Software-Defined Microgrid Control for Resilience Against Denial-of-Service Attacks

Pietro Danzi, Marko Angjelichinoski, Cedomir Stefanovic, Tomislav Dragicevic, Petar Popovski

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

48 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Microgrids (MGs) rely on networked control supported by off-the-shelf wireless communications. This makes them vulnerable to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. In this paper, we mitigate those attacks by (i) separating data plane from network control plane, inspired by the software defined networking paradigm, and (ii) performing control plane exchanges over the power bus, thus allowing for an agile reconfiguration of the data plane connections. Specifically, in the proposed architecture, all generators in the MG operate as either voltage regulators (active agents), or current sources (passive agents), with their operating mode being determined by software-defined MG control supported by the control plane communication performed over the power bus. For the purpose of control plane communication, we adopt power talk, a modem-less, low-rate, power-line communication solution designed for direct current MGs. The results show that the proposed software-defined MG offers superior performance compared to the static MG, as well as resilience against DoS attacks.

Original languageEnglish
JournalIEEE Transactions on Smart Grid
Volume10
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)5258 - 5268
Number of pages11
ISSN1949-3053
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2019

Keywords

  • Communication networks
  • Communication system security
  • Computer architecture
  • distributed algorithms
  • microgrids
  • power system reliability
  • power system security
  • secondary control.
  • Software
  • Voltage control
  • Voltage measurement
  • Wireless communication

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Software-Defined Microgrid Control for Resilience Against Denial-of-Service Attacks'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this