QRate and Innopolis University protect unmanned vehicle with quantum cryptography

2021: Unmanned vehicle protection with quantum cryptography

On May 12, 2021, it became known that the research and production company QRate and Innopolis University implemented a project to protect unmanned vehicle autonomous control systems using quantum communications technologies.

Unmanned vehicles are believed to be the most vulnerable at the time of a remote software update. The joint scientific group carried out a quantum-protected update of the unmanned vehicle software developed by the laboratory of autonomous transport systems of Innopolis University.

The teams managed to develop a solution that could clearly show the maturity of the technology. A joint team of engineers launched a stable wireless data channel (4G) between the unmanned vehicle and the control data center, protected by OpenVPN-based encryption using quantum symmetric keys, the source of which was the QRate quantum key distribution (QRK) industrial installation. In the future, this technology will be integrated with 5G.

Quantum distribution of keys between an unmanned vehicle and a data center occurs through an optical channel (VHF) at the time of refueling or charging for an electric vehicle. Teams achieved a stable key allocation rate of 40 kbps. Thus, in one hour you can get about 18 MB of key. This is enough for the safe exchange of official information for several days of autonomous operation of the car.

During the movement transport , a quantum-protected channel of mobile broadband data transmission 4G is established. LTE To do this, the OpenVPN requests and receives the key once every fifteen seconds from the QRate AAC in the automobile. According to the initial scientific hypothesis, this is enough to counter to the attacks attackers in order to compromise critical transmitted data. Testing confirmed the validity of this concept and the possibility of its practical implementation.

To scale such solutions, it is necessary to build urban quantum networks and develop technology in the direction of miniaturization of units of the AAC system, deeper integration into the autonomous control system of an unmanned vehicle, as well as work on standardization of the information security of the transport industry taking into account quantum communication. said Yuri Kurochkin, technical director of QRate and director of the competence center of STI "Quantum Communications" at MISiS

On the basis of Innopolis University, virtual private network (VPN) technology was implemented to create an encrypted server-client communication channel between the on-board computer of an unmanned vehicle and the infrastructure of the university. The unmanned vehicle in real time publishes its telemetry data on the state of all its subsystems to the laboratory monitoring system, and also updates software modules when releasing the release. 4G LTE wireless communication is used to interact the unmanned vehicle and infrastructure. The quantum key allocation solution used allows 4G LTE channel tunneling and encryption. Quantum encryption key generation technology allows you to create a crypto-resistant communication channel, and prevent unauthorized viewing or substitution of transmitted messages. noted Sergey Grebennikov, technical specialist of the laboratory of autonomous transport systems of Innopolis University

Unmanned vehicles - as of May 2021, one of the most anticipated prospects for the technological development of mankind. According to some forecasts, by 2030 the volume of the unmanned ground transport market will grow to $2 trillion. According to some forecasts, global sales of autonomous vehicles by 2030 will reach 58 million units. At the same time, a significant share of sales will fall on the commercial segment. Autonomous driving technologies should make transport safer, make a significant positive contribution to the mobility of people, and optimize the efficiency of the transport system. However, the risk of unauthorized access of third parties to the software and hardware of unmanned vehicles remains, compromising their safety and reliability. The greatest danger arises when criminals manage to gain control over a group of unmanned vehicles and paralyze the functioning of the entire city.

As of May 2021, the topic of functional safety of the autonomous driving technologies we are developing for unmanned vehicles is of paramount importance. This is due to the fact that many of our solutions have already found a commercial offer, and our customers are very demanding on cybersecurity, data integrity and maintaining the sustainable development of our solutions. Integrating quantum key distribution systems into our unmanned vehicles is one of the key aspects to meet these requirements. said Salimzhan Gafurov, head of the laboratory of autonomous transport systems at Innopolis University

The forecast for the mass distribution of unmanned vehicles coincides with assumptions about the appearance of a quantum computer with sufficient power for a hacker attack. So, digital systems of such cars are potentially subject to next-generation threats. As of May 2021, drones are protected by conventional classical cryptography, which is not resistant to attacks using quantum computer algorithms. Quantum cryptography for unmanned transport is not theoretical, but applied.