A metaheuristic approach for security budget allocation in utility networks

Jochen Janssens, Luca Talarico and Kenneth Sörensen

Working Papers from University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics

Abstract: Real-life utility networks such as smart grids, pipelines and water networks can be exposed to safety and security related risk. Preventative measures can be applied to mitigate such risks that may result in service interruptions for the users of these networks. An index of (dis)connectivity, that measures how many users will be affected by a network failure, is defined and embedded into a model aimed at increasing security in a utility network. The model proposed in this paper assumes that all edges (e.g. pipes, cables) and nodes (e.g. switching- or connection stations, substations in an electricity network) have a certain probability of failing (due to external attacks), which can be reduced by taking appropriate security strategies. It then determines the security strategies that should be taken to minimize the probability of disconnecting any node from any other node. We propose a metaheuristic approach to solve this problem. Detailed experiments on realistic instances are conducted and the relationship between solutions and problem parameters are tested by simulating different scenarios.

Keywords: Network security; Metaheuristics; Knapsack problem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2014-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-net
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ant:wpaper:2014028

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