CPS:Small:Collaborative Research:Establishing Integrity in Dynamic Networks of Cyber Physical Devices

CPS:Small:Collaborative Research: Establishing Integrity in Dynamic Networks of Cyber Physical Devices

The objective of this research is to develop energy-efficient integrity

establishment techniques for dynamic networks of cyber physical devices.

In such dynamic networks, devices connect opportunistically and perform

general-purpose computations on behalf of other devices. However, some

devices may be malicious in intent and affect the integrity of computation.

The approach is to develop new trust establishment mechanisms for dynamic

networks. Existing trusted computing mechanisms are not directly applicable

to cyber physical devices because they are resource-intensive and require

devices to have special-purpose hardware.

This project is addressing these problems along three research prongs.

The first is a comprehensive study of the resource bottlenecks in current

trust establishment protocols. Second, the insights from this study are

being used to develop resource-aware attestation protocols for cyber

physical devices that are equipped with trusted hardware. Third, the

project is developing new trust establishment protocols for cyber physical

devices that may lack trusted hardware. A key outcome of the project is

an improved understanding of the tradeoffs needed to balance the concerns

of security and resource-awareness in dynamic networks.

Dynamic networks allow cyber physical devices to form a highly-distributed,

cloud-like infrastructure for computations involving the physical world. The

trust-establishment mechanisms developed in this project encourage devices to

participate in dynamic networks, thereby unleashing the full potential of

dynamic networks. This project includes development of dynamic networking

applications, such as distributed gaming and social networking, in

undergraduate curricula and course projects, thereby fostering the

participation of this key demographic.