Abstract
DNP3 (‘Distributed Network Protocol’) is mainly used in electrical sectors as a mechanism to enable communication between different data acquisition and control equipment. In a typical electrical company there is a main control station that manages and supervises many of its substations which are distributed over various geographic locations. DNP3 provides the rules for remotely located computers and master station computers to communicate data. DNP3 is a reliable protocol in the way it works. But it was not designed to be secure from attackers and hackers that can target the underlying SCADA (Supervisory Control and Administration) system. This report provides a detail analysis of two known methodologies by which security of SCADA communications can be improved as well as comparison of the two methodologies. (1) Solutions that wrap the DNP3 protocols without making changes to the protocols (2) Solutions that alter the DNP3 protocols fundamentally This report also discusses an approach to scale DNP3 over TCP-UDP/IP protocol suite to utilize the power of Internet. This approach is covered in the IEEE standard for Electric Power Systems Communications 1815.