Douglas Rodrigues

Application of SOA in Safety-Critical Embedded Systems

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) are having a widespread use in enterprise computing applications, being Web services the most common implementation. The use of SOA has also been proposed for embedded systems, although very little could be found in the literature on the use of SOA for Safety-Critical Embedded Systems. This paper discusses the use of SOA for the development of this class of systems. Safety-critical embedded systems have specific requirements such as high reliability and real time response, making the use of SOA more challenging than for standard applications. To make concepts clear, a case study on Avionics for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is presented. This is a complex application based on a reference model proposed by the authors. SOA shows to be a promising approach to implement parts of this reference model, especially in what concerns the missions played by the aircraft.

Using SOA in Critical-Embedded Systems

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) are having a widespread use in enterprise computing applications, being Web services the most common implementation. The use of SOA has also been proposed for embedded systems, although very little could be found in the literature on the use of SOA for Safety-Critical Embedded Systems. This paper discusses the use of SOA for the development of this class of systems. Safety-critical embedded systems have specific requirements such as high reliability and real time response, making the use of SOA more challenging than for standard applications. Furthermore, this paper proposes a new form of segregating the UAV mission from the vehicle itself. In order to separate the mission of the plane the MOSA - Mission Oriented Sensors Array - is proposed, an array of sensors oriented to missions that is plugged into the aircraft so as to leave it totally independent of the payload. The techniques proposed in this paper not only aim to facilitate the development of applications but also allow different tasks to be performed simply switching such sensors and their association with the aircraft.

Performance evaluation of security techniques in web services

This paper proposes an evaluation and comparison of guidelines and techniques that allow the creation of secure Web services to determine whether the application has the desired characteristics related to performance and security. In this sense it is crucial evaluate the cryptographic algorithms and the key length used. The results obtained allow to determine, based on specified objectives, the impact of security mechanisms used in application performance.

Knowledge Based Framework: A Case Study on Fast, Reliable, and Secure Web Services in UAVs

Advanced and complex embedded systems as multicore and multiprocessor systems are becoming common and this has stimulated the development of critical applications for them. UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) constitute a typical application of a complex critical embedded system. One concept that can result in radically different solutions in UAVs is the use of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). The increasing use of SOA in critical applications demands dependable and cost effective techniques to ensure high security. In this paper we develop a different kind of services for avionics with different parameters (security, reliability and performance) to provide the use of SOA in a less critical part in the whole systems. The use of these services and the KBF (Knowledge Based Framework for Dynamically Changing Applications) presented in this paper can give more intelligence to the UAVs and provide a new form of segregating the UAV mission from the vehicle itself. The services were developed and a performance evaluation was conducted showing the benefits in choosing one service or another.

Comparison and Analysis of Cryptographic Algorithms Aiming Performance Improvement in Secure Web Services

In this paper is shown an evaluation and comparison of techniques that allow the validation of the Web services used, to determine characteristics related to performance and security. In this sense, it is crucial evaluate the cryptography and digital signature performance in SOAP messages, performing the change of cryptographic algorithms, as well as the keys length. Security at the message-level was provided using WSSecurity. The results obtained allow to determine the impact of security mechanisms used in this type of applications.

Service-Oriented Architectures for a Flexible and Safe Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming widely used for supporting multiple heterogeneous missions, requiring continuous evolution and adaptation of the implemented services. This scenario calls for the definition of architectural abstractions that support the integration of service-variants, in particular the notion of SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) for services composition, to fulfill application-specified performance and dependability requirements. In this paper, we discuss the problems of using SOA (a non-deterministic approach) in UAVs (a real-time based embedded system) and the safety issues that such environment may raise. We then put forward a framework to tackle the identified challenges and propose potential solutions considering the opportunities and threats of using SOA in UAVs.

Knowledge-Based Framework: its specification and new related discussions

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is a common application of critical embedded systems. The heterogeneity prevalent in these vehicles in terms of services for avionics is particularly relevant to the elaboration of multi-application missions. Besides, this heterogeneity in UAV services is often manifested in the form of characteristics such as reliability, security and performance. Different service implementations typically offer different guarantees in terms of these characteristics and in terms of associated costs. Particularly, we explore the notion of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) in the context of UAVs as safety-critical embedded systems for the composition of services to fulfil application-specified performance and dependability guarantees. So, we propose a framework for the deployment of these services and their variants. This framework is called Knowledge-Based Framework for Dynamically Changing Applications (KBF) and we specify its services module, discussing all the related issues.

Validating Knowledge-Based Framework through Mission-Oriented Sensors Array and Smart Sensor Protocol

This paper addresses the problem of using Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) in critical embedded systems, mainly in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). We present the use of a SOA approach to provide the integration of the payload in the UAV. The integration is provided by a plug and play protocol named Smart Sensor Protocol (SSP) that validates the SOA approach.