
106
seCurity and PrivaCy in smart Grids
radios, the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), gen-
eral packet radio services (GPRS), Bluetooth, and others. In general,
each AMI vendor develops its own proprietary communication mod-
ules (Table4.1) that are not interoperable with the communication
modules produced by other vendors in most cases.
For most utilities, the deployment of millions of smart meters is a
huge investment, so many utilities still maintain numerous electro-
mechanical meters. However, because of their limited and non-
expendable functionalities, the meters are gradually becoming a major
obstacle to the utilities shifti