Networks

Communication Networks

The main research areas of the communication networks (CN) group at the Institute of Telecommunications (TC) are network security and secure communication in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs). The group is especially active in the field of reactive security measures, with focus on network supervision and anomaly detection methods. For Cyber-Physical Systems protection the group works on secure communication solutions for smart grid environments and Cyber-Physical production systems.

Network Security

The protection of communication networks against new and unexpected attacks remains a challenging task. Attacks become more sophisticated. New vulnerabilities emerge every day. Proactive solutions often fail if new attack strategies are used or undetected vulnerabilities are exploited. Therefore, network supervision methods are essential to establish situational awareness in communication networks. They help to detect anomalies in communication patterns and provide the first step for the detection of new attack types. The communication networks group works on network supervision and network protection methods, anomaly detection techniques and mitigation strategies. Special research topics in the group are methods for the analysis of encrypted network traffic, the detection of anomalies in streaming data and the use of supervised and unsupervised machine learning in adversarial environments.

Secure Communication in Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) interconnect real world physical systems with computational components in cyberspace. Cyber-physical systems provide the basis for many critical infrastructures (such as smart power grids) and are therefore tempting targets for all kinds of attackers. As a consequence, communication networks for cyber-physical systems have high security demands. Interfering with supervision and control functions in cyberspace can influence real world physical systems, which can lead to the damage of physical devices, malfunction of critical processes and endangerment of human lives.

The Communication Networks group works on methods to protect and supervise communication networks for Cyber-Physical Systems. The group focuses on secure communication methods for smart grid environments and Cyber-Physical production systems. This includes research on IPv4 and IPv6 based communication in smart grids for smart metering and wide area monitoring systems (WAMS). 

A special focus of the group is the detection of malware communication in critical infrastructures. In this area the group evaluates and develops novel methods that support the analysis and detection of, as well as the defense against network steganography methods (covert and subliminal channels) in high security environments. Specific applications in the domain of smart grids include, but are not limited to security analyses and -enhancements for eCharging and smart metering infrastructures. In the domain of smart production networks, the combination and inter-dependence of security and safety features poses unique challenges, which are addressed by recent CN research group activities.

Publications