Publications
Designing agility and resilience into embedded systems
Summary
Summary
Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) such as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) sense and actuate their environment in pursuit of a mission. The attack surface of these remotely located, sensing and communicating devices is both large, and exposed to adversarial actors, making mission assurance a challenging problem. While best-practice security policies should be...
Towards a universal CDAR device: a high performance adapter-based inline media encryptor
Summary
Summary
As the rate at which digital data is generated continues to grow, so does the need to ensure that data can be stored securely. The use of an NSA-certified Inline Media Encryptor (IME) is often required to protect classified data, as its security properties can be fully analyzed and certified...
Fabrication security and trust of domain-specific ASIC processors
Summary
Summary
Application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are commonly used to implement high-performance signal-processing systems for high-volume applications, but their high development costs and inflexible nature make ASICs inappropriate for algorithm development and low-volume DoD applications. In addition, the intellectual property (IP) embedded in the ASIC is at risk when fabricated in...
Side channel authenticity discriminant analysis for device class identification
Summary
Summary
Counterfeit microelectronics present a significant challenge to commercial and defense supply chains. Many modern anti-counterfeit strategies rely on manufacturer cooperation to include additional identification components. We instead propose Side Channel Authenticity Discriminant Analysis (SICADA) to leverage physical phenomena manifesting from device operation to match suspect parts to a class of...
A key-centric processor architecture for secure computing
Summary
Summary
We describe a novel key-centric processor architecture in which each piece of data or code can be protected by encryption while at rest, in transit, and in use. Using embedded key management for cryptographic key handling, our processor permits mutually distrusting software written by different entities to work closely together...
Secure embedded systems
Summary
Summary
Developers seek to seamlessly integrate cyber security within U.S. military system software. However, added security components can impede a system's functionality. System developers need a well-defined approach for simultaneously designing functionality and cyber security. Lincoln Laboratory's secure embedded system co-design methodology uses a security coprocessor to cryptographically ensure system confidentiality...
Secure architecture for embedded systems
Summary
Summary
Devices connected to the internet are increasingly the targets of deliberate and sophisticated attacks. Embedded system engineers tend to focus on well-defined functional capabilities rather than "obscure" security and resilience. However, "after-the-fact" system hardening could be prohibitively expensive or even impossible. The co-design of security and resilience with functionality has...
Low power sparse polynomial equalizer (SPEQ) for nonlinear digital compensation of an active anti-alias filter
Summary
Summary
We present an efficient architecture to perform on-chip nonlinear equalization of an anti-alias RF filter. The sparse polynomial equalizer (SPEq) achieves substantial power savings through co-design of the equalizer and the filter, which allows including the right number of processing elements, filter taps, and bits to maximize performance and minimize...
On-chip nonlinear digital compensation for RF receiver
Summary
Summary
A system-on-chip (SOC) implementation is an attractive solution for size, weight and power (SWaP) restricted applications, such as mobile devices and UAVs. This is partly because the individual parts of the system can be designed for a specific application rather than for a broad range of them, like commercial parts...
Extending the dynamic range of RF receivers using nonlinear equalization
Summary
Summary
Systems currently being developed to operate across wide bandwidths with high sensitivity requirements are limited by the inherent dynamic range of a receiver's analog and mixed-signal components. To increase a receiver's overall linearity, we have developed a digital NonLinear EQualization (NLEQ) processor which is capable of extending a receiver's dynamic...