Analysing the Safety of Collision Avoidance Protocols in Aviation

Collision avoidance protocols for autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles form the backbone of a safe and reliable global transportation system. In the case of aviation, the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) is responsible for ensuring the safety of aircraft and reducing the chances of mid-air collisions. However the safety and efficacy of TCAS is yet to be analysed from a security perspective-especially given the current and ever-increasing levels of air-traffic with regard to a protocol conceived nearly two decades ago.

This research project aims to model and analyse the constraints specified by TCAS that are required for safe operation. The goal is to determine whether TCAS still meets its operational goals with regard to collision avoidance, and further investigate whether it is vulnerable to malicious attack. The novelty of our research methodology is that we use real-world data (aircraft transponder messages) for our analysis of TCAS's safety, rather than relying on simulations or statistical testing. This allows us to glean accurate and up-to-date information regarding the usage of TCAS around the world. Based on our results, we are then in a unique position to understand the potential risks posed by TCAS, the consequences posed by them, and most importantly - possible methods of remedying them.

This project falls within the EPSRC "Global Uncertainties" research area, and more specifically within the "Cyber-Security" core research theme under this category.

It is part of the nature of Cyber Security - and a key reason for the urgency in developing new research approaches - that it now is a concern of every section of society, and so the successful CDT will have a very broad impact indeed. We will ensure impact for:

* The IT industry; vendors of hardware and software, and within this the IT Security industry;

* High value/high assurance sectors such as banking, bio-medical domains, and critical infrastructure, and more generally the CISO community across many industries;

* The mobile systems community, mobile service providers, handset and platform manufacturers, those developing the technologies of the internet of things, and smart cities;

* Defence sector, MoD/DSTL in particular, defence contractors, and the intelligence community;

* The public sector more generally, in its own activities and in increasingly important electronic engagement with the citizen;

* The not-for-profit sector, education, charities, and NGOs - many of whom work in highly contended contexts, but do not always have access to high-grade cyber defensive skills.

Impact in each of these will be achieved in fresh elaborations of threat and risk models; by developing new fundamental design approaches; through new methods of evaluation, incorporating usability criteria, privacy, and other societal concerns; and by developing prototype and proof-of-concept solutions exhibiting these characteristics. These impacts will retain focus through the way that the educational and research programme is structured - so that the academic and theoretical components are directed towards practical and anticipated problems motivated by the sectors listed here.