On Modeling and Measuring Inter-dependencies among Critical Infrastructures (original) (raw)

Towards a Complex Networks Modeling of Interdependent Critical Infrastructures

2013

La fiabilité et la sécurité des Infrastructures Critiques mettent l'accent sur la nécessité d'identifier et de comprendre les vulnérabilités qui émergent de l'interaction entre eux, notamment entre les systèmes TIC et les réseaux électriques. La modélisation des relations physiques, logiques et géographiques peuvent donner quelques informations sur les interactions entre les infrastructures pour éclairer leurs interdépendances et identifier leurs vulnérabilités. Cet article présente une méthode, developé dans le cadre du Projet SINARI, qui adapte la théorie des nombres complexes à la théorie des réseaux complexes. Le résultat de cette symbiose est un modèle qui permet d'identifier les vulnérabilités inhérentes des infrastructures couplés. La méthode est démontrée sur un réseau de distribution typique français, y compris un système TIC.

Preliminary interdependency analysis: An approach to support critical-infrastructure risk-assessment

Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 2017

We present a methodology, Preliminary Interdependency Analysis (PIA), for analysing interdependencies between critical infrastructure (CI). Consisting of two phases-qualitative analysis followed by quantitative analysisan application of PIA progresses from a relatively quick elicitation of CI-interdependencies to the building of representative CI models, and the subsequent estimation of any resilience, risk or criticality measures an assessor might be interested in. By design, stages in the methodology are both flexible and iterative, resulting in interacting CI models that are scalable and may vary significantly in complexity and fidelity, depending on the needs and requirements of an assessor. For model parameterisation, one relies on a combination of field data, sensitivity analysis and expert judgement. Facilitated by dedicated software tool support, we illustrate PIA by applying it to a complex case-study of interacting Power (distribution and transmission) and Telecommunications networks in the Rome area. A number of studies are carried out, including: 1) an investigation of how "strength of dependence " between the CIs ' components affects various measures of risk and uncertainty, 2) for resource allocation, an exploration of different, but related, notions of CI component importance, and 3) highlighting the impact of model fidelity on the estimated risk of cascades.

Analysis of the structural vulnerability of the interconnected power grid of continental Europe with the Integrated Power System and Unified Power System based on extended topological approach

International Transactions on Electrical Energy Systems, 2012

Power systems as one of the key infrastructures play a crucial role in any country's economy and social life. A large-scale blackout can affect all sectors in a society such as industrial, commercial, residential and essential public services. However, the frequency of large-scale blackouts across the world is not being reduced though advanced technology and huge investment have been applied into power systems. Given a single blackout it is possible to analyze the causes with the traditional engineering methods. What we want to do instead is not to explain the causes of blackouts but to find what are the most critical elements of the power system, in order to improve the resilience of the system itself. As blackout can happen in different load conditions, we do not want a method which depends on the load/generation level. We want a method independent from these factors: this is the structural perspective.

Extended Topological Metrics for the Analysis of Power Grid Vulnerability

IEEE Systems Journal, 2012

Vulnerability analysis in power systems is a key issue in modern society and many efforts have contributed to the analysis. Recently, complex networks metrics, applied to assess the topological vulnerability of networked systems, have been used in power grids, such as the betweenness centrality. These metrics may be useful for analyzing the topological vulnerability of power systems because of a close link between their topological structure and physical behavior. However, a pure topological approach fails to capture the electrical specificity of power grids. For this reason, an extended topological method has been proposed by incorporating several electrical features, such as electrical distance, power transfer distribution, and line flow limits, into the pure topological metrics. Starting from the purely topological concept of complex networks, this paper defines an extended betweenness centrality which considers the characteristics of power grids and can measure the local importance of the elements in power grids. The line extended betweenness is compared with the topological betweenness and with the averaged power flow on each line over various operational states in the Italian power grid. The results show that the extended betweenness is superior to topological betweenness in the identification of critical components in power grids and at the same time could be a complementary tool to efficiently enhance vulnerability analysis based on electrical engineering methods. di Torino. He has co-authored more than ten publications on various topics related to power systems and electrical engineering. His current research interests include complexity in energy systems, power systems security, complex network methodologies for the analysis of power systems vulnerability and electrical safety.

Quantification of dependencies between electrical and information infrastructures

2012

In this paper we present an approach to model and quantify (inter)dependencies between the Electrical Infrastructure (EI) and the Information Infrastructure (II) that implements the EI control and monitoring system. The quantification is achieved through the integration of two models: one that concentrates more on the structure of the power grid and its physical quantities and one that concentrates on the behavior of the control system supported by the II. The modeling approach is exemplified on a scenario whose goal is to study the effects of an II partial failure (a denial of service attack that compromises the communication network) on the remote control of the EI. The approach has been initially developed as part of the European project CRUTIAL. c

Modelling interdependent infrastructures using interacting dynamical models

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2008

We investigate the consequence of failures, occurring on the electrical grid, on a telecommunication network. We have focused on the Italian electrical transmission network and the backbone of the internet network for research (GARR). Electrical network has been simulated using the DC power flow method; data traffic on GARR by a model of the TCP/IP basic features. The status of GARR nodes has been related to the power level of the (geographically) neighbouring electrical nodes (if the power level of a node is lower than a threshold, all communication nodes depending on it are switched off). The electrical network has been perturbed by lines removal: the consequent re-dispatching reduces the power level in all nodes. This reduces the number of active GARR nodes and, thus, its Quality of Service (QoS). Averaging over many configurations of perturbed electrical network, we have correlated the degradation of the electrical network with that of the V. Rosato et al. communication network. Results point to a sizeable amplification of the effects of faults on the electrical network on the communication network, also in the case of a moderate coupling between the two networks.

Interdependencies of Critical Infrastructures

Springer eBooks, 2008

Power networks as a critical infrastructure Nouredine Hadjsaid Distribution generation as a stabilization factor of power grids Christophe Andrieu The role of supporting information infrastructures of a virtual utility Rune Gustavsson Challenges of future virtual power grids Nouredine Hadjsaid

High-level modelling of critical infrastructures' interdependencies

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2009

Due to the increasing demand in services' quality and the growing concerns about external threats, the protection of critical infrastructures has recently become a major concern. In this article, we study the potential effect of interdependencies that may occur between two of these infrastructures: the telecommunication networks and the electrical network. In the absence of side protection mechanisms such as multihoming or batteries, these types of networks highly depend on each other. A failure of some component in one of these architectures may cause a fault in the other, for example, when an electrical outage occurs, routers may be switched off as soon as their battery has depleted. This can lead to cross-domain cascading effects in failures propagation that cause general service unavailabilty. To understand this phenomena, we propose a model that describes the behaviour of these interdependent systems. We show on realistic topologies that simple failures can lead to failures propagation and we derive the potential risk scenarios.