Interaction of the Smart Grid and Smart Homes - Case Study Example

Survey in smart grid and smart home security: Issues, Challenges and Countermeasures Survey in smart grid and smart home security: Issues, Challenges and Countermeasures Summary The authors indicate that electricity industry has changed every aspect of human life and enabled people to meet divergent needs (Kominos & Phillppou 2014, p. 99). However, the old electric power infrastructure is less efficient because it cannot meet the current high demand for electric power. In addition, it has many limitations within its infrastructure. For instance, the old electric infrastructure is less environmentally friendly and expensive to manage. The limitations make it necessary to introduce a more advanced and smart electric grid. The smart grid is more efficient because it is easier to monitor. In addition, it is environmentally friendly and cost effective. Introducing the new technologies into homes changes them into smart homes. With old electric grids, homes use about 40 percent of the total energy generated in Europe. In addition, about 36 percent of carbon dioxide is emitted from homes when using the old grid (Kominos & Phillppou 2014, P. 99). However, with the new grids, people can monitor the amount of energy consumed using remote devices. The approach enables them to regulate the amount of energy consumed. Communication is one of the factors that make the new grids more effective. However, researchers think that the communication processes cause security and privacy issues. The vulnerability may have negative impacts on the economy and the entire infrastructure. Information regarding the effectiveness of the new electric grids is insufficient (Kominos & Phillppou 2014, P. 99). However, researches conducted about the grids are very few. Consequently, the researchers wanted to find more information about the smart grid. The aim of the research is adding more information to the existing literature while focusing on the security of the new electric grid through the identification threats. The article contains scenarios about the interaction of the smart grid and smart homes. Risks have also been identified in the scenario. They have been classifiable according to specific security goals and their impacts. Possible solution and the counter measures that may improve the efficiency of the new technology have also been presented by the authors. The researchers have also supported their views using the existing literatures on the literature review section of the article. The first section of the literature review contains an introduction of the architectures of the new technology with the focus of its benefits. The second part contains an analysis of security issues and goals that are expected to be achieved after improving efficiency of the new grid. One of security issues identified in the articles is that the smart grids are prime targets for terrorists and hackers. Consequently, security goals identified in the articles includes ensuring confidentiality of the smart home technology by limiting their accessibility to only authorized people and ensuring the accuracy of the data (Kominos & Phillppou 2014, p. 99). The other objective includes ensuring availability of all the network resources to users. The subsequent section contains information about the current standardization efforts in the industry. Due to various limitation of the research, the authors have suggested ways to improve futures studies. They have also provided directions of the future researches. Critique of the paper The researchers have used qualitative research design (Kominos & Phillppou 2014, p. 99). A qualitative design is appropriate for this kind of study because the aim of the researchers was to explain a phenomenon, but not to show relationship between variables in the study. For instance, in the study, their aim was to explain the issues and challenges experienced when using the new electric grid. This study design enables the researchers to answer the research questions effectively. Qualitative method is suitable because it enables researchers to study issues in detail (Anderson 2010, p. 1). The authors gathered data from existing literature (Kominos & Phillppou 2014, p. 99). Collecting data from secondary sources is cheaper and faster. The sources also help with the clarification of research questions. However, secondary research has many limitations. One of the limitations is that relying on secondary sources only reduces the quality of research. This is because the information collected from the secondary sources might have been used to answer different questions. Moreover, relying heavily of secondary sources makes the reliability of the findings questionable. This is because the secondary researches may have generalizability issues. The information collected from the sources may not effectively apply to the specific questions in this research. The failure to analyze the validity and reliability of the information provided in the existing literature may reduce the quality of findings in this study. It is noted that mistakes made in the secondary sources are more likely to be transferred to a secondary research (Brodeur, Israel & Craig 2013, p. 1). In addition, some parameters and assumptions made in the secondary sources may negatively affect the quality of the study. For instance, a term may have different meaning to other people. This especially happens if one used ambiguous terms. A secondary researcher may misinterpret the information presented in the secondary sources. Some of the information obtained from the secondary sources may be outdated (Brodeur, Israel & Craig 2013, p. 1). For instance, some of the secondary sources used in this study were published more than ten years ago. The process reduces the reliability of the information presented in the study. The outdated sources may contain irrelevant information to the current situations. The use current sources would make the findings of this study more reliable and credible. In order to increase the quality of the information presented in this research, the authors should have used other methods of data collection instead of relying on one data collection method. When using more than one method, the strengths of one method may overshadow the weaknesses of the other method. Another appropriate method that the researchers could have used is observation of the efficiencies and risks of the new electric grid. Observations would increase the quality of the research because one is able to gain in-depth understanding of a situation. In addition, one is able to collect accurate and more reliable information (Phella, Bloch & Seale 2011, p. 198). Another alternative method that the researchers could have used is interview. The researchers should have interviewed people in smart homes in order to find out fast hand information about the benefits and challenges involved when using the smart grid. Researchers can obtain accurate and precise information using interview because they only ask questions related to specific research questions and objectives. The researchers used tables in order to effectively to summarize their findings (Kominos & Phillppou 2014, P. 99). This helps readers to easily understand the findings of the study. However, they have not identified ethical considerations in this study. A research is more likely to be affected by ethical and legal issues when using secondary sources. For instance, using other people’s sources without their permission may result into copyright issues. The authors have not mentioned whether or not they got permission to use the secondary sources. In order to prevent such ethical issues, researchers should find out the kind of permission secured from participants in the secondary sources. The process enables them to know if their information can be used for further studies. Suggestion of further work The researchers have focused on standardization security framework in some countries such as China. However, they have not focused on the universal standardization security framework for communication in the new electric grids. In order to explore this aspect in future studies research questions such as “What is the universal standardization framework for security communication in the smart electricity technology?” may be explored. The appropriate method to answer this research question would be through a secondary research. The limitation in the future study will be associated with challenges of secondary research. The other limitation of this future study is that establishing the universal security standardization of the communication will be a complex process. The other future work should include evaluation of security implications after the introduction of Plug in Electric Vehicle (PEV) as part on the smart electricity technology. A research question that will be suitable for this study would be: “What are the implications of introducing Plug in Electric vehicles”. The study can be conducted using observation methods. However, one of the limitations when using the method is that the findings of the study would be affected by the researchers’ biases. The other method that can be used to answer the research question would be to interview user of the electric vehicles. One of the limitations of this method is that the study would be time consuming and more expensive. In addition, the researchers have not identified a legal framework that specifically applies to privacy of the new grid. In order to ensure users are effectively protected, there is need for a specific legal framework for the new electric grid. For instance, the framework should specify procedures for collecting sensitive data, authorized persons to collect the data, and the specific location for data storage. A research question that will enable researcher collect relevant information would be “What is the specific legal framework for Smart Grid?” This question can be analyzed using secondary sources such as legal documents and articles. However, one of the limitations of this research is that it would be difficult to find enough sources that have specific information about the smart grid. List of references Anderson, C 2010, Presenting and evaluating qualitative research, American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Vol 74 (8): 1-7 [Online] available at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/731165_3 [28th November 2014] Brodeur, C., Israel, G., & Craig, D 2013, Using secondary data to build strong extension programs. University of Florida [Online] available at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pd010 [28th November 2014] Komninos, N., Phillppou, E. & Pitsillides, A 2014, Survey in Smart Grid and Smart Home Security: Issues, Challenges and Countermeasures. Communications Surveys & Tutorials, pp (99). [Online] available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2014.2320093 [28th November 2014] Phella, C. Bloch, A & Seale, C 2011, Structured methods: Interviews, Questionnaires, and Observation [Online] available at http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/47370_Seale_Chapter_11.pdf [28th November 2014] Read More