Federated Agent-based Modeling and Simulation Approach to Study Interdependencies in IT Critical Infrastructures

Agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) is one of the more promising simulation techniques to study the interdependencies in critical infrastructures. Moreover, federated simulation has two relevant properties, simulation models reuse and expertise sharing, that could be exploited in a multi-sectorial field, such as critical infrastructure protection. In this paper we propose a new methodology which exploits the benefit of both ABMS and Federated simulation, to study interdependencies in critical infrastructures. First of all we discus advantages of federated agent-based modeling and difficulties in implementing a Federated ABMS framework. To demonstrate the relevance of our solution we propose an example driven approach that poses the attention on critical information infrastructure. We have also implemented a Federated ABMS framework, which federate Repast, an agent-based simulation engine and OMNeT++ an IT systems and communication networks modeling and simulation environment. A selection of simulation results shown how Federated ABMS could shed light on system interdependencies and how it helps in quantifying them.