In PD IEC TR 62351‑90‑2 different techniques are analyzed that can be employed to circumvent these issues when Deep Packet Inspection of communications is required.
Deep Packet Inspection is a form of network communication analysis applied to every single bit of information exchanged by nodes over the network. It is used for protocol validation, live virus checking, and in general for intrusion detection or intrusion prevention purposes. Deep Packet Inspection enables advanced network monitoring and management but at the same time can enable for malicious intentions as well (e.g., eavesdropping). The driving factor behind PD IEC TR 62351‑90‑2 is the need for a structured, standardized manner of enabling Deep Packet Inspection with encrypted channels, to eliminate the chance that unofficial, less secure methods will be used. Using PD IEC TR 62351‑90‑2 you can address the need to perform Deep Packet Inspection on communication channels secured by IEC 62351.
