Ontology-based critical infrastructure modeling and simulation

Abstract

This paper describes a knowledge-based system (KBS) designed to support a federated environment for simulating critical infrastructure models. A federation of simulators is essentially a "system of systems," where each simulator represents an entity that operates independently with its own behavior and purpose. The interactions among the components of the federated system of systems exhibit critical infrastructure vulnerabilities as emergent behavior; these vulnerabilities cannot be analyzed and simulated by considering the behavior of each system component individually. The KBS, which is based on ontologies and rules, provides a semantic foundation for the federated simulation environment and enables the dynamic binding of different critical infrastructure models. The KBS-based simulation environment can be used to identify latent critical infrastructure interdependencies and to test assumptions about interdependencies. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2009.