Combining Simulation and Emulation Systems for Smart Grid Planning and Evaluation

Software-defined networking (SDN) enables efficient network management. As the technology matures, utilities are looking to integrate those benefits to their operations technology (OT) networks. To help the community to better understand and evaluate the effects of such integration, we develop DSSnet, a testing platform that combines a power distribution system simulator and an SDN-based network emulator for smart grid planning and evaluation. DSSnet relies on a container-based virtual time system to achieve efficient synchronization between the simulation and emulation systems. To enhance the system scalability and usability, we extend DSSnet to support a distributed controller environment. To enhance system fidelity, we extend the virtual time system to support kernel-based switches. We also evaluate the system performance of DSSnet and demonstrate the usability of DSSnet with a resilient demand response application case study.