A security-aware routing approach for networks-on-chip

• Ano de defesa: 2017
• Autor(a) principal: Fernandes, Ramon Costi
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; Faculdade de Informática; Brasil; PUCRS; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Computação
• Palavras-chave em Português: Networks-on-Chip; NoCs; Intrachip Routing; NoC Security; Redes Intrachip; Roteamento Intrachip; Segurança em NoC; CIENCIAS EXATAS E DA TERRA::CIENCIA DA COMPUTACAO
• Link de acesso: http://tede2.pucrs.br/tede2/handle/tede/7431

The next generation of MultiProcessor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoC) will encompass hundreds of integrated processing elements into a single chip, with the promise of highthroughput, low latency and, preferably, low energy utilization. Due to the high communication parallelism required by several applications targeting MPSoC architectures, the Network-on-Chip (NoC) has been widely adopted as a reliable and scalable interconnection mechanism. The NoC design space should be explored to meet the demanding requirements of current applications. Among the parameters that define a NoC configuration, the routing algorithm has been employed to provide services such as fault tolerance, deadlock and livelock freedom, as well as Quality of Service (QoS). As the adoption and complexity of System-on-Chip (SoC) increases for embedded systems, the concern for data protection appears as a new design requirement. Currently, MPSoCs can be attacked by exploiting either hardware or software vulnerabilities, with the later responsible for 80% of the security incidents in embedded systems. Protection against software vulnerabilities can occur at (i) Application Level, by using techniques such as data encryption to avoid plain data transmissions between Intellectual Property (IP) modules; or (ii) Communication Level, inspecting or filtering elements at the interconnect fabric with communication monitors or firewalls, respectively. As such, a routing algorithm aware of security requirements could also offer protection utilizing trusted communication paths in the NoC, avoiding potential malicious elements in otherwise unsafe communication paths. The main contribution of this work is a NoC protection technique at communication level by adapting Segment-based Routing (SBR) and Region-based Routing (RBR) algorithms to consider system security requirements, characterized by security zones which are defined on the NoC according to the mapping of applications on IP modules. Evaluation of the proposed routing technique considers aspects such as the scalability of routing tables, the number of secure communication paths, and the impact of this technique on applications of the NASA Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Parallel Benchmark (NPB).