9 research outputs found
Comunicações confiáveis sem-fios para redes veiculares
Vehicular communications are a promising field of research, with numerous
potential services that can enhance traffic experience. Road safety is the
most important objective behind the development of wireless vehicular networks,
since many of the current accidents and fatalities could be avoided if
vehicles had the ability to share information among them, with the road-side
infrastructure and other road users.
A future with safe, efficient and comfortable road transportation systems is envisaged
by the different traffic stakeholders - users, manufacturers, road operators
and public authorities. Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems
(ITS) applications will contribute to achieve this goal, as well as other technological
progress, such as automated driving or improved road infrastructure
based on advanced sensoring and the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm.
Despite these significant benefits, the design of vehicular communications
systems poses difficult challenges, mainly due to the very dynamic environments
in which they operate. In order to attain the safety-critical requirements
involved in this type of scenarios, careful planning is necessary, so that a trustworthy
behaviour of the system can be achieved. Dependability and real-time
systems concepts provide essential tools to handle this challenging task of
enabling determinism and fault-tolerance in vehicular networks.
This thesis aims to address some of these issues by proposing architectures
and implementing mechanisms that improve the dependability levels of realtime
vehicular communications. The developed strategies always try to preserve
the required system’s flexibity, a fundamental property in such unpredictable
scenarios, where unexpected events may occur and force the system
to quickly adapt to the new circumnstances.The core contribution of this thesis focuses on the design of a fault-tolerant architecture
for infrastructure-based vehicular networks. It encompasses a set
of mechanisms that allow error detection and fault-tolerant behaviour both in
the mobile and static nodes of the network. Road-side infrastructure plays
a key role in this context, since it provides the support for coordinating all
communications taking place in the wireless medium. Furthermore, it is also
responsible for admission control policies and exchanging information with the
backbone network. The proposed methods rely on a deterministic medium
access control (MAC) protocol that provides real-time guarantees in wireless
channel access, ensuring that communications take place before a given deadline.
However, the presented solutions are generic and can be easily adapted
to other protocols and wireless technologies.
Interference mitigation techniques, mechanisms to enforce fail-silent behaviour
and redundancy schemes are introduced in this work, so that vehicular
communications systems may present higher dependability levels. In addition
to this, all of these methods are included in the design of vehicular network
components, guaranteeing that the real-time constraints are still fulfilled.
In conclusion, wireless vehicular networks hold the potential to drastically improve
road safety. However, these systems should present dependable behaviour
in order to reliably prevent the occurrence of catastrophic events under
all possible traffic scenarios.As comunicações veiculares são uma área de investigação bastante promissora,
com inúmeros potenciais serviços que podem melhorar a experiência
vivida no tráfego. A segurança rodoviária é o objectivo mais importante por
detrás do desenvolvimento das redes veiculares sem-fios, visto que muitos
dos atuais acidentes e vÃtimas mortais poderiam ser evitados caso os veÃculos
tivessem a capacidade de trocar informação entre eles, com a infraestrutura
rodoviária e outros utilizadores da estrada.
Um futuro com sistemas de transporte rodoviário seguros, eficientes e confortáveis
é algo ambicionado pelas diferentes partes envolvidas - utilizadores, fabricantes,
operadores da infraestrutura e autoridades públicas. As aplicações
de Sistemas Inteligentes de Transporte (ITS) cooperativas vão contribuir para
alcançar este propósito, em conjunto com outros avanços tecnológicos, nomeadamente
a condução autónoma ou uma melhor infraestrutura rodoviária
baseada em sensorização avançada e no paradigma da Internet das Coisas
(IoT).
Apesar destes benefÃcios significativos, o desenho de sistemas de comunicações
veiculares coloca desafios difÃceis, em grande parte devido aos ambientes
extremamente dinâmicos em que estes operam. De modo a atingir
os requisitos de segurança crÃtica envolvidos neste tipo de cenários, é necessário
um cuidadoso planeamento por forma a que o sistema apresente um
comportamento confiável. Conceitos de dependabilidade e de sistemas de
tempo-real constituem ferramentas essenciais para lidar com esta desafiante
tarefa de dotar as redes veiculares de determinismo e tolerância a faltas.
Esta tese pretende endereçar alguns destes problemas através da proposta
de arquitecturas e da implementação de mecanismos que melhorem os nÃveis
da dependabilidade das comunicações veiculares de tempo-real. As estratégias
desenvolvidas tentam sempre preservar a necessária flexibilidade do
sistema, uma propriedade fundamental em cenários tão imprevisÃveis, onde
eventos inesperados podem ocorrer e forçar o sistema a adaptar-se rapidamente
às novas circunstâncias.A contribuição principal desta tese foca-se no desenho de uma arquitectura
tolerante a faltas para redes veiculares com suporte da infraestrutura de beira
de estrada. Esta arquitectura engloba um conjunto de mecanismos que permite
detecção de erros e comportamento tolerante a faltas, tanto nos nós móveis
como nos nós estáticos da rede. A infraestrutura de beira de estrada desempenha
um papel fundamental neste contexto, pois fornece o suporte que
permite coordenar todas as comunicações que ocorrem no meio sem-fios.
Para além disso, é também responsável pelos mecanismos de controlo de
admissão e pela troca de informação com a rede de transporte. Os métodos
propostos baseiam-se num protocolo determinÃstico de controlo de acesso ao
meio (MAC) que fornece garantias de tempo-real no accesso ao canal semfios,
assegurando que as comunicações ocorrem antes de um determinado
limite temporal. No entanto, as soluções apresentadas são genéricas e podem
ser facilmente adaptadas a outros protocolos e tecnologias sem-fios.
Neste trabalho são introduzidas técnicas de mitigação de interferência, mecanismos
para assegurar comportamento falha-silêncio e esquemas de redundância,
de modo a que os sistemas de comunicações veiculares apresentem
elevados nÃveis de dependabilidade. Além disso, todos estes métodos são incorporados
no desenho dos componentes da rede veicular, guarantindo que
as restrições de tempo-real continuam a ser cumpridas.
Em suma, as redes veiculares sem-fios têm o potential para melhorar drasticamente
a segurança rodoviária. Contudo, estes sistemas precisam de apresentar
um comportamento confiável, de forma a prevenir a ocorrência de
eventos catastróficos em todos os cenários de tráfego possÃveis.Programa Doutoral em Telecomunicaçõe
Cyber Security of Critical Infrastructures
Critical infrastructures are vital assets for public safety, economic welfare, and the national security of countries. The vulnerabilities of critical infrastructures have increased with the widespread use of information technologies. As Critical National Infrastructures are becoming more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, their protection becomes a significant issue for organizations as well as nations. The risks to continued operations, from failing to upgrade aging infrastructure or not meeting mandated regulatory regimes, are considered highly significant, given the demonstrable impact of such circumstances. Due to the rapid increase of sophisticated cyber threats targeting critical infrastructures with significant destructive effects, the cybersecurity of critical infrastructures has become an agenda item for academics, practitioners, and policy makers. A holistic view which covers technical, policy, human, and behavioural aspects is essential to handle cyber security of critical infrastructures effectively. Moreover, the ability to attribute crimes to criminals is a vital element of avoiding impunity in cyberspace. In this book, both research and practical aspects of cyber security considerations in critical infrastructures are presented. Aligned with the interdisciplinary nature of cyber security, authors from academia, government, and industry have contributed 13 chapters. The issues that are discussed and analysed include cybersecurity training, maturity assessment frameworks, malware analysis techniques, ransomware attacks, security solutions for industrial control systems, and privacy preservation methods
Enabling technologies and cyber-physical systems for mission-critical scenarios
Programa Oficial de Doutoramento en TecnoloxÃas da Información e Comunicacións en Redes Móbiles . 5029P01[Abstract]
Reliable transport systems, defense, public safety and quality assurance in the Industry 4.0 are essential in a modern society. In a mission-critical scenario, a mission failure would jeopardize human lives and put at risk some other assets whose impairment or loss would significantly harm society or business results. Even small degradations of the communications supporting the mission could have large and possibly dire consequences.
On the one hand, mission-critical organizations wish to utilize the most modern, disruptive and innovative communication systems and technologies, and yet, on the other hand, need to comply with strict requirements, which are very different to those of non critical scenarios. The aim of this thesis is to assess the feasibility of applying emerging technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and 4G broadband communications in mission-critical scenarios along three key critical infrastructure sectors: transportation, defense and public safety, and shipbuilding.
Regarding the transport sector, this thesis provides an understanding of the progress of communications technologies used for railways since the implantation of Global System for Mobile communications-Railways (GSM-R). The aim of this work is to envision the potential contribution of Long Term Evolution (LTE) to provide additional features that GSM-R would never support. Furthermore, the ability of Industrial IoT for revolutionizing the railway industry and confront today's challenges is presented. Moreover, a detailed review of the most common flaws found in Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) based IoT systems is presented, including the latest attacks described in the literature. As a result, a novel methodology for auditing security and reverse engineering RFID communications in transport applications is introduced.
The second sector selected is driven by new operational needs and the challenges that arise from modern military deployments. The strategic advantages of 4G broadband technologies massively deployed in civil scenarios are examined. Furthermore, this thesis analyzes the great potential for applying IoT technologies to revolutionize modern warfare and provide benefits similar to those in industry. It identifies scenarios where defense and public safety could leverage better commercial IoT capabilities to deliver greater survivability to the warfighter or first responders, while reducing costs and increasing operation efficiency and effectiveness.
The last part is devoted to the shipbuilding industry. After defining the novel concept of Shipyard 4.0, how a shipyard pipe workshop works and what are the requirements for building a smart pipe system are described in detail. Furthermore, the foundations for enabling an affordable CPS for Shipyards 4.0 are presented. The CPS proposed consists of a network of beacons that continuously collect information about the location of the pipes. Its design allows shipyards to obtain more information on the pipes and to make better use of it. Moreover, it is indicated how to build a positioning system from scratch in an environment as harsh in terms of communications as a shipyard, showing an example of its architecture and implementation.[Resumen]
En la sociedad moderna, los sistemas de transporte fiables, la defensa, la seguridad pública y el control de la calidad en la Industria 4.0 son esenciales. En un escenario de misión crÃtica, el fracaso de una misión pone en peligro vidas humanas y en riesgo otros activos cuyo deterioro o pérdida perjudicarÃa significativamente a la sociedad o a los resultados de una empresa. Incluso pequeñas degradaciones en las comunicaciones que apoyan la misión podrÃan tener importantes y posiblemente terribles consecuencias.
Por un lado, las organizaciones de misión crÃtica desean utilizar los sistemas y tecnologÃas de comunicación más modernos, disruptivos e innovadores y, sin embargo, deben cumplir requisitos estrictos que son muy diferentes a los relativos a escenarios no crÃticos. El objetivo principal de esta tesis es evaluar la viabilidad de aplicar tecnologÃas emergentes como Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) y comunicaciones de banda ancha 4G en escenarios de misión crÃtica en tres sectores clave de infraestructura crÃtica: transporte, defensa y seguridad pública, y construcción naval.
Respecto al sector del transporte, esta tesis permite comprender el progreso de las tecnologÃas de comunicación en el ámbito ferroviario desde la implantación de Global System for Mobile communications-Railway (GSM-R). El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la contribución potencial de Long Term Evolution (LTE) para proporcionar caracterÃsticas adicionales que GSM-R nunca podrÃa soportar. Además, se presenta la capacidad de la IoT industrial para revolucionar la industria ferroviaria y afrontar los retos actuales. Asimismo, se estudian con detalle las vulnerabilidades más comunes de los sistemas IoT basados en Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID), incluyendo los últimos ataques descritos en la literatura. Como resultado, se presenta una metodologÃa innovadora para realizar auditorÃas de seguridad e ingenierÃa inversa de las comunicaciones RFID en aplicaciones de transporte.
El segundo sector elegido viene impulsado por las nuevas necesidades operacionales y los desafÃos que surgen de los despliegues militares modernos. Para afrontarlos, se analizan las ventajas estratégicas de las tecnologÃas de banda ancha 4G masivamente desplegadas en escenarios civiles. Asimismo, esta tesis analiza el gran potencial de aplicación de las tecnologÃas IoT para revolucionar la guerra moderna y proporcionar beneficios similares a los alcanzados por la industria. Se identifican escenarios en los que la defensa y la seguridad pública podrÃan aprovechar mejor las capacidades comerciales de IoT para ofrecer una mayor capacidad de supervivencia al combatiente o a los servicios de emergencias, a la vez que reduce los costes y aumenta la eficiencia y efectividad de las operaciones.
La última parte se dedica a la industria de construcción naval. Después de definir el novedoso concepto de Astillero 4.0, se describe en detalle cómo funciona el taller de tuberÃa de astillero y cuáles son los requisitos para construir un sistema de tuberÃas inteligentes. Además, se presentan los fundamentos para posibilitar un CPS asequible para Astilleros 4.0. El CPS propuesto consiste en una red de balizas que continuamente recogen información sobre la ubicación de las tuberÃas. Su diseño permite a los astilleros obtener más información sobre las tuberÃas y hacer un mejor uso de las mismas. Asimismo, se indica cómo construir un sistema de posicionamiento desde cero en un entorno tan hostil en términos de comunicaciones, mostrando un ejemplo de su arquitectura e implementación
An Approach to Guide Users Towards Less Revealing Internet Browsers
When browsing the Internet, HTTP headers enable both clients and servers send extra data in their requests or responses such as the User-Agent string. This string contains information related to the sender’s device, browser, and operating system. Previous research has shown that there are numerous privacy and security risks result from exposing sensitive information in the User-Agent string. For example, it enables device and browser fingerprinting and user tracking and identification. Our large analysis of thousands of User-Agent strings shows that browsers differ tremendously in the amount of information they include in their User-Agent strings. As such, our work aims at guiding users towards using less exposing browsers. In doing so, we propose to assign an exposure score to browsers based on the information they expose and vulnerability records. Thus, our contribution in this work is as follows: first, provide a full implementation that is ready to be deployed and used by users. Second, conduct a user study to identify the effectiveness and limitations of our proposed approach. Our implementation is based on using more than 52 thousand unique browsers. Our performance and validation analysis show that our solution is accurate and efficient. The source code and data set are publicly available and the solution has been deployed
Embedded electronic systems driven by run-time reconfigurable hardware
Abstract
This doctoral thesis addresses the design of embedded electronic systems based on run-time reconfigurable hardware technology –available through SRAM-based FPGA/SoC devices– aimed at contributing to enhance the life quality of the human beings. This work does research on the conception of the system architecture and the reconfiguration engine that provides to the FPGA the capability of dynamic partial reconfiguration in order to synthesize, by means of hardware/software co-design, a given application partitioned in processing tasks which are multiplexed in time and space, optimizing thus its physical implementation –silicon area, processing time, complexity, flexibility, functional density, cost and power consumption– in comparison with other alternatives based on static hardware (MCU, DSP, GPU, ASSP, ASIC, etc.). The design flow of such technology is evaluated through the prototyping of several engineering applications (control systems, mathematical coprocessors, complex image processors, etc.), showing a high enough level of maturity for its exploitation in the industry.Resumen
Esta tesis doctoral abarca el diseño de sistemas electrónicos embebidos basados en tecnologÃa hardware dinámicamente reconfigurable –disponible a través de dispositivos lógicos programables SRAM FPGA/SoC– que contribuyan a la mejora de la calidad de vida de la sociedad. Se investiga la arquitectura del sistema y del motor de reconfiguración que proporcione a la FPGA la capacidad de reconfiguración dinámica parcial de sus recursos programables, con objeto de sintetizar, mediante codiseño hardware/software, una determinada aplicación particionada en tareas multiplexadas en tiempo y en espacio, optimizando asà su implementación fÃsica –área de silicio, tiempo de procesado, complejidad, flexibilidad, densidad funcional, coste y potencia disipada– comparada con otras alternativas basadas en hardware estático (MCU, DSP, GPU, ASSP, ASIC, etc.). Se evalúa el flujo de diseño de dicha tecnologÃa a través del prototipado de varias aplicaciones de ingenierÃa (sistemas de control, coprocesadores aritméticos, procesadores de imagen, etc.), evidenciando un nivel de madurez viable ya para su explotación en la industria.Resum
Aquesta tesi doctoral està orientada al disseny de sistemes electrònics empotrats basats en tecnologia hardware dinà micament reconfigurable –disponible mitjançant dispositius lògics programables SRAM FPGA/SoC– que contribueixin a la millora de la qualitat de vida de la societat. S’investiga l’arquitectura del sistema i del motor de reconfiguració que proporcioni a la FPGA la capacitat de reconfiguració dinà mica parcial dels seus recursos programables, amb l’objectiu de sintetitzar, mitjançant codisseny hardware/software, una determinada aplicació particionada en tasques multiplexades en temps i en espai, optimizant aixà la seva implementació fÃsica –à rea de silici, temps de processat, complexitat, flexibilitat, densitat funcional, cost i potència dissipada– comparada amb altres alternatives basades en hardware està tic (MCU, DSP, GPU, ASSP, ASIC, etc.). S’evalúa el fluxe de disseny d’aquesta tecnologia a través del prototipat de varies aplicacions d’enginyeria (sistemes de control, coprocessadors aritmètics, processadors d’imatge, etc.), demostrant un nivell de maduresa viable ja per a la seva explotació a la indústria
Range Information Systems Management (RISM) Phase 1 Report
RISM investigated alternative approaches, technologies, and communication network architectures to facilitate building the Spaceports and Ranges of the future. RISM started by document most existing US ranges and their capabilities. In parallel, RISM obtained inputs from the following: 1) NASA and NASA-contractor engineers and managers, and; 2) Aerospace leaders from Government, Academia, and Industry, participating through the Space Based Range Distributed System Working Group (SBRDSWG), many of whom are also; 3) Members of the Advanced Range Technology Working Group (ARTWG) subgroups, and; 4) Members of the Advanced Spaceport Technology Working Group (ASTWG). These diverse inputs helped to envision advanced technologies for implementing future Ranges and Range systems that builds on today s cabled and wireless legacy infrastructures while seamlessly integrating both today s emerging and tomorrow s building-block communication techniques. The fundamental key is to envision a transition to a Space Based Range Distributed Subsystem. The enabling concept is to identify the specific needs of Range users that can be solved through applying emerging communication tec