SDN-Enabled Cyber-Physical Security in Networked Microgrids

A software-defined active synchronous detection (SDASD) is presented to protect networked microgrids (NMs) from cyberattacks on SDN network and power bot attacks on inverter controllers of distributed energy resources (DERs). A HostStatus_Checker is designed and embedded in an SDN controller to authenticate the entity of hosts for data communication of NMs. Based on the secured communication layer, active synchronous detection method is introduced to efficiently detect power bot attacks on DER controllers in NMs without impeding system normal operations. Extensive tests show that SDASD can detect and mitigate malicious attacks online and serve as a powerful safeguard for monitoring and protecting future NMs.