Secure Middleware for Defence Applications

Achieving robust and secure system interoperability over Mobile Wireless Networks poses a number of daunting challenges 1 Ensuring robustness and survivability in the presence of network jamming, transient faults, frequent node failures e.g., due to the batteries on a PDA running out, and rapidly changing network topology and connectivity. 2 Achieving acceptable performance and providing the necessary Quality of Service QoS guarantees over low-bandwidth, unreliable links. 3 Ensuring system integrity in the presence of malevolent code such as worms and viruses, Trojan horses, intruders, eavesdroppers, and malicious attacks. The goal of the Secure Infrastructure for Networked Systems SINS middleware project is to provide secure, efficient, and robust distributed system interoperability, to reduce total ownership costs, to allow quick and easy system upgrade and reconfiguration, to lower the impact of Commercial Off The Shelf COTS upgrades, and to reduce compatibility problems. Target applications for SINS include information network situational awareness, networked C2 for combat applications, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle UAV swarms. The Secure Middleware Platform, based on Model Driven Architecture MDA and the CORBA Component Model CCM, has proved to be very effective for the development, deployment, and maintenance of distributed applications. Model-based application development greatly reduces effort by providing application developers abstractions of the underlying middleware and protocols.