Distributed watermarking for secure control of microgrids under replay attacks

TL;DR

This paper proposes a distributed watermarking technique to detect replay attacks in microgrid communication networks, enhancing security of hierarchical control systems through a designed watermark signal and simulation validation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel watermarking approach for replay attack detection in microgrid control networks, with specific conditions for watermark design and effectiveness demonstration.

Findings

Watermarking enables reliable replay attack detection.

Designed watermark conditions guarantee attack detectability.

Simulations confirm the method's effectiveness in microgrid scenarios.

Abstract

The problem of replay attacks in the communication network between Distributed Generation Units (DGUs) of a DC microgrid is examined. The DGUs are regulated through a hierarchical control architecture, and are networked to achieve secondary control objectives. Following analysis of the detectability of replay attacks by a distributed monitoring scheme previously proposed, the need for a watermarking signal is identified. Hence, conditions are given on the watermark in order to guarantee detection of replay attacks, and such a signal is designed. Simulations are then presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique.