No time to blog today - I had a deadline for the final draft of my paper for Grid-Interop. Grid-Interop is a conference presented by the GridWise Architectural Council to engage public and private electric systems stakeholders in the integration issues in creating a more efficient, reliable, and resilient electric system.
Long time readers may have noticed how hard I have struggled to lose the academic tone of voice in writing. I hated to see it come back...
Well,here is the abstract.
True Scalability and interoperability require abstraction and security. Most control systems today expose name/value tag pairs as their interface. Interaction with exposed tag pairs requires a deep understanding of the underlying systems. Secure interaction with sets of tag pairs can only practically be exposed as monolithic yes/no decisions for the entire set. Lack of abstractions, in both process and security, are a barrier to new business interactions.
The smart grid will require integration with smart buildings and their associated power capabilities. Abstract models for system interaction will enable large-scale system integrations. Abstract service models will hide underlying system detail while exposing the diverse systems for orchestration.
Security is the application of policy to service. Situation awareness is required of any mature security model. Situation awareness is only useful when applied to abstractions above identity, above process, and above function. Only when these abstractions are defined, can one then define security.
Service abstractions and Security Abstractions must develop together. Security enables the open provision of business services. Defined services enable the definition of business policies. Service and security together enable open trustworthy interactions with third parties.
If you want find out more, see you in Albuquerque