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Dependability Assurance |
| Objectives |
As CONNECT aims at enabling open networking of systems, it is of paramount importance to ensure that this is realised in a dependable way. Dependability is meant in a broad sense to include classical dependability attributes, performance, security and trust. We then target the development of new concepts, new metrics, and new approaches for the dependability of the eternally CONNECTed systems, in spite of changes and accidental (or intentional) faults (or attacks). While of course CONNECT is not immune to other sources and kinds of failures, we focus our work on understanding what is the potential impact on system dependability, and on security and trust of communications, established through the CONNECT approach. Thus, building on the existing literature and other related projects for general dependability needs, we concentrate on the threats specifically entailed by on-the-fly synthesis of CONNECTors: e.g., is the CONNECTor reliable?, is the CONNECTed System secure?, is the Enabler trustworthy?, and so on. In more detail, our research in the dependability area addresses the following key concerns. |
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Dependability Metrics |
Suitable metrics for CONNECTed systems must be defined in order to be used as a reference. Elaborating on traditional, well-understood dependability metrics, a conceptual model is being developed as a structured framework, which refines generic metrics into CONNECT-dependent and context-dependent metrics. These metrics apply to each of the four CONNECT actors: the Enabler (e.g., discovery, learning and synthesis), the CONNECTor, the Networked System, the CONNECTed system. Furthermore, so called "soft-metrics" for dependability are considered, which take into account how the user perceives the trustworthiness of the system. |
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Verification & Validation |
Concerning verification and validation, we study two complementary approaches: state-based stochastic methods and probabilistic model checking. Using both approaches, a variety of scenarios and user/application needs in terms of dependability analysis can be satisfied. In fact, the different formalisms and tools implied by the two methods allow: i) on the one side, to complement the analysis from the point of view of a number of aspects, such as level of abstraction/scalability/accuracy, for which the two approaches may show different abilities to cope with; and ii) on the other hand, through their inner diversity, provide cross-validation to enhance confidence in the correctness of the analysis itself. Our activity on dependability assessment is strictly related and complemented by a verification framework, including on-line verification and quantitative compositional reasoning, which is under investigation as part of our work on formal foundations for CONNECTors.
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| Security & Privacy |
Policy languages are studied for modelling security policies and contracts so that security aspects can be assured. CONNECT adopts and adapts the Security-by-Contract (SxC) paradigm, which can be used for guaranteeing the security of communicating systems composed of several, heterogeneous Networked Systems. |
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Trust Management |
In the proposed CONNECT trust model, Enablers can estimate a measure of confidence on a CONNECTor. Enablers can also safely coordinate with one another to jointly synthesise and deploy CONNECTors, and finally to manage feedbacks to detect dysfunction and update trust relations. |
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| Monitoring |
Monitoring is conceived as a common core service offered to the other Enablers to detect conditions that they deem relevant, in order to implement feedback loops whereby approaches to dependability analysis, CONNECTor synthesis, and behaviour learning can be applied to an on-line setting and can be enhanced to cope with change and dynamism. |
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Further Information |
| More information about the CONNECT work on dependability assurance can be found from the Publications page
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