Security and Survivability of Real-Time Communication Architecture for Connected-Vehicle Eco-Traffic Signal System Applications
Project Title
Security and Survivability of Real-Time Communication Architecture for Connected-Vehicle Eco-Traffic Signal System Applications
University
University of Idaho
Principal Investigator
Axel Krings, Ahmed Serageldin, Ahmed Abdel-Rahim & Michael Dixon
U of I Civil & Environmental Engineering
PI Contact Information
U of I Civil & Environmental Engineering
Funding Sources and Amounts Provided
US Department of Transportation — $59,999
University of Idaho — $59,999
Total Project Cost
$119,998
Agency ID or Contract Number
DTRT12GUTC17; KLK903
Start Date
1/1/12
End Date
2/28/14
Description of Research Project
The main focus of this research in eco-traffic signal systems is on how the connected-vehicles infrastructure can be integrated to improve the environmental efficiency of traffic signal system operations. The connected vehicle real-time communication and control infrastructure, however, is exposed to the entire spectrum of threats to security and survivability from Cyber space all the way on direct physical manipulations. This is not only due to the fact that much of the connected-vehicle communications relies heavily on wireless technology such as DSRC, but that the infrastructure includes a wide range of devices, technologies, and communication protocols. It is suggested that such systems should be design and analyzed using the philosophy of Design for Survivability, in which security and survivability considerations are designed directly into the applications and their operations. The objective of this work is to improve reliability and achieve survivability of eco-traffic signal systems connected vehicle operations. This is done by exposing and exploring the fault models inherent or suitable for the application domain and describing a survivability architecture that leads to actual implementations of such systems.
A model to analyze and quantify the reliability of Connected Vehicles safety applications was introduced. Next, an approach was derived to utilize channel redundancy to mitigate against the impact of communication jamming, which was the malicious act of consideration. Reliability improvements are based on channel redundancy, which added focus on dissimilarity, achieved by using different message types. The resulting survivability mechanisms avoid the need for any modifications or deviation from the standards. The approaches are analyzed and the results show their effectiveness in improving survivability of the safety applications.
Implementation of Research Outcomes
As our concern is the reliability/survivability of DSRC safety applications, malicious act has been the primary adversary model. The focus of the research is on the application level and not on the signal level. The research explored ways to model the reliability of communication needed by safety applications. Furthermore it resulted in the specification of a communication architecture that uses the concept of channel redundancy and message dissimilarity to increase resilience against jamming attacks in pathological, human-induced, attacks. The results of the research were presented in the research publications indicated below.
In conclusion the main aspects of the research are:
- The concept of dissimilarity of communication mechanisms has been used to increase resilience against interference as the result of natural phenomena and malicious act.
- The dual or triple redundant mechanisms described does not introduce concepts that deviate from existing standards.?
- The redundancy schemes introduced overcome the impact of jamming assuming that the jammer capabilities are limited to the technical specifications of the vehicles OBU transmission power model.
- The dual-redundant scheme using CH172 and CH178 can provide effective Forward Collision Warning (FCW) application reliability in the presence of jamming.?
- This is the case for either using 3Mbps or 6Mbps communication.?
- In triple redundancy we suggest using CH184 for data rates no higher than 3Mbps for DSRC safety applications.?
- Furthermore, given the results for the unreliability of 12Mbps communication, we conclude that the use of this data rate is also not advisable for DSRC safety applications that may be exposed to jamming attacks.
Impacts and Benefits of the Project
The outcome of the project extends real-time control capabilities to positively affect safety based on situation awareness, without the potential for negatively affecting safety. The impact will be noticeable as the community reviews the published results.
Papers
- Serageldin A., H. Alturkostani, and A. Krings, On the Reliability of DSRC Safety Applications: A Case of Jamming, Proc. International Conference on Connected Vehicles & Expo (ICCVE 2013), December 2-6, 2013.
- Serageldin A., and A. Krings, The Impact of Redundancy on DSRC Safety Application Reliability under Different Data Rates, Proc. The 6th Intl. Conference on New Technologies, Mobility & Security (NTMS-2014) Dubai, UAE, March 30 –April 2, 2014.
- Serageldin A., and A. Krings, The Impact of Dissimilarity and Redundancy on the Reliability of DSRC Safety Applications, Proc. Tenth International Symposium on Frontiers of Information Systems and Network Applications, (FINA), in conjunction with the 28th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, (AINA 2014), Victoria, Canada, May 13-16, 2014.
Web Links
Final Report: UI_TranLIVE_Final Report_Real-time Communication
Keywords
- eco-traffic signal
- connected-vehicles
- environmental