Common Open Research Emulator Research Articles

An Approach to Remote Update Embedded Systems in the Internet of Things

There is a growing initiative on the part of regulatory bodies to employ control over firmware emissions destined for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. In this scenario, this paper presents a new approach, called SOTARU, which proposes the use of a consortium Blockchain among embedded system manufacturers as a way to allow access to the update history of devices from multiple manufacturers through a single infrastructure. The security and robustness of the proposal were evaluated with the help of the Common Open Research Emulator (CORE) distributed network emulator. As a result, it was found that SOTARU stands out in terms of security when compared to other approaches proposed in the literature, as well as being functional even in high latency scenarios.

Alternating-Current Microgrid Testbed Built with Low-Cost Modular Hardware

With the growing popularity of microgrids for alternative energy management, there is demand for tools that allow us to study the effect of microgrids in distributed power systems. Popular methods involve software simulation and prototype validation with physical hardware. Simulations often do not capture the complex interactions, and combinations of software simulations with hardware testbeds promise to give a more accurate picture. These testbeds, however, usually aim at the validation of hardware for industrial-scale use, which makes them expensive and not readily accessible. To fill the gap between full-scale hardware and software simulation, we propose a modular lab-scale grid model at a 1:100 power scale over residential single-phase networks with 12 V AC and 60 Hz grid voltage. We present different modules-power sources, inverters, demanders, grid monitors, and grid-to-grid bridges-that can be assembled into distributed grids of almost arbitrary complexity. The model voltage poses no electrical hazards, and microgrids can readily be assembled with an open power line model. Unlike a prior DC-based grid testbed, the proposed AC model allows us to examine additional aspects, such as frequency, phase, active and apparent power, and reactive loads. Grid metrics, including the discretely sampled voltage and current waveforms, can be collected and sent to higher-tier grid management systems. We integrated the modules with Beagle Bone micro-PCs, which in turn connect any such microgrid with an emulation platform built on CORE (Common Open Research Emulator) and the Gridlab-D power simulator, thereby allowing hybrid software/hardware simulations. Our grid modules were shown to fully operate in this environment. Through the CORE system, multitiered control and even remote grid management is possible. However, we also found that the AC waveform poses design challenges that require us to balance accurate emulation (most notably with respect to harmonic distortion) with per-module costs.

Novel Framework-Based Routing for Task-Adaptive Mobile Networks of Unmanned Aerial Vehicular

Many practical mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) have certain tasks instead of just randomly changing each node’s positions. We call such a mission-driven network task-adaptive MANET. A typical example is the flying ad hoc network (FANET) that consist of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which may change its network topology based on different task requirements. Each node moves to new locations based on the targeted network shape. To maintain a smooth topology transformation and minimize the position changes, during shape change, a MANET typically keeps the core-area nodes more stable and allows the nodes in the outer area of the network to move more drastically. This means the entire network has an approximate framework that reflects the relatively stable nodes located in the core area. This research proposes a new routing scheme to quickly identify the optimal end-to-end path using the network framework extraction result. The proposed routing scheme ensures that the packets flow along the more stable network regions (thus with a lower packet loss rate). The framework extraction scheme is based on network shape geometry analysis for the median axis recognition. Our work has contributions to three aspects of realistic network protocol applications: (1) Provides a network multi-center election and member control methodology with detailed protocol design. (2) Creates a stable and reliable MANET framework extraction algorithm which aids in routing table generation. (3) Real-time Unix system protocol implementation and emulation based on Common Open Research Emulator (CORE) + Extendable Mobile Ad-hoc Network Emulator (EMANE). Simulation results indicate that our framework-based routing scheme outperforms a popularly used mobility-adaptive MANET routing scheme—OLSR (optimized link state routing)—in terms of throughput and delay.

Design and evaluation of a cyber‐physical testbed for improving attack resilience of power systems

A power system is a complex cyber-physical system whose security is critical to its function. A major challenge is to model and analyze its communication pathways with respect to cyber threats. To achieve this, the design and evaluation of a cyber-physical power system (CPPS) testbed called Resilient Energy Systems Lab (RESLab) is presented that captures realistic cyber, physical, and protection system features. RESLab is architected to be a fundamental tool for studying and improving the resilience of complex CPPS to cyber threats. The cyber network is emulated using Common Open Research Emulator (CORE) that acts as a gateway for the physical and protection devices to communicate. The physical grid is simulated in the dynamic time frame using PowerWorld Dynamic Studio (PWDS). The protection components are modeled with both PWDS and physical devices including the SEL Real-Time Automation Controller (RTAC). Distributed Network Protocol 3 (DNP3) is used to monitor and control the grid. Then, exemplifying the design and validation of these tools, this paper presents four case studies on cyber-attack and defense using RESLab, where we demonstrate false data and command injection using Man-in-the-Middle and Denial of Service attacks and validate them on a large-scale synthetic electric grid.

Model and simulations of multipath bridge routing for inter-swarm UAV communications in EMANE/CORE

ABSTRACT The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) network is a special type of mobile ad hoc network (MANET). 1 There are two types of UAV swarm communications: Communications within a swarm (i.e. intra-swarm) and communication between different swarms (i.e. inter-swarm). This paper proposes the concept of bridge routing to establish the route(s) for efficient inter-swarm communications. The bridge routing scheme is a progressive process with two functions: UAV formation control and data transmissions. Based on the bridge routing topology, we have implemented the multipath user datagram protocol (MP-UDP), as a sub-layer between the transport and application layers. Compared with the multipath transmission control protocol (MP-TCP), MP-UDP is more suitable to the dynamic network topologies, since it does not use the high-overhead sliding window control. We have used the emulator tools, the Extendable Mobile Ad -hoc Network Emulator (EMANE) and Common Open Research Emulator (CORE) to implement and study the QoS performance of MP-UDP and bridge routing in UAV swarm networks. Our results demonstrate the improved throughput performance for inter-swarm communications. Approved for Public Release; distribution unlimited 88ABW-2020-2122 on 13 July 2020. Other requests shall be referred to AFRL/RIT 525 Brooks Rd Rome, NY 13,441

Distributed Software Emulator for Cyber-Physical Analysis in Smart Grid

A smart grid is a highly complex cyber-physical electrical power system that uses two-way digital communication and intelligent embedded devices to achieve sensing, control, computation, and communication within power network. To validate the functionality, security, and reliability of such a system requires the modeling and emulation of both communication network and power network, as well as the interactions between them. In this paper, we present smart-grid common open research emulator (SCORE), a distributed software emulator for cyber-physical analysis in smart grid. SCORE integrates the emulations of both power network and communication network, and it is highlighted by the following features. First, SCORE is the first software emulation platform for smart grid, which means that the same application program running in SCORE can be directly ported to embedded devices with little or no migration issues. Second, for one smart grid instance, SCORE supports distributed emulation when the instance is in very large scale. Third, for multiple smart grid emulation instances running on different networked computers, SCORE allows them to dynamically connect or disconnect with each other in run time, such that each instance can capture its own interior system dynamics even without a prior knowledge of the entire smart grid topology.