research-article

Using mobile agents and overlay networks to secure electrical networks

Authors:

Neal Dawes,

Bryan Prosser,

Errin W. Fulp,

A. David McKinnonAuthors Info & Claims

CSIIRW '13: Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Cyber Security and Information Intelligence Research Workshop

Article No.: 32, Pages 1 - 4

https://doi.org/10.1145/2459976.2460012

Published: 08 January 2013 Publication History

Get Access

Abstract

The use of wandering, mobile agents can provide a robust approach for managing, monitoring, and securing electrical distribution networks. However, the topological structure of an electrical network can affect the agents' ability to monitor the network. For example, if the multi-agent system relies on a regular inspection rate (on average, points of interest are inspected with equal frequency), then locations that are not well connected within the network will on average be inspected less frequently. This results in lower observability into network operations and it also allows issues, either simple faults or adversarial actions, to persist longer in the network before they can be identified and addressed.

This paper discusses creation and use of overlay networks that create a virtual grid graph that can provide faster coverage and a more uniform average agent sampling rate. Using overlays, agents wander a virtual neighborhood consisting of points of interest that are interconnected in a regular fashion (each point has the same number of neighbors). Experimental results show that using an overlay can often provide better network coverage and a uniform inspection rate, which can improve cyber security by providing a faster detection of threats.

References

[1]

David P. Chassin and Christian Posse. Evaluating north american electric grid reliability using the Barabási Albert network model. Physica A, 355:667--677, 2005.

Crossref

Google Scholar

[2]

Michael B. Crouse, Jacob L. White, Errin W. Fulp, and Glenn A. Fink. Using swarming agents for scalable security in large network environments. In Proceedings of the 54th IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2011.

Crossref

Google Scholar

[3]

G. Deconinck, W. Labeeuw, S. Vandael, H. Beitollahi, K. De Craemer, Rui Duan, Zhifeng Qui, P. C. Ramaswamy, B. Vande Meerssche, I. Vervenne, and R. Belmans. Communication overlays and agents for dependable smart power grids. In Critical Infrastructure (CRIS), 2010 5th International Conference on, sept. 2010.

Crossref

Google Scholar

[4]

R. Duan and G. Deconinck. Agent coordination for supply and demand match in microgrids with auction mechanism. In Infrastructure Systems and Services: Building Networks for a Brighter Future (INFRA), 2008 First International Conference on, pages 1--4, nov. 2008.

Google Scholar

[5]

Glenn A. Fink, Kenneth S. Berenhaut, and Christopher S. Oehmen. Directional bias and pheromone for detection and verification on networks. In Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems, 2012.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[6]

Jereme N. Haack, Glenn A. Fink, Wendy M. Maiden, David McKinnon, and Errin W. Fulp. Ant-based cyber defense. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Information Technology New Generations, 2011.

Google Scholar

[7]

Olle Häggström and Matematisk Statistik. Finite Markov Chains and Algorithmic Applications. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Google Scholar

[8]

P. Hines, S. Blumsack, E. Cotilla Sanchez, and C. Barrows. The topological and electrical structure of power grids. In 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), pages 1--10, jan. 2010.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[9]

Sarvapali D. Ramchurn, Perukrishnen Vytelingum, Alex Rogers, and Nick Jennings. Agent-based control for decentralised demand side management in the smart grid. In The 10th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems - Volume 1, AAMAS '11, pages 5--12, 2011.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[10]

Sylvia Ratnasamy, Paul Francis, Mark Handley, Richard Karp, and Scott Shenker. A scalable content-addressable network. SIGCOMM Computer Communications Review, 31(4):161--172, August 2001.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[11]

Albert Reka and Barabási. Statistical mechanics of complex networks. Rev. Mod. Phys., 74:47--97, June 2002.

Crossref

Google Scholar

[12]

Duncan J. Watts and Steven H. Strogatz. Collective dynamics of small-world networks. Nature, 393(6684):440--442, June 1998.

Crossref

Google Scholar

Cited By

View all

Fink GMcKinnon ACriado NRehak MSuch JVercouter L(2014)Effects of network delays on swarming in a multi-agent security systemProceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Agents and CyberSecurity10.1145/2602945.2602955(1-8)Online publication date: 6-May-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2602945.2602955

Index Terms

Using mobile agents and overlay networks to secure electrical networks

Recommendations

Small-world overlay P2P networks: construction, management and handling of dynamic flash crowds

We consider how to construct and maintain a structured overlay P2P network based on the small-world paradigm. Two main attractive properties of a small-world network are (1) a low average hop distance between any two randomly chosen nodes, and (2) a ...
Dependable Overlay Networks
PRDC '08: Proceedings of the 2008 14th IEEE Pacific Rim International Symposium on Dependable Computing

Today, peer-to-peer (P2P) systems are used as a promising platform to deploy new applications and services in the internet. There are much interest in emerging P2P overlay network because they provide a good substrate for creating large scale data ...
Ranking factors in peer-to-peer overlay networks

A large number of peer processes are distributed in a peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network. It is difficult, maybe impossible for a peer to perceive the membership and location of every resource object due to the scalability and openness of a P2P network. ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

CSIIRW '13: Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Cyber Security and Information Intelligence Research Workshop

January 2013

282 pages

ISBN:9781450316873

DOI:10.1145/2459976

Editors:
Frederick Sheldon
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
,
Annarita Giani
Los Alamos National Laboratory
,
Axel Krings
University of Idaho
,
Robert Abercrombie
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 08 January 2013

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Funding Sources

U.S. Department of Energy

Conference

CSIIRW '13

Sponsor:

Los Alamos National Labs
Sandia National Labs
DOE
Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
BERKELEYLAB
Argonne Natl Lab
Idaho National Lab.
Nevada National Security Site

CSIIRW '13: Cyber Security and Information Intelligence

January 8 - 10, 2013

Tennessee, Oak Ridge, USA

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

1
Total Citations
View Citations
168
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)0
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

Reflects downloads up to 07 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

Fink GMcKinnon ACriado NRehak MSuch JVercouter L(2014)Effects of network delays on swarming in a multi-agent security systemProceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Agents and CyberSecurity10.1145/2602945.2602955(1-8)Online publication date: 6-May-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2602945.2602955

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Abstract

References

Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations

Small-world overlay P2P networks: construction, management and handling of dynamic flash crowds

Dependable Overlay Networks

Ranking factors in peer-to-peer overlay networks

Comments

Information

Published In

Sponsors

Publisher

Publication History

Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Funding Sources

Conference

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Login options

Full Access

View options

PDF

eReader

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media

Affiliations