Engineering resilient systems cloud computing architecture (ECCA): a collaborative and secure analysis framework

Abstract

Design and tradespace analysis of increasingly complex systems often require proprietary models from multiple industrial sources. These multi-partner collaborations require assurances that each company’s intellectual property will remain protected from unauthorized access or disclosure to competitors. In this paper, we present the security risks and considerations for these collaborations, and propose a cloud-based framework to address these concerns. The Engineering Resilient Systems (ERS) Cloud Computing Architecture (ECCA) system enables secure collaboration in the Department of Defense community, providing an infrastructure restricting access to connectable containerized assets: models and simulations, each of which remain isolated and maintained on the owner’s own cloud. ECCA further prevents unauthorized access to sensitive assets and infection by malicious media with an access control system supported by secure gRPC messaging and access agreements. We demonstrate the capability to connect disparate models for a simplified combat simulation and then how the new multi-model scenario enables additional capabilities in tradespace analysis.