Development of Cyber-Physical Security Testbed for All-Electric Shipboard Power Systems
Abstract
The reliance on the shipping industry for stable economies across various regions continues to grow, motivating the need for improved infrastructure through digital migration of a more interconnected communication network between ports and vessels and developing technologies to obtain more efficient, low-cost operation, and environmentally viable solutions. Naval transportation is a key component for maintaining the economic integrity of various regions across the world, as it is estimated to account for 90% of the shipping of all goods. While all-electric ships (AESs) are a promising solution to relieve this economic burden and close the gap for reaching zero-emission levels by using a common electric source across the entire system, they are also susceptible to the growing cyberthreats. History shows that a variety of cyberattacks have been more feasible and easier to execute because of a lack of cyber-security consideration when designing ship and port systems. Development, implementation and maintenance of a cyber risk management approach for AESs is a challenge in the maritime industry. Cyber risk evaluation platforms that provide maritime stakeholders abilities to evaluate the risk, reliability, and resilience of the cyber-physical AESs under the emerging cyber threats are in urgent need.A range of Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) platforms relevant to electric power systems have been developed by governmental agencies,industrial companies and academic institutions; however, the existing platforms either concentrate on non-ship related applicationsor focus heavily on traditional PHIL testings that overlook the cyber-layer impact and hardly capture the complex interactions between cyber layer, physical layer and human interactions in shipboard power systems. Toward the goal of realizing cybersecure and resilient AESs, the objective of this project is to provide a high-fidelity cyber-physical platform for cybersecurity assessment, analysis, testing and validation. The proposed cyber-physical security (CPS) testbed will focus on a wide range of emerging cyber-physicalapplications and test scenarios closely relevant to AESs. It will facilitate cyber-physical vulnerability identification, risk assessment, intrusion detection, attack identification, and consequence mitigation of the AESs. This testbed can be used for decision support, situational awareness, performance study, protocol evaluation, standards development, resiliency assessment, and cyber penetration testing, all with state-of-the-art technologies needed for the development of next-generation AESs. The proposed testbed will also provide an educational, training and demonstration platform that governmental agencies, industry practitioners, external research and academic institutions may utilize for gaining hands-on experience and identifying research and development directions.The testbed will be the first of its kind in Kansas. It will provide Kanas State University, in a larger sense, Kansas and the Midwest, with new research capabilities to test various hypotheses and research ideas on advanced AES controls, simulation software, communications and security protocols, and standards under all possible envisioned operating conditions (e.g., firing an electromagnetic railgun, activating the onboard radar, steady-state travel, changing propulsion speed, docking, etc.). The CPS testbed allows for simulating realistic cyberattacks, faults, oscillations, and blackouts of ship power systems. It could enable testing models, algorithms, platforms, and devices to interact with high-fidelity real-time cyber and physical models operating with real-world communication protocols.This abstract is publically releasable
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 11, 2023
- Source ID
- N000142312777
Entities
People
- Hongyu Wu
Organizations
- Kansas State University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy