Computation and Communication Evaluation of an Authentication Mechanism for Time-Triggered Networked Control Systems.

Goncalo Martins,Abhishek Dubey,Xenofon Koutsoukos,Anirban Bhattacharjee,Arul Moondra

doi:10.3390/s16081166

Abstract

In modern networked control applications, confidentiality and integrity are important features to address in order to prevent against attacks. Moreover, network control systems are a fundamental part of the communication components of current cyber-physical systems (e.g., automotive communications). Many networked control systems employ Time-Triggered (TT) architectures that provide mechanisms enabling the exchange of precise and synchronous messages. TT systems have computation and communication constraints, and with the aim to enable secure communications in the network, it is important to evaluate the computational and communication overhead of implementing secure communication mechanisms. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the effects of adding a Hash-based Message Authentication (HMAC) to TT networked control systems. The contributions of the paper include (1) the analysis and experimental validation of the communication overhead, as well as a scalability analysis that utilizes the experimental result for both wired and wireless platforms and (2) an experimental evaluation of the computational overhead of HMAC based on a kernel-level Linux implementation. An automotive application is used as an example, and the results show that it is feasible to implement a secure communication mechanism without interfering with the existing automotive controller execution times. The methods and results of the paper can be used for evaluating the performance impact of security mechanisms and, thus, for the design of secure wired and wireless TT networked control systems.

Highlights

There is a continuing demand to provide services required for predictable message communication of safety-critical control applications, such as drive-by-wire in automotive systems
Time-triggered network control systems are a fundamental part of the communication components of current cyber-physical systems
Secure communication mechanisms need to be incorporated without affecting the overall system stability, and the impact performance of secure messages should be analyzed in existing network communications

Summary

Introduction

There is a continuing demand to provide services required for predictable message communication of safety-critical control applications, such as drive-by-wire in automotive systems. In such systems where the failure of the system can lead to serious injury or even death, it is important that the system provides real-time communication guarantees. Networks in automotive systems and avionics require distributed architectures to support safety-critical real-time control. For such systems, Time-Triggered Architectures (TTA) offer significant advantages in terms of safety, reliability and fault tolerance [2,3].

Objectives

Results

Conclusion