Supporting Cyber-Physical Systems with Wireless Sensor Networks: An Outlook of Software and Services

Sensing, communication, computation and control technologies are the essential building blocks of a cyber-physical system (CPS). Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are a way to support CPS as they provide fine-grained spatial-temporal sensing, communication and computation at a low premium of cost and power. In this article, we explore the fundamental concepts guiding the design and implementation of WSNs. We report the latest developments in WSN software and services for meeting existing requirements and newer demands; particularly in the areas of: operating system, simulator and emulator, programming abstraction, virtualization, IP-based communication and security, time and location, and network monitoring and management. We also reflect on the ongoing efforts in providing dependable assurances for WSN-driven CPS. Finally, we report on its applicability with a case-study on smart buildings

A Survey on Communication Networks for Electric System Automation

Published in Computer Networks 50 (2006) 877–897, an Elsevier journal. The definitive version of this publication is available from Science Direct. Digital Object Identifier:10.1016/j.comnet.2006.01.005In today’s competitive electric utility marketplace, reliable and real-time information become the key factor for reliable delivery of power to the end-users, profitability of the electric utility and customer satisfaction. The operational and commercial demands of electric utilities require a high-performance data communication network that supports both existing functionalities and future operational requirements. In this respect, since such a communication network constitutes the core of the electric system automation applications, the design of a cost-effective and reliable network architecture is crucial. In this paper, the opportunities and challenges of a hybrid network architecture are discussed for electric system automation. More specifically, Internet based Virtual Private Networks, power line communications, satellite communications and wireless communications (wireless sensor networks, WiMAX and wireless mesh networks) are described in detail. The motivation of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the hybrid network architecture that can provide heterogeneous electric system automation application requirements. In this regard, our aim is to present a structured framework for electric utilities who plan to utilize new communication technologies for automation and hence, to make the decision making process more effective and direct.This work was supported by NEETRAC under Project #04-157

Design and Implementation of Lightweight Certificateless Secure Communication Scheme on Industrial NFV-Based IPv6 Virtual Networks

With the fast growth of the Industrial Internet of Everything (IIoE), computing and telecommunication industries all over the world are moving rapidly towards the IPv6 address architecture, which supports virtualization architectures such as Network Function Virtualization (NFV). NFV provides networking services like routing, security, storage, etc., through software-based virtual machines. As a result, NFV reduces equipment costs. Due to the increase in applications on Industrial Internet of Things (IoT)-based networks, security threats have also increased. The communication links between people and people or from one machine to another machine are insecure. Usually, critical data are exchanged over the IoE, so authentication and confidentiality are significant concerns. Asymmetric key cryptosystems increase computation and communication overheads. This paper proposes a lightweight and certificateless end-to-end secure communication scheme to provide security services against replay attacks, man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, and impersonation attacks with low computation and communication overheads. The system is implemented on Linux-based Lubuntu 20.04 virtual machines using Java programming connected to NFV-based large-scale hybrid IPv4-IPv6 virtual networks. Finally, we compare the performance of our proposed security scheme with existing schemes based on the computation and communication costs. In addition, we measure and analyze the performance of our proposed secure communication scheme over NFV-based virtualized networks with regard to several parameters like end-to-end delay and packet loss. The results of our comparison with existing security schemes show that our proposed security scheme reduces the computation cost by 38.87% and the communication cost by 26.08%

A survey on cyber security for smart grid communications

A smart grid is a new form of electricity network with high fidelity power-flow control, self-healing, and energy reliability and energy security using digital communications and control technology. To upgrade an existing power grid into a smart grid, it requires significant dependence on intelligent and secure communication infrastructures. It requires security frameworks for distributed communications, pervasive computing and sensing technologies in smart grid. However, as many of the communication technologies currently recommended to use by a smart grid is vulnerable in cyber security, it could lead to unreliable system operations, causing unnecessary expenditure, even consequential disaster to both utilities and consumers. In this paper, we summarize the cyber security requirements and the possible vulnerabilities in smart grid communications and survey the current solutions on cyber security for smart grid communications. © 2012 IEEE

Secure store and forward proxy for dynamic IoT applications over M2M networks

Internet of Things (IoT) applications are expected to generate a huge unforeseen amount of traffic flowing from Consumer Electronics devices to the network. In order to overcome existing interoperability problems, several standardization bodies have joined to bring a new generation of Machine to Machine (M2M) networks as a result of the evolution of wireless sensor/actor networks and mobile cellular networks to converged networks. M2M is expected to enable IoT paradigms and related concepts into a reality at a reasonable cost. As part of the convergence, several technologies preventing new IoT services to interfere with existing Internet services are flourishing. Responsive, message-driven, resilient and elastic architectures are becoming essential parts of the system. These architectures will control the entire data flow for an IoT system requiring sometimes to store, shape and forward data among nodes of a M2M network to improve network performance. However, IoT generated data have an important personal component since it is generated in personal devices or are the result of the observation of the physical world, so rises significant security concerns. This article proposes a novel opportunistic flexible secure store and forward proxy for M2M networks and its mapping to asynchronous protocols that guarantees data confidentiality

Security vs bandwidth : performance analysis between IPsec and OpenVPN in smart grid

Secure wireless communication is an essential element of smart grid systems. This enables distributed industrial Internet of Things (IoT) assets to be remotely controlled and monitored from the control centre. In this piece of work, we evaluate the impact of employing OpenVPN and IPsec on the bandwidth required for the operation of distribution assets in next-generation substations Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) over IEC 61850-5-104. This analysis showed that OpenVPN added an average of 42 bytes to each packet inside the VPN tunnel, while Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) contributed an average overhead of 64 bytes. This demonstrated that employing IPsec would require more bandwidth than OpenVPN. Discussions on the reliability of wireless communication media for smart grid is also presented

Design and Experimental Validation of an LTE-based Synchrophasor Network in a Medium Voltage Distribution Grid

We present and experimentally validate in a real-scale medium voltage (MV) grid a synchrophasor network that exploits the availability of a public 4G LTE communication infrastructure. An 18 buses, 10\,kV feeder located in Huissen, The Netherlands, has been equipped with 10 Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) connected to the MV grid by means of dedicated voltage and current sensors. The PMUs stream synchrophasor data through a public 4G LTE network via an information-centric networking-based middleware, named C-DAX. The measurements are received and time-aligned at a phasor data concentrator and fed to a real-time state estimation application. The paper presents the various field-trial components and validates the feasibility of exploiting the 4G LTE technology for PMU-based applications. Specifically we assess the performance of the adopted wireless telecommunication infrastructure with and without the C-DAX middleware, as well as the accuracy of the real-time state estimation process

Internet of Things for system integrity: a comprehensive survey on security, attacks and countermeasures for industrial applications

The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) offers numerous opportunities for developing industrial applications such as smart grids, smart cities, smart manufacturers, etc. By utilising these opportunities, businesses engage in creating the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). IoT is vulnerable to hacks and, therefore, requires various techniques to achieve the level of security required. Furthermore, the wider implementation of IIoT causes an even greater security risk than its benefits. To provide a roadmap for researchers, this survey discusses the integrity of industrial IoT systems and highlights the existing security approaches for the most significant industrial applications. This paper mainly classifies the attacks and possible security solutions regarding IoT layers architecture. Consequently, each attack is connected to one or more layers of the architecture accompanied by a literature analysis on the various IoT security countermeasures. It further provides a critical analysis of the existing IoT/IIoT solutions based on different security mechanisms, including communications protocols, networking, cryptography and intrusion detection systems. Additionally, there is a discussion of the emerging tools and simulations used for testing and evaluating security mechanisms in IoT applications. Last, this survey outlines several other relevant research issues and challenges for IoT/IIoT security