Cyber-Resilience Enhancement of PMU Networks Using Software-Defined Networking

Abstract

Phasor measurement unit (PMU) networks are increasingly deployed to offer timely and high-precision measurement of today’s highly interconnected electric power systems. To enhance the cyber-resilience of PMU networks against malicious attacks and system errors, we develop an optimization-based network management scheme based on the software-defined networking (SDN) communication infrastructure to recovery PMU network connectivity and restore power system observability. The scheme enables fast network recovery by optimizing the path generation and installation process, and moreover, compressing the SDN rules to be installed on the switches. We develop a prototype system and perform system evaluation in terms of power system observability, recovery speed, and rule compression using the IEEE 30-bus system and IEEE 118-bus system.