Exploring the security landscape: NoC-based MPSoC to Cloud-of-Chips

Abstract

In this paper, we present a detailed and systematic overview of communication security aspects of Multi-Processor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoC) and the emerging potential threats on the novel Cloud-of-Chips (CoC) paradigm. The CoC concept refers to highly scalable and composable systems, assembled not only at system design-time using RTL, like traditional SoC, but also at integrated circuit (IC) packaging time thanks to 3D-IC integration technology. Practical implementation of CoC systems needs to solve the problem of scalable, configurable and secure communication not only between different functional blocks in a single ICs, but also between different ICs in a single package, and between different packages on the same or different PCBs and even between different systems. To boost such extremely flexible communication infrastructure CoC system relies on Software-Defined Network-on-Chip (SDNoC) paradigm that combines design-time configurability of on-chip systems (NoC) and highly configurable communication of macroscopic systems (SDN). This study first explores security threats and existing solutions for traditional MPSoC platforms. Afterwards, we propose SDNoC as an alternative to MPSoC communication security, and we further extend our discussion to CoC systems to identify additional security concerns. Moreover, we present a comparison of SDNoC based approach over existing approaches and discuss its potential advantages.