Open Field Message Bus (OpenFMB) Proof of Concept Implementation: NIST TN 2066
July 29, 2020

There is a smart grid messaging framework known as an Open Field Message Bus (OpenFMB); it describes a publish-and-subscribe model of communication for smart grid devices to enable efficient communication of data. A new publication, NIST Technical Note (TN) 2066, OpenFMB Proof-of-Concept Implementation Research, focuses on the cybersecurity risk implications of deployments and a proof-of-concept implementation of OpenFMB. In this research, an OpenFMB installation was implemented on hardware simulating smart grid devices. The publication documents the motivations for the implementation and provides basic sample network performance measurements when security features were enabled. Subsequent NIST analysis of OpenFMB and its possible implementations will focus on threat analyses of the framework, implementations, and cybersecurity recommendations.