Critical Infrastructures (CI) that are vital for a society and an economy, such as telecommunication systems, energy supply systems, transport systems and others, are getting more and more complex. Dependencies emerge in various ways, due to the use of information and communication technologies, legislation, market liberalisation, and other factors. The understanding of the complex system of CI with all their dependencies and interdependencies is still immature. Yet these systems need to be protected, for instance, against cascading failures that may affect several sectors. Research in the area of Critical Infrastructures Protection (CIP) therefore has to rely on using simulation systems. For simulating complex scenarios with dependencies between different sectors, typically heterogeneous federated simulations are used, but general modelling interoperability approaches or standards are missing. The EU funded project DIESIS proposes to establish the basis for a European modelling and simulation research facility based upon open standards to foster and support research on all aspects of CI with a specific focus on their protection. DIESIS performs a thorough conceptual design study in order to prepare the establishment of such a research facility. A part of this design study -- the technical proof-of-concept -- is a federated simulation employing three different CI simulators. The interoperability approach is scenario-based and employs CI ontologies at three different levels: federation, infrastructure domain, and simulator. A quality-of-service-enhanced communication middleware will enable distributed simulation. This article describes the main aspects of the work within the DIESIS project.
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