The extension of AMICI with IEC61850.

This experimentation tool and its applicability are documented in the following publication:

I. Kiss, B. Genge, and P. Haller, Behavior-based Critical Cyber Asset Identification in Process Control Systems Under Cyber Attacks, in 16th International Carpathian Control Conference, pp.196-201, 27-30 May 2015, DOI: 10.1109/CarpathianCC.2015.7145073, Print ISBN: 978-1-4799-7369-9.

Figure 1 illustrates the general architecture of the first framework. The cyber threats disturb the communication lines between sensor and actuator device’s IEC 61850 server and IEC 61850 clients. Especially, the devices that are compatible with the IEC 61850 are often referred to as IED (Intelligent Electronic Devices). According to this figure, the sensor and actuator values are generated by the process simulation model and are tied to IED servers. In practice, these servers are integrated in each IED. On the other side, IED clients are ready to read the server values and to set the variable setpoints.


Figure 1: AMICI extended with IEC 61850.

According to this figure, the sensor and actuator values are generated by the process simulation model and are tied to IED servers. In practice, these servers are integrated in each IED. On the other side, IED clients are ready to read the server values and to set the variable setpoints.

The implementation of this framework employs the libIEC61850 open-source library [1]. In the case of the Tennessee Eastman chemical process the execution of the model takes place in the server software, while the control actions are made via IED clients. Once the framework is started, the communication line signaled with red in Figure 1 will transfer the measurement and setpoint values in each sample time between the IED server and the client. Through this scenario the study of cyber attacks that target communication lines between devices and thus the analysis of the effects of cyber attacks on physical processes becomes straightforward. The steps required in the construction of experimentation scenarios are the following:

  • Model the physical process in Matlab.
  • Implement the controller structure, which communicate via IEC 61850 with the process model.
  • Start AMICI with the loaded process and controller modules.
  • Implement the desired attack scenarios.
  • Perform the attacks and see the immediate behavior of the simulated system.

The software can be downloaded from here

[1] libIEC61850 | open source library for IEC 61850. URL http://libiec61850.com/libiec61850/.