An Agent-based Service-Oriented Simulation Suite for Critical Infrastructure Behavior Analysis Ebrahim Bagheri, Hamidreza Baghi and Ali A. Ghorbani Intelligent and Adaptive Systems Lab, Faculty of Computer Science, Univer- sity of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N.B., Canada, {e.bagheri, hamid.baghi, ghorbani}@unb.ca Alireza Yari Iran Telecommuniation Research Center (ITRC), Tehran, Iran, a yari@itrc.ac.ir Abstract: Critical infrastructure systems are complex networks of adaptive socio- technical systems that provide the most fundamental requirements of the society. Their importance in the smooth conduct of the society has made their role more and more prominent. A failure in any of these important components of today’s industrial society can well affect the lives of millions of people. It is not only their individual break down that raises serious concerns, but their mutual reliance (interdependency) is even more threatening. Although interdependency in these infrastructure systems provides many benefits for their operation, a failure in one can ripple down to the others and cause a catastrophic irremunerable event. In this paper, we have introduced a simulation suite for analyzing the behavior of interdependent critical infrastructure systems. The simulation suite focuses on the types of services that are provided by infrastructure components. Each infrastructure system component is modeled as an agent and its services as its behavior. We believe that this simulation suite can assist researchers in better understanding critical infrastructure behavior and hence prevent catastrophic failures. Keywords: Critical Infrastructure Systems, Modeling, Simulation, Interdependency 1 Introduction The California power crisis in the year 2000 (Purdum (2001)) and the tragic 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York (Bram et al. (2002)) are clear depictions of threat towards the most influential and operational elements of both the society and industry: Critical Infrastructures. Critical in- frastructures are fundamentally considered to be those na- tional or even internationally moderated systems whose prolonged disruption could cause significant military, eco- nomic, or social disturbance (CIP-Commission (1997)). Their prominent but concealed role in the ordinary every day life of each citizen signifies their importance and dev- astates the state of their disruption. Imagining the direct consequences of a slight interruption in the correct oper- ation of only the electricity infrastructure in a small city, clarifies to what extent the normal pace of life is distressed. One of the major threats towards the normal operation of these complicated systems is their extreme internal com- plexity. These infrastructures mostly consist of a diverse range of systems and operational elements that form a very intricate structure. It will be inevitable to see undesired or even sprouting internal interdependencies between the interior systems of an infrastructure system. Critical infrastructures are also vulnerable to terrorist or malicious attacks. Exploring different reasons or intentions of the launchers of such spiteful activities is important for the prevention of their actual occurrence. Classifying in- frastructures through a terrorist attack vulnerability anal- ysis provides a good understanding of the threats and haz- ards that infrastructure systems may be facing. It would be much easier to avoid such incidents based on this anal- ysis or its least benefit would be the possibility of creating appropriate recovery plans. Critical infrastructure’s mutual interdependency is the Copyright c  200x Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.