Challenges of Internetworking Unattended Autonomous Sensors

摘要

New paradigms for Network Enabled Capabilities and Network Enabled Warfare, which are being developed by NATO and its member nations, will see the emergence of a new generation of autonomous sensors designed to operate without human supervision, and capable of enhancing system effectiveness by collaborating with neighbouring nodes. Several trade-offs exist between the different components of such resource-limited sensors (e.g. power consumption, processing power, network communications) that have to be taken into account to reach a workable solution that meets the requirements. The design of such innovative sensors will therefore require a holistic approach, to realize a balanced compromise between sensor capabilities and their integration with network infrastructures. This paper starts by defining the physical peculiarities that characterize unattended autonomous sensors and then discusses issues specific to classified sensors, such as protection from physical compromise against loss of information or tampering. The challenges deriving from internetworking such sensors on a local area or across a wide area network will then be discussed, from a perspective that mirrors the ISO/OSI network model. The issues of information protection (INFOSEC) will then be analysed, to touch some of the available methodologies to ensure integrity, authentication and confidentiality, together with the accompanying key distribution and management services. While the principal focus of this work is on maritime networks, the considerations presented can be similarly applied to other types of sensors.