SecRoute: End-to-End Secure Communications for Wireless Ad-hoc Networks - Protecting the Railway infrastructure, as a case study on Cyber-Physical Systems

摘要

Railways constitute a main means of mass transportation, used by public, private, and military entities to traverse long distances every day. Railway control software must collect spatial information and effectively manage these systems. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are an attractive solution to cover the area along-side the railway routes. In-carriage WSNs are also studied in cases of dangerous cargo transportation. The secure communication of all these devices becomes important as successful attacks can harm the railway's business operation or cause serious injuries and deaths. This paper presents SecRoute - an end-to-end secure communications scheme for wireless ad hoc networks. The scheme implements mechanisms for cryptographic communication, trusted-based routing, and policy-based access control. SecRoute and alternative schemes are modelled on the NS-2 network simulator and a comparative analysis is conducted, indicating that the proposed scheme provides enhanced protection. A proof of concept of SecRoute is deployed on real embedded platforms and exhibits good overall performance, demonstrating that attacks on the route and carriage WSNs are effectively countered.