Towards Virtualization of Operational Technology to Enable Large-Scale System Testing

This paper presents the concept of virtual Operational Technology (OT) which can operate as a standalone component and can be integrated into a multi domain smart grid test platform. Virtualization of smart grid devices helps to analyze cyber physical security studies and can enable large scale system testing. With virtualization, several devices that mimic real behavior of OT such as Remote Terminal Unit (RTU), Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) and Phasor measurement Unit (PMU) can operate. This reduces the need for hardware deployment of components for system testing. The virtual OT is a flexible and scalable solution which uses communication protocols to communicate with external applications. For proof of concept, the behavior and operation of a virtual RTU which uses the IEC 60870-5-104 protocol has been evaluated in a real time smart grid platform. The RTUs have been simulated in a power system environment with a communication emulator and different voltage control scenarios are demonstrated. Cyber physical attack on the device level has been performed which shows the effect of malfunctioned devices on the power system.