This project seeks to identify alternative approaches to provide the user interface required
between the users and electric vehicle charging infrastructure in order to identify the user and
confirm they are authorised to use the facility.
Specifically the project intends to explore the new Bluetooth v4.0 (Smart) Protocol and
explore using new facilities in the v4.0 standard for the purpose of creating a secure encrypted
data channel that could be established between a chargepoint and either vehicles (navigation,
dashboard electronics) or handheld devices (smartphones, tablets) in order to exchange
information and provide authorisation credentials to the chargepoint to validate that the driver
has permission or financial funds to be allowed access to the chargepoint facilities.
The Bluetooth protocol has traditionally been used for interfacing entertainment and user
interface devices. It has facilities for device authentication (to identify and handshake) and up
till recently supported only relatively low levels of data encryption which was susceptible to
denial-of-service attacks, eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, message modification,
and resource misappropriation
However the recent v4.0 edition of the standard provided AES encryption as well as
numerous security improvements which is why we seek to explore using it in this particular
application.
Furthermore the ability to create a 'local' wireless local area network (WLAN) between
chargepoint and devices that contain further internet connecting and processing capabilities
allows us to explore different and new solutions to making the chargepoint an 'online' device
without the need of expensive GSM modems which are today typically added into the
chargepoint in order to satisfy requirements for data collection and remote control.