Design for Resilience of Networked Critical Infrastructures

Any critical infrastructure is controlled and managed by networked information and communication technologies (ICT) systems. Tremendous progress in the emerging area of ubiquitous, pervasive and tangible computing enables hardware and software to be integrated to a degree that makes possible a technological revolution in which ICT systems merged with physical infrastructure will be transformed together into a vast intelligence network, called an 'eNetwork'. eNetworks are the 'nervous system' of interdependent critical infrastructures and as such are the 'the weakest link'. We introduce a novel approach to building resilient critical supply networks of any kind (electricity, water, gas, finances, materials and products, etc). The proposed approach endows the eNetworked infrastructure with self-awareness such that it is able to identify possible threats or emerging vulnerabilities and reconfigure itself to attain resilience to both accidental failures and malicious attacks. By using natural models of emergence, much in the same manner that DNA is controlled in genetic engineering, we will be able to control the emergence of a network configuration resilient to anticipated threats before they manifest. The novelty consists in the integration of context-aware modelling as a tool for controlling the clustering mechanism through which the eNetwork self-organizes its services to tune its resilience according to the dynamics of the occurring situation. A significant step forward in the area of complexity science this novel approach enables a major breakthrough in the way we interact with the surrounding environment and physical world. Resilient eNetworks open perspectives unthinkable before on how to approach major technological, economic, societal and ecological problems of international concern, such as blackout-free electricity generation and distribution, optimization of energy consumption, networked transportation and manufacturing, disaster response, efficient agriculture, environmental monitoring, financial risk and sustainability assessment.