Distributed Software-Defined Network Architecture for Smart Grid Resilience to Denial-of-Service Attacks

Conference · Mon Sep 25 00:00:00 EDT 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/PESGM52003.2023.10253421· OSTI ID:2006580

Agnew Jr., Dennis ^[1]; Boamah, Sharon ^[1]; Mathieu, Reynold ^[1]; Cooper, Austin ^[1]; Mcnair, Janise ^[1]; Bretas, Arturo Suman ^[2]

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1. University of Florida
2. BATTELLE (PACIFIC NW LAB)

An important challenge for smart grid security is designing a secure and robust smart grid communications architecture to protect against cyber-threats, such as Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, that can adversely impact the operation of the power grid. Researchers have proposed using Software Defined Network frameworks to enhance cybersecurity of the smart grid, but there is a lack of benchmarking and comparative analyses among the many techniques. In this work, a distributed three-controller software-defined networking (D3-SDN) architecture, benchmarking, and comparative analysis with other techniques is presented. The selected distributed flat SDN architecture divides the network horizontally into multiple areas or clusters, where each cluster is handled by a single Open Network Operating System (ONOS) controller. A case study using the IEEE 118-bus system is provided to compare the performance of the presented ONOS-managed D3-SDN, against the POX controller. In addition, the proposed architecture outperforms a single SDN controller framework by a tenfold increase in throughput; a reduction in latency of > 20%; and an increase in throughput of approximately 11% during the DoS attack scenarios.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 2006580
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-178860
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English