Co-Simulation Framework for Network Attack Generation and Monitoring

Abstract

Resilience assessment is crucial for maintaining high availability, security, and quality of service in power grids. However, most current grid research lacks hardware testbed capabilities. Moreover, the integration of distributed energy resources expands the grid’s attack surface, necessitating reliable and realistic modeling techniques to be accessible to the broader research community. Consequently, simulation testbeds have emerged to model real-world power grid topologies and evaluate the impact of various disruptions. Existing co-simulation platforms for power grids focus on limited components, such as focusing only on the dynamics of the physical layer. Additionally, many platforms require specialized hardware that may be too expensive for most researchers. Furthermore, not many platforms support realistic modeling of the communication layer, which demands the use of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) communication protocols like DNP3 for cybersecurity scenario modeling. We introduce Network Attack Testbed in [Power] Grid (NATI[P]G) (pronounced “natig”), a stand-alone, containerized, and reusable environment that enables cyber analysts and researchers to execute various cybersecurity and performance scenarios on power grids. NATIG integrates GridLAB-D, a grid simulator, HELICS, a co-simulation framework, and NS3, a network simulator, to create an end-to-end simulation environment for the power grid. We demonstrate use cases by generating a library of datasets for several scenarios. These datasets can be utilized to detect cyberattacks at the cyber layer and develop countermeasures against these adverse scenarios.

Keywords

• Cyber-physical systems (CPS)
• communication networks
• telecommunication network
• power grid
• microgrids