Optimal Tree Construction Model for Cyber-Attacks to Wide Area Measurement Systems

The rapid deployment of phasor measurements in smart grid transmission system has opened opportunities to utilize new applications and enhance the grid operations. Thus, the smart grid has become more dependent on communication and information technologies, such as wide area measurement systems (WAMSs). WAMS are used to collect real-time measurement from sensors across widely dispersed areas. Such systems will improve real-time monitoring and control; however, recent studies have pointed out that the use of WAMS introduces significant vulnerabilities to the smart grid that can be leveraged by attackers. Therefore, preventing or reducing the damage of cyber attacks is critical to the security of the smart grid. In this paper, we focus on the relation between cyber-attack propagation and IP multicast routing, which is an essential aspect to the collection of phasor measurement units (PMUs) measurements. To this extent, we formulate the problem as the construction of a multicast tree that minimizes the propagation of cyber-attacks, while satisfying real-time and capacity requirements. The proposed attack propagation multicast tree is evaluated using IEEE 14-bus, IEEE 24-bus, IEEE 39-bus, the New England 39-bus, and IEEE 57-bus test systems.