Developing SCA compliant security component and converting existing communication system into SCA-compliant SDR using OSSIE

Abstract

Since the initiation of Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program, the concept of Software Defined Radio (SDR) has received considerable attention. As the application area of SDR includes military use, the demand for secure SDR components has increased. An implementation of Software Communication Architecture (SCA) compliant security components is presented. A method for converting an existing Digital Communication System which uses Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) components and any standard interface like Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) to an SCA compliant SDR is also included. The SCA is a common specification standard and component-based software framework/architecture for SDR. Matsumoto, Takashima, and Imai (MTI) a variant of Diffie-Hellman, is the standard used for key sharing and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is the block encryption standard adopted by the US government. AES and MTI protocols have been described and implemented in SCA Compliant Components. A general implementation that uses drivers and system level calls to build a glue layer to make an existing communication system SCA Compliant is also presented. SCA-Compliant Security components using AES encryption/decryption and MTI protocol for key sharing are developed using Open Source SCA Implementation Embedded (OSSIE). A test case was developed and all the components were tested and validated against that test case which assures the successful implementation of security components. At the same time successful transmission of data packets assures the integration and working of PCI device in OSSIE.