Paper on IEMI coupling to electrical and communications cables

Paper on the coupling of intentional electromagnetic interference IEMI to electrical and communications cables accepted for publication in IEEE Transaction on Electromagnetic Compatibility.

Modern civilian society is dependent on a number of systems that must function together in order to enable society itself to function. Intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI) attacks targeted at such “critical infrastructure” could have an adverse impact on our defence and economic security. Wired electrical and communication systems are a key component of many critical infrastructures so it is therefore important to understand how IEMI penetrates into them. This paper presents results that quantify the coupling of IEMI to a “raceway” containing power, Ethernet and telephone cables from 200 MHz to 6 GHz.

The paper is the result of a collaboration between the AEG and EPFL, with EPFL conducting the low frequency experiments in a GTEM cell and the AEG undertaking complimentary high frequency measurments in a reverberation chamber. The work was part of the ERC funded STRUCTURES project that analysed the possible impacts of IEMI attacks and identified mitigation measures that can be applied. Full details can be found in the paper (Mora et al., 2016).

References

1. Mora, N., Flintoft, I.D., Dawson, L., Dawson, J.F., Rachidi, F., Rubinstein, M., Marvin, A.C., Bertholet, P. and Nyffeler, M., 2016. Experimental characterization of the response of an electrical and communication raceway to IEMI. IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility, 58(2), pp.494–505.
   

   This paper reports the results of two experimental campaigns aimed at studying the high-frequency response of a raceway containing low voltage power, telephone, and Ethernet cables, to external electromagnetic field illumination. The raceway was tested against HPEM transients inside a gigahertz transverse electromagnetic (GTEM) cell and low-power fields inside a reverberation chamber (RC). The high-power electromagnetic (HPEM) tests revealed that the low-voltage power cables have the greatest coupling under a hyperband illumination, compared to telephone and Ethernet cables. The RC tests allowed the determination of statistical transfer functions from random incident field configurations into DM voltage in cable loads. The responses were found to be governed by the raceway under test at the lower frequencies (below 1 GHz). Between 0.2 and 1 GHz, the raceway gives about 10 dB higher coupling than a short patch cable. The difference is even greater at lower frequencies and for shielded cables. In the frequency band 1-3 GHz, little difference was observed between short patch cables and the full raceway, but both were still significantly higher than direct coupling to the measurement card. Beyond 3 GHz, the coupling is clearly dominated by the terminal equipment. The experiments performed in this paper provide a better understanding of the expected induced voltages and currents in commercial cable systems when exposed to intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI)-like signals.

   @article{Mora2016,
     author = {Mora, N. and Flintoft, I. D. and Dawson, L. and Dawson, J. F. and Rachidi, F. and Rubinstein, M. and Marvin, A. C. and Bertholet, P. and Nyffeler, M.},
     title = {Experimental characterization of the response of an electrical and communication raceway to IEMI},
     journal = {IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility},
     year = {2016},
     volume = {58},
     number = {2},
     pages = {494-505},
     month = apr,
     issn = {0018-9375},
     note = {Date of acceptance: 12/12/2015. © 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.},
     doi = {10.1109/TEMC.2015.2510423},
     file = {:pdfs/TEMC58-Mora-494.pdf:PDF},
     keywords = {Intentional electromagnetic interference, immunity testing, EMP radiation effects, reverberation chambers, electromagnetic coupling, cable shielding},
     postprint = {https://pure.york.ac.uk/portal/files/46384003/TEMC2510423_postprint.pdf},
     publisher = {IEEE}
   }