Michele Minichino

ENEA | ENEA · Technical Unit for Energy and Environmental Modeling UTMEA

The present paper deals with the topic of the planning of distribution networks, equipped with Dispersed Generation (DG), and so active grids. Different issues related of this topic are widely present in the scientific literature of the last years, due to the big spread of renewable energy sources (RES), typically in small generation power plants c...

There is an increasing concern over the cyber security of Critical Infrastructures (CI) due to the increasing ability of cyber attackers to cause even catastrophic failures. It is mainly due to the pervasiveness of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and to the consequent de isolation of SCADA (Supervision, Control and Data Acquisition...

We propose a cross-domain methodology to model and evaluate efficiency indicators of a Medium Voltage/Low Voltage (MV/LV) smart grid and its SCADA, interdependent, at physical layer and ICT layer, with water and gas urban networks. Models account the interdependency among the networks, a) adding, when possible, to the main sources of each network,...

Critical infrastructures, such as electrical grids, are monitored and controlled by SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) systems. Cyber attacks against SCADA might put CI and in turn industrial production, environment integrity and human safety at risk. Here, with reference to an actual case study, constituted by an electrical grid, its...

There is an increasing concern over the cyber security of Critical Infrastructures (CI) due to the increasing ability of cyber attackers to cause even catastrophic failures. It is mainly due to the pervasiveness of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and to the consequent de isolation of SCADA (Supervision, Control and Data Acquisition...

The role of network reliability in the analysis of Critical Infrastructures (CI) is investigated showing that the traditional approach must be extended in two directions: to include the packet propagation time along the links for real time analysis, and to include networks in which many sources may be variously connected to many sinks. A case study...

Traditional reliability studies on probabilistic net- works are devoted to evaluate the probability that two nodes or K nodes are connected, assuming that nodes are undifferentiated. In flow networks, however, we need to distinguish between source nodes where the flow is generated and sink nodes where the flow is utilized. Sink nodes may usually be...

In this demonstration we present the MICIE platform for on-line risk assessment in scenarios with heterogeneous interdependent Critical Infrastructures (CIs) such as power distribution networks, power plants, refineries, water distribution networks, transportation systems and telecommunication networks. These CIs are highly exposed to a large numbe...

The availability of power supply to power grid customers depends upon the availability of services of supervision, control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, which constitutes the nervous system of a power grid. In turn, SCADA services depend on the availability of the interconnected networks supporting such services. We propose a service oriente...

This paper illustrates the activities under development within the FP7 EU MICIE project. The project is devoted to design and implement an on-line alerting system, able to evaluate, in real time, the level of risk of interdependent Critical Infrastructures (CIs). Such a risk is generated by undesired events and by the high level of interconnection...

Indicators of Quality of Service (QoS) of Fault Isolation and System Restoration (FISR) service, delivered by SCADA system are computed, discussed and correlated to quality indicators of power supplied to customers. In delivering FISR service, SCADA system, Telco network and Power grid act as a whole heterogeneous network. While SCADA system and T...

The automation of power grids by means of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems has led to an improvement of power grid operations and functionalities but also to pervasive cyber interdependencies between power grids and telecommunication networks. Many power grid services are increasingly depending upon the adequate functionalit...

A network is a structure where any couple of nodes is normally connected by different independent paths, thus making the structure intrinsically dependable. For this reason, many natural, social and technological systems organize in the form of networks. Critical Infrastructures (CI) form a framework of interconnected and interdependent networks an...

We show how the Murϕmodel checker can be used to automatically carry out safety analysis of a quite complex hybrid system tele-controlling vehicles traffic inside a safety critical transport infrastructure such as a long bridge or a tunnel. We present the Murϕ model we developed towards this end as well as the experimental results we obtained by ru...

In this paper, we describe an experience of dependability assessment of a typical industrial Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). The PLC is based on a two out of three voting policy and it is intended to be used for safety functions. Safety assessment of computer based systems performing safety functions is regulated by standards and guidelines. I...

Performability measures of the Public Mobile Network (PMN) of a Tele Control System, under prototypal development inside the EU SAFETUNNEL Project, are predicted by using stochastic models. The Tele Control System has the aim of reducing the number of accidents inside the alpine road tunnels, by implementing safety policies between Instrumented Veh...

This paper deals with the automatic verification of the timeliness of Public Mobile Network (PMN), consisting of Mobile Nodes (MNs) and Base Stations (BSs). We use the Murphi Model Checker to verify that the waiting access time of each MN, under different PMN configurations and loads, and different inter arrival times of MNs in a BS cell, is always...

This paper shows how heterogeneous stochastic modelling techniques of increasing modelling power can be applied to assess the safety of a digital control system. First, a Fault-Tree (FT) has been built to model the system, assuming two-state components and independent failures. Then, the FT is automatically converted into a Bayesian Network, allowi...

The modeling and analysis of hybrid systems is a recent and challenging research area which is actually dominated by two main lines: a functional analysis based on the description of the system in terms of discrete state (hybrid) automata (whose goal is to ascertain conformity and reachability properties), and a stochastic analysis (whose aim is to...

Automatic analysis of Hybrid Systems poses formidable challenges both from a modeling as well as from a verification point of view. We present a case study on automatic verification of a Turbogas Control System (TCS) using an extended version of the Mur. verifier. TCS is the heart of ICARO, a 2MW Co-generative Electric Power Plant. For large hybrid...

The modeling and analysis of hybrid systems is a recent and challenging research area which is actually dominated by two main lines: a functional analysis based on the description of the system in terms of discrete state (hybrid) automata (whose goal is to ascertain for confor- mity and reachability properties), and a stochastic analysis (whose aim...

The paper describes a probabilistic approach based on methods of increasing modelling power and different analytical tractability, to analyse safety of turbine digital control system. First, a Fault-Tree (FT) has been built to model the system, assuming independent failures and binary states of its components. To include multi-states and sequential...

The paper describes two complementary and integrable approaches, a probabilistic one and a deterministic one, u sing classic a nd advanced modeling techniques for safety analysis of complex computer based systems. Such approaches are a pplied to the gas turbine c ontrol system of ICARO co generative plant, in operation at ENEA CR Casaccia. The prob...

Bayesian Networks (BN) provide a robust probabilistic method of reasoning under uncertainty. They have been successfully applied in a variety of real-world tasks but they have received little attention in the area of dependability. The present paper is aimed at exploring the capabilities of the BN formalism in the analysis of dependable systems. To...

Computer based systems, which are devoted to control critical functions, may incur in safety and dependability problems. In the safety area a new standard is currently emerging, IEC 61508, which is intended to provide a unified framework which may deserve as guideline for the analysis of safety related systems. The present paper deals with the safe...

Bayesian Networks (BN) provide a robust probabilistic method of reasoning under uncertainty. They have been successfully applied in a variety of real-world tasks and their suitability for dependability analysis is now considered by several researchers. In the present paper, we aim at defining a formal comparison between BN and one of the most popul...

Bayesian Networks (BN) provide a robust probabilistic method of reasoning under uncertainty. They have been successfully applied in a variety of real-world tasks and their suitability for dependability analysis is now considered by several researchers. In the present paper, we aim at defining a formal comparison between BN and one of the most popul...

In computing systems, bistable flip-flops are used to store binary variables and to resynchronize asynchronous signals in the various interfaces. These bistable devices can be driven by specific input conditions into a metastable state, where they may remain for a time predictable only in a statistical way. An output in metastability may introduce...

The integrated Protection System (IPS) is intended to perform the protection functions of the Italian Nuclear Power Plants. The IPS is based on a distributed microprocessor system architecture, and is designed to be highly reliable. The reliability is assured, from others, through the use of redundancy and functional diversity. Failures that, in sp...

A network is a structure where any couple of nodes is normally connected by different independent paths, thus making the structure intrinsically reliable. For this reason, many natural, social and technological systems organize in the form of networks. A tool for network reliability analysis, where different approaches are tested and compared, is i...

In this paper, we describe an experience of dependability assessment of a typical industrial Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). The PLC is based on a two out of three voting policy and it is intended to be used for safety functions. Safety assessment of computer based systems performing safety functions is regulated by standards and guidelines. I...

The EU research project, IRRIIS, addresses problems re- lated to interdependencies among large, complex, critical infrastructures (LCCI). The complexity of LCCIs and the variety of possible problems that can occur during LCCI operation suggest the need for a multifaceted approach to LCCI interdependency analysis. Consequently, within IR- RIIS, vari...

BACKGROUND - Although telemedicine was developed in the 1960s, it is only in recent years that its full application has become possible with the improvement of communication networks and the introduction of mobile terminals. The most successful applications have been developed in the fields of cardiology (with the trans-telephonic electrocardiograp...