A qualitative cybersecurity analysis of time-triggered communication networks in automotive systems

Abstract

Security is gaining increasing importance in automotive systems, driven by technical innovations. For example, automotive vehicles become more open systems, allowing the communication with other traffic participants and road infrastructure. Also, automotive vehicles are provided with increased autonomy which raises severe safety concerns, and consequently also security concerns—both concerns that interweave in such systems. In this paper we present a qualitative cybersecurity analysis by comparing different time-triggered (TT) communication networks. While TT communication networks have been analysed extensively for dependability, the contribution of this work is to identify security-related benefits that TT communication networks can provide. In particular, their mechanisms for spacial and temporal encapsulation of network traffic are instrumental to improve network security. The security arguments can be used as a design guide for implementing critical communication in flexible network standards like TSN.