1,433 research outputs found
Software-Defined Networking for Smart Grid Resilience: Opportunities and Challenges
Software-defined networking (SDN) is an emerging networking paradigm that provides unprecedented flexibility in dynamically reconfiguring an IP network. It enables various applications, such as network management, quality of service (QoS) optimization, and system resilience enhancement. Pilot studies have investigated the possibilities of applying SDN on smart grid communications, while the specific benefits and risks that SDN may bring to the resilience of smart grids against accidental failures and malicious attacks remain largely unexplored. Without a systematic understanding of these issues and convincing validations of proposed solutions, the power industry will be unlikely to embrace SDN, since resilience is always a key consideration for critical infrastructures like power grids. In this position paper, we aim to provide an initial understanding of these issues, by investigating (1) how SDN can enhance the resilience of typical smart grids to malicious attacks, (2) additional risks introduced by SDN and how to manage them, and (3) how to validate and evaluate SDN-based resilience solutions. Our goal is also to trigger more profound discussions on applying SDN to smart grids and inspire innovative SDN-based solutions for enhancing smart grid resilience.Agency for Science, Technology and Research; National Science Foundation (OCI-1032889); Department of Energy (DE-OE0000097)Ope
Software Defined Networks based Smart Grid Communication: A Comprehensive Survey
The current power grid is no longer a feasible solution due to
ever-increasing user demand of electricity, old infrastructure, and reliability
issues and thus require transformation to a better grid a.k.a., smart grid
(SG). The key features that distinguish SG from the conventional electrical
power grid are its capability to perform two-way communication, demand side
management, and real time pricing. Despite all these advantages that SG will
bring, there are certain issues which are specific to SG communication system.
For instance, network management of current SG systems is complex, time
consuming, and done manually. Moreover, SG communication (SGC) system is built
on different vendor specific devices and protocols. Therefore, the current SG
systems are not protocol independent, thus leading to interoperability issue.
Software defined network (SDN) has been proposed to monitor and manage the
communication networks globally. This article serves as a comprehensive survey
on SDN-based SGC. In this article, we first discuss taxonomy of advantages of
SDNbased SGC.We then discuss SDN-based SGC architectures, along with case
studies. Our article provides an in-depth discussion on routing schemes for
SDN-based SGC. We also provide detailed survey of security and privacy schemes
applied to SDN-based SGC. We furthermore present challenges, open issues, and
future research directions related to SDN-based SGC.Comment: Accepte
Assessing and augmenting SCADA cyber security: a survey of techniques
SCADA systems monitor and control critical infrastructures of national importance such as power generation and distribution, water supply, transportation networks, and manufacturing facilities. The pervasiveness, miniaturisations and declining costs of internet connectivity have transformed these systems from strictly isolated to highly interconnected networks. The connectivity provides immense benefits such as reliability, scalability and remote connectivity, but at the same time exposes an otherwise isolated and secure system, to global cyber security threats. This inevitable transformation to highly connected systems thus necessitates effective security safeguards to be in place as any compromise or downtime of SCADA systems can have severe economic, safety and security ramifications. One way to ensure vital asset protection is to adopt a viewpoint similar to an attacker to determine weaknesses and loopholes in defences. Such mind sets help to identify and fix potential breaches before their exploitation. This paper surveys tools and techniques to uncover SCADA system vulnerabilities. A comprehensive review of the selected approaches is provided along with their applicability
On application of least-delay variation problem in ethernet networks using SDN concept
The goal of this paper is to present an application idea of SDN in Smart Grids, particularly, in the area of L2 multicast as defined by IEC 61850-9-2. Authors propose an Integer Linear Formulation (ILP) dealing with a Least-Delay-Variation multicast forwarding problem that has a potential to utilize Ethernet networks in a new way. The proposed ILP formulation is numerically evaluated on random graph topologies and results are compared to a shortest path tree approach that is traditionally a product of Spanning Tree Protocols. Results confirm the correctness of the ILP formulation and illustrate dependency of a solution quality on the selected graph models, especially, in a case of scale-free topologies
MiniCPS: A toolkit for security research on CPS Networks
In recent years, tremendous effort has been spent to modernizing
communication infrastructure in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) such as Industrial
Control Systems (ICS) and related Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
(SCADA) systems. While a great amount of research has been conducted on network
security of office and home networks, recently the security of CPS and related
systems has gained a lot of attention. Unfortunately, real-world CPS are often
not open to security researchers, and as a result very few reference systems
and topologies are available. In this work, we present MiniCPS, a CPS
simulation toolbox intended to alleviate this problem. The goal of MiniCPS is
to create an extensible, reproducible research environment targeted to
communications and physical-layer interactions in CPS. MiniCPS builds on
Mininet to provide lightweight real-time network emulation, and extends Mininet
with tools to simulate typical CPS components such as programmable logic
controllers, which use industrial protocols (Ethernet/IP, Modbus/TCP). In
addition, MiniCPS defines a simple API to enable physical-layer interaction
simulation. In this work, we demonstrate applications of MiniCPS in two example
scenarios, and show how MiniCPS can be used to develop attacks and defenses
that are directly applicable to real systems.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 1 code listin
Classifying resilience approaches for protecting smart grids against cyber threats
Smart grids (SG) draw the attention of cyber attackers due to their vulnerabilities, which are caused by the usage of heterogeneous communication technologies and their distributed nature. While preventing or detecting cyber attacks is a well-studied field of research, making SG more resilient against such threats is a challenging task. This paper provides a classification of the proposed cyber resilience methods against cyber attacks for SG. This classification includes a set of studies that propose cyber-resilient approaches to protect SG and related cyber-physical systems against unforeseen anomalies or deliberate attacks. Each study is briefly analyzed and is associated with the proper cyber resilience technique which is given by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the Special Publication 800-160. These techniques are also linked to the different states of the typical resilience curve. Consequently, this paper highlights the most critical challenges for achieving cyber resilience, reveals significant cyber resilience aspects that have not been sufficiently considered yet and, finally, proposes scientific areas that should be further researched in order to enhance the cyber resilience of SG.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA
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