Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “network time protocol”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 55 records · Page 3

Design and evaluation of a cyber‐physical testbed for improving attack resilience of power systems

Abstract A power system is a complex cyber‐physical system whose security is critical to its function. A major challenge is to model, analyse and visualise the communication backbone of the power systems concerning cyber threats. To achieve this, the design and evaluation of a cyber‐physical power system (CPPS) testbed called Resilient Energy Systems Lab (RESLab) are presented to capture realistic cyber, physical, and protection system features. RESLab is architected to be a fundamental platform for studying and improving the resilience of complex CPPS to cyber threats. The cyber network is emulated using Common Open Research Emulator (CORE), which acts as a gateway for the physical and protection devices to communicate. The physical grid is simulated in the dynamic time frame using Power World Dynamic Studio (PWDS). The protection components are modelled with both PWDS and physical devices including the SEL Real‐Time Automation Controller (RTAC). Distributed Network Protocol 3 (DNP3) is used to monitor and control the grid. Then, the design is exemplified and the tools are validated. This work presents four case studies on cyberattack and defence using RESLab, where we demonstrate false data and command injection using Man‐in‐the‐Middle and Denial of Service attacks and validate them on a large‐scale synthetic electric grid.

Sahu, Abhijeet↗

Research in computer science

The research efforts of University of Virginia students under a NASA sponsored program are summarized and the status of the program is reported. The research includes: testing method evaluations for N version programming; a representation scheme for modeling three dimensional objects; fault tolerant protocols for real time local area networks; performance investigation of Cyber network; XFEM implementation; and vectorizing incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradients.

Ortega, J. M.↗

Remote Memory Access Protocol Target Node Intellectual Property

The MagnetoSpheric Multiscale (MMS) mission had a requirement to use the Remote Memory Access Protocol (RMAP) over its SpaceWire network. At the time, no known intellectual property (IP) cores were available for purchase. Additionally, MMS preferred to implement the RMAP functionality with control over the low-level details of the design. For example, not all the RMAP standard functionality was needed, and it was desired to implement only the portions of the RMAP protocol that were needed. RMAP functionality had been previously implemented in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products, but the IP core was not available for purchase. The RMAP Target IP core is a VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language description of a digital logic design suitable for implementation in an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) or ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) that parses SpaceWire packets that conform to the RMAP standard. The RMAP packet protocol allows a network host to access and control a target device using address mapping. This capability allows SpaceWire devices to be managed in a standardized way that simplifies the hardware design of the device, as well as the development of the software that controls the device. The RMAP Target IP core has some features that are unique and not specified in the RMAP standard. One such feature is the ability to automatically abort transactions if the back-end logic does not respond to read/write requests within a predefined time. When a request times out, the RMAP Target IP core automatically retracts the request and returns a command response with an appropriate status in the response packet s header. Another such feature is the ability to control the SpaceWire node or router using RMAP transactions in the extended address range. This allows the SpaceWire network host to manage the SpaceWire network elements using RMAP packets, which reduces the number of protocols that the network host needs to support.

Haddad, Omar↗

Integrated Network Architecture for NASA's Orion Missions

NASA is planning a series of short and long duration human and robotic missions to explore the Moon and then Mars. The series of missions will begin with a new crew exploration vehicle (called Orion) that will initially provide crew exchange and cargo supply support to the International Space Station (ISS) and then become a human conveyance for travel to the Moon. The Orion vehicle will be mounted atop the Ares I launch vehicle for a series of pre-launch tests and then launched and inserted into low Earth orbit (LEO) for crew exchange missions to the ISS. The Orion and Ares I comprise the initial vehicles in the Constellation system of systems that later includes Ares V, Earth departure stage, lunar lander, and other lunar surface systems for the lunar exploration missions. These key systems will enable the lunar surface exploration missions to be initiated in 2018. The complexity of the Constellation system of systems and missions will require a communication and navigation infrastructure to provide low and high rate forward and return communication services, tracking services, and ground network services. The infrastructure must provide robust, reliable, safe, sustainable, and autonomous operations at minimum cost while maximizing the exploration capabilities and science return. The infrastructure will be based on a network of networks architecture that will integrate NASA legacy communication, modified elements, and navigation systems. New networks will be added to extend communication, navigation, and timing services for the Moon missions. Internet protocol (IP) and network management systems within the networks will enable interoperability throughout the Constellation system of systems. An integrated network architecture has developed based on the emerging Constellation requirements for Orion missions. The architecture, as presented in this paper, addresses the early Orion missions to the ISS with communication, navigation, and network services over five phases of a mission: pre-launch, launch from T0 to T+6.5 min, launch from T+6.5 min to 12 min, in LEO for rendezvous and docking with ISS, and return to Earth. The network of networks that supports the mission during each of these phases and the concepts of operations during those phases are developed as a high level operational concepts graphic called OV-1, an architecture diagram type described in the Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF). Additional operational views on organizational relationships (OV-4), operational activities (OV-5), and operational node connectivity (OV-2) are also discussed. The system interfaces view (SV-1) that provides the communication and navigation services to Orion is also included and described. The challenges of architecting integrated network architecture for the NASA Orion missions are highlighted.

Bhasin, Kul B.↗

Real-Time Testbed for Studying Cyberattacks and Defense in DER-integrated Smart Inverter Systems

In this paper, we propose a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation testbed suitable for the implementation and testing of realistic cyberattacks on grid-tied smart inverter systems integrated with Distributed Energy Resources (DER) that use the Distributed Network Protocol-3 (DNP3) protocol for communications between grid components. Specifically, our testbed combines a Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) NovaCor device, outfitted with GNETx2 network interface cards, a gridtied DER topology implemented via the RTDS software package RSCAD, and a custom virtual network that emulates a man in the middle attacker. The Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacker captures DNP3 traffic and falsifies telemetry data in DNP3 packets to trigger unwarranted commands from a DNP3 controller that exploit smart inverter grid support functions. We choose DNP3 and implement grid support functions according to the IEEE Std. 1547-2018 mandated for the interconnection and interoperability of DER power systems with associated power components. Furthermore, we develop a protocol payload agnostic attack detection framework that leverages the round-trip time (RTT) anomalies between DNP3 requests and responses and can detect the presence of attacks without having to analyze the payload’s contents, while balancing trade-offs between false alarm counts, missed detections, and time to detection. To facilitate further research, we publicly release benign and attack network traffic exchanged between various sensors, controllers, and actuators in our grid-tied inverter testbed.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Beam Synchronous for the Rest of Us!

Fermilab’s Tevatron Clock (TCLK) infrastructure has been an integral part of the accelerator control network since the 1980’s. This 10MHz Manchester encoded protocol has enabled flexible, real-time event distribution for thousands of devices connected to the timing network with a high degree of reliability. Forthcoming upgrades to the Fermilab complex (PIP-II, LBNF, ACORN) necessitate higher levels of precision to maintain inter-bunch timing for Instrumentation and Control purposes. This presents as an opportunity to refine the event distribution protocol for tighter synchronization between machines, experiments, and eventually far-site operations. This paper outlines a method by which beam-synchronous events may be distributed through asynchronous serial protocols via integration with local LLRF and global PPS reference signals. This method is ideal for synchrotron machines with aggressive frequency sweeps (such as Fermilab's 38~53MHz Booster) and allows for precision timing to be maintained across machines without specialized hardware.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Lunar Relay Satellite Network for Space Exploration: Architecture, Technologies and Challenges

NASA is planning a series of short and long duration human and robotic missions to explore the Moon and then Mars. A key objective of these missions is to grow, through a series of launches, a system of systems infrastructure with the capability for safe and sustainable autonomous operations at minimum cost while maximizing the exploration capabilities and science return. An incremental implementation process will enable a buildup of the communication, navigation, networking, computing, and informatics architectures to support human exploration missions in the vicinities and on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars. These architectures will support all space and surface nodes, including other orbiters, lander vehicles, humans in spacesuits, robots, rovers, human habitats, and pressurized vehicles. This paper describes the integration of an innovative MAC and networking technology with an equally innovative position-dependent, data routing, network technology. The MAC technology provides the relay spacecraft with the capability to autonomously discover neighbor spacecraft and surface nodes, establish variable-rate links and communicate simultaneously with multiple in-space and surface clients at varying and rapidly changing distances while making optimum use of the available power. The networking technology uses attitude sensors, a time synchronization protocol and occasional orbit-corrections to maintain awareness of its instantaneous position and attitude in space as well as the orbital or surface location of its communication clients. A position-dependent data routing capability is used in the communication relay satellites to handle the movement of data among any of multiple clients (including Earth) that may be simultaneously in view; and if not in view, the relay will temporarily store the data from a client source and download it when the destination client comes into view. The integration of the MAC and data routing networking technologies would enable a relay satellite system to provide end-to-end communication services for robotic and human missions in the vicinity, or on the surface of the Moon with a minimum of Earth-based operational support.

Bhasin, Kul B.↗

Deep Space Networking Experiments on the EPOXI Spacecraft

NASA's Space Communications & Navigation Program within the Space Operations Directorate is operating a program to develop and deploy Disruption Tolerant Networking [DTN] technology for a wide variety of mission types by the end of 2011. DTN is an enabling element of the Interplanetary Internet where terrestrial networking protocols are generally unsuitable because they rely on timely and continuous end-to-end delivery of data and acknowledgments. In fall of 2008 and 2009 and 2011 the Jet Propulsion Laboratory installed and tested essential elements of DTN technology on the Deep Impact spacecraft. These experiments, called Deep Impact Network Experiment (DINET 1) were performed in close cooperation with the EPOXI project which has responsibility for the spacecraft. The DINET 1 software was installed on the backup software partition on the backup flight computer for DINET 1. For DINET 1, the spacecraft was at a distance of about 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) from Earth. During DINET 1 300 images were transmitted from the JPL nodes to the spacecraft. Then, they were automatically forwarded from the spacecraft back to the JPL nodes, exercising DTN's bundle origination, transmission, acquisition, dynamic route computation, congestion control, prioritization, custody transfer, and automatic retransmission procedures, both on the spacecraft and on the ground, over a period of 27 days. The first DINET 1 experiment successfully validated many of the essential elements of the DTN protocols. DINET 2 demonstrated: 1) additional DTN functionality, 2) automated certain tasks which were manually implemented in DINET 1 and 3) installed the ION SW on nodes outside of JPL. DINET 3 plans to: 1) upgrade the LTP convergence-layer adapter to conform to the international LTP CL specification, 2) add convergence-layer "stewardship" procedures and 3) add the BSP security elements [PIB & PCB]. This paper describes the planning and execution of the flight experiment and the validation results.

automated data communication↗

Web Transfer Over Satellites Being Improved

Extensive research conducted by NASA Lewis Research Center's Satellite Networks and Architectures Branch and the Ohio University has demonstrated performance improvements in World Wide Web transfers over satellite-based networks. The use of a new version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) reduced the time required to load web pages over a single Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection traversing a satellite channel. However, an older technique of simultaneously making multiple requests of a given server has been shown to provide even faster transfer time. Unfortunately, the use of multiple simultaneous requests has been shown to be harmful to the network in general. Therefore, we are developing new mechanisms for the HTTP protocol which may allow a single request at any given time to perform as well as, or better than, multiple simultaneous requests. In the course of study, we also demonstrated that the time for web pages to load is at least as short via a satellite link as it is via a standard 28.8-kbps dialup modem channel. This demonstrates that satellites are a viable means of accessing the Internet.

Allman, Mark↗

Software Modules for the Proximity-1 Space Link Interleaved Time Synchronization (PITS) Protocol

The Proximity-1 Space Link Interleaved Time Synchronization (PITS) protocol provides time distribution and synchronization services for space systems. A software prototype implementation of the PITS algorithm has been developed that also provides the test harness to evaluate the key functionalities of PITS with simulated data source and sink. PITS integrates time synchronization functionality into the link layer of the CCSDS Proximity-1 Space Link Protocol. The software prototype implements the network packet format, data structures, and transmit- and receive-timestamp function for a time server and a client. The software also simulates the transmit and receive-time stamp exchanges via UDP (User Datagram Protocol) socket between a time server and a time client, and produces relative time offsets and delay estimates.

Woo, Simon S.↗

CAN-D: A Modular Four-Step Pipeline for Comprehensively Decoding Controller Area Network Data

Controller area networks (CANs) are a broadcast protocol for real-time communication of critical vehicle subsystems. Original equipment manufacturers of passenger vehicles hold secret their mappings of CAN data to vehicle signals, and these definitions vary according to make, model, and year. Without these mappings, the wealth of real-time vehicle information hidden in the CAN packets is uninterpretable, severely impeding vehicle-related research, including CAN cybersecurity and privacy studies, aftermarket tuning, efficiency and performance monitoring, and fault diagnosis to name a few. Guided by the four-part CAN signal definition, we present CAN-D (CAN-Decoder), a modular, four-step pipeline for identifying each signal's boundaries (start bit and length), endianness (byte ordering), signedness (bit-to-integer encoding), and by leveraging diagnostic standards, augmenting a subset of the extracted signals with meaningful, physical interpretation. En route to CAN-D, we provide a comprehensive review of the CAN signal reverse engineering research. All previous methods ignore endianness and signedness, rendering them incapable of decoding many standard CAN signal definitions. Incorporating endianness grows the search space from 128 to 4.72E21 signal tokenizations and introduces a web of changing dependencies. In response, we formulate, formally analyze, and provide an efficient solution to an optimization problem, allowing identification of the optimal set of signal boundaries and byte orderings. In addition, we provide two novel, state-of-the-art signal boundary classifiers—both of which are superior to previous approaches in precision and recall in three different test scenarios—and the first signedness classification algorithm, which exhibits a $>$ 97% F-score. Altogether, CAN-D is the only solution with the potential to extract any CAN signal that is also the state of the art. In evaluation on 10 vehicles of different makes, CAN-D's average $\ell ^1$ error is five times better (81% less) than all previous methods and exhibits lower average error, even when considering only signals that meet prior methods’ assumptions. Finally, CAN-D is implemented in lightweight hardware, allowing for an on-board diagnostic (OBD-II) plugin for real-time in-vehicle CAN decoding.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Known TCP Implementation Problems

This memo catalogs a number of known TCP implementation problems. The goal in doing so is to improve conditions in the existing Internet by enhancing the quality of current TCP/IP implementations. It is hoped that both performance and correctness issues can be resolved by making implementors aware of the problems and their solutions. In the long term, it is hoped that this will provide a reduction in unnecessary traffic on the network, the rate of connection failures due to protocol errors, and load on network servers due to time spent processing both unsuccessful connections and retransmitted data. This will help to ensure the stability of the global Internet. Each problem is defined as follows: Name of Problem The name associated with the problem. In this memo, the name is given as a subsection heading. Classification one or more problem categories for which the problem is classified: "congestion control", "performance", "reliability", "resource management". Description A definition of the problem, succinct but including necessary background material. Significance A brief summary of the sorts of environments for which the problem is significant.

Paxson, Vern↗

Nonlocal subpicosecond delay metrology using spectral quantum interference

Precise knowledge of position and timing information is critical to support elementary protocols such as entanglement swapping on quantum networks. While approaches have been devised to use quantum light for such metrology, they largely rely on time-of-flight (ToF) measurements with single-photon detectors and, therefore, are limited to picosecond-scale resolution owing to detector jitter. In this work, we demonstrate an approach to distributed sensing that leverages phase modulation to map changes in the spectral phase to coincidence probability, thereby overcoming the limits imposed by single-photon detection. By extracting information about the joint biphoton phase, we measure a generalized delay—the difference in signal–idler arrival, relative to local radio frequency (RF) phase modulation. For nonlocal ranging measurements, we achieve (2$σ$) precision of ±0.04 ps and for measurements of the relative RF phase, (2$σ$) precision of ±0.7°. We complement this fine timing information with ToF data from single-photon time-tagging to demonstrate absolute measurement of time delay. By relying on off-the-shelf telecommunications equipment and standard quantum resources, this approach has the potential to reduce overhead in practical quantum networks.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Optimized Lie–Trotter–Suzuki decompositions for two and three non-commuting terms

Lie–Trotter–Suzuki decompositions are an efficient way to approximate operator exponentials exp ( t H ) when H is a sum of n (non-commuting) terms which, individually, can be exponentiated easily. They are employed in time-evolution algorithms for tensor network states, digital quantum simulation protocols, path integral methods like quantum Monte Carlo, and splitting methods for symplectic integrators in classical Hamiltonian systems. Here, we provide optimized decompositions up to order t 6 . The leading error term is expanded in nested commutators (Hall bases) and we minimize the 1-norm of the coefficients. For n = 2 terms, several of the optima we find are close to those in McLachlan (1995). Generally, our results substantially improve over unoptimized decompositions by Forest, Ruth, Yoshida, and Suzuki. We explain why these decompositions are sufficient to efficiently simulate any one- or two-dimensional lattice model with finite-range interactions. This follows by solving a partitioning problem for the interaction graph.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Open-Source Framework for Data Storage and Visualization of Real-Time Experiments

Digital real time simulators (DRTS) are increasingly being used for the evaluation of power hardware and controller hardware in the laboratory prior to field deployment. Although DRTS are capable of simulating large models in real-time, it is challenging to visualize the results of large models without overdrawing or confounding the viewer. This paper provides an open-source framework for users to visualize their DRTS-based hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experimental results in real-time. This proposed framework can be used by experimental test beds that can push data through an internet protocol based network. The proposed framework includes three main components. First, it includes the DRTS that generates and pushes the data to a relay. Second, it includes an application that serves multiple purposes, from data storage, testing, and translation of the data to a publisher/subscriber protocol. Finally, it includes libraries and applications that can be used to visualize the data by subscribing to the relay. This framework is available in open source, and it is tested using the HIL platform developed for testing advanced distribution management systems.

advanced distribution management systems↗

Application of Mobile Router to Military Communications

Cisco Systems and NASA Glenn Research Center under a NASA Space Act Agreement have been performing joint networking research to apply Internet technologies and protocols to space-based communications. During this time, Cisco Systems developed the mobile-router which NASA and Cisco jointly tested. The early field trials of this technology have been successfully completed. The mobile-router is software code that resides in a network router. A Mobile-Router allows entire networks to roam while maintaining connectivity to the Internet. This router code is pertinent to a myriad of applications for both the government and commercial sectors. This technology will be applied to the wireless battlefield. NASA and the Department of Defense will utilize this technology for near-planetary observation and sensing spacecraft. It is the enabling technology for communication via the Internet or Intranets to aircraft. Information such as weather, air traffic control, voice and video can be easily and inexpensively transmitted to the aircraft using Internet protocols. The mobile router can be incorporated into emergency vehicles particularly ambulances and life-flight aircraft to provide real-time connectivity back to the hospital and healthcare experts. Commercial applications include entertainment services, IP telephone, and Internet connectivity for cruise ships, commercial shipping, tour busses, aircraft, and eventually cars. This paper will briefly describe the mobile router operation. An upcoming wide area network field test with application to US Coast Guard communications will be described. The paper will also highlight military and government networks that will benefit from the deployment of mobile router and the associated applications.

Stewart, David H.↗

Simulation Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Space Networks

In space exploration missions, the coordinated use of spacecraft as communication relays increases the efficiency of the endeavors. To conduct trade-off studies of the performance and resource usage of different communication protocols and network designs, JPL designed a comprehensive extendable tool, the Multi-mission Advanced Communications Hybrid Environment for Test and Evaluation (MACHETE). The design and development of MACHETE began in 2000 and is constantly evolving. Currently, MACHETE contains Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) protocol standards such as Proximity-1, Advanced Orbiting Systems (AOS), Packet Telemetry/Telecommand, Space Communications Protocol Specification (SCPS), and the CCSDS File Delivery Protocol (CFDP). MACHETE uses the Aerospace Corporation s Satellite Orbital Analysis Program (SOAP) to generate the orbital geometry information and contact opportunities. Matlab scripts provide the link characteristics. At the core of MACHETE is a discrete event simulator, QualNet. Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) is an end-to-end architecture providing communication in and/or through highly stressed networking environments. Stressed networking environments include those with intermittent connectivity, large and/or variable delays, and high bit error rates. To provide its services, the DTN protocols reside at the application layer of the constituent internets, forming a store-and-forward overlay network. The key capabilities of the bundling protocols include custody-based reliability, ability to cope with intermittent connectivity, ability to take advantage of scheduled and opportunistic connectivity, and late binding of names to addresses. In this presentation, we report on the addition of MACHETE models needed to support DTN, namely: the Bundle Protocol (BP) model. To illustrate the use of MACHETE with the additional DTN model, we provide an example simulation to benchmark its performance. We demonstrate the use of the DTN protocol and discuss statistics gathered concerning the total time needed to simulate numerous bundle transmissions

network protocols↗

Simulation of a Wireless Authentication Protocol

Abstract—A wireless authentication protocol that employs timeslots and associated frequency-channels (APEC) is simulated using Python as the simulation environment and implemented into radio hardware as a proof of concept. The APEC protocol does not rely on the use of challenge-response, multifactor authentication schemes but relies instead on the physical properties of a wireless signal. The APEC protocol provides opportunities for real-time deployment in cell phone network infrastructure, as well as in adverse civil and military applications. Description of the APEC implementation and the corresponding results of the simulation study are presented.

42 - ENGINEERING↗