The upcoming IEEE 802.1CB standard aims to solve performance and reliability issues in Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN). Mission-critical systems often use these standards for communication in automotive, industrial, and avionic networks. However, researchers did not sufficiently investigate the security risks and possible mitigation solutions to this introduced standard. This limited knowledge is a problem as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are mission-critical and time-sensitive, and any unexpected failure of these systems could endanger lives.

To attain a complete overview of the security risks of IEEE 802.1CB, we use an improved STRIDE model for Cyber-Physical Systems. We then design and create a hardware test-bed for Time-Sensitive Networking to prove the feasibility of the identified security risks. Finally, we implement attacks for the identified security risks in IEEE 802.1CB and analyze their impact by running experiments on the hardware test-bed. The results show that some of the identified security risks significantly impact the network’s reliability as we successfully execute a Replay attack and a Denial of Service attack. However, the hardware switches provide only limited functionality of the IEEE 802.1CB specification. Therefore, we could not verify the attacks against all identified security risks.

These results show that this networking standard is not ready to be used in Cyber-Physical Systems as the impact of the identified security risks is too significant. On this basis, we recommend additional research and improvements to the IEEE 802.1CB standard and mitigation solutions.

This report consummates the Bachelor Project TI3806 course. To accumulate a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering at the Delft University of Technology, it is compulsory to pass this course. The project, spanning a duration of ten weeks, is described in this report. The project client was Adviesgroep Strategisch Gebouwbeheer Nederland B.V. (ASG). This is a Dutch energy consultancy company based in Delft that uses big data innovations for energy management and for gaining insight into sustainability issues. The client encountered a real-life problem regarding the transmission of the data from their measuring devices. We were tasked to solve this problem. The project goal was to create a better data transmitter for the client. For naming convention purposes, we call the transmitter a gateway, as the device acts as a port between the measuring devices and the servers. It receives data from the measuring devices within its proximity and after filtering and processing this data, it is transmitted to the servers. The main objective was to design and develop a gateway that is better than the previously used gateway, the one that the client encountered numerous issues with. This improved gateway would then be deployed throughout the country such that the client enjoys numerous improvements. The most important improvements include cost reduction and a more robust, feature-rich and configurable solution.
Furthermore, the goal of this report is to inform the reader about the work that has been completed during the duration of the project at ASG. This report also contains possible future recommendations for this project. The objective of the future recommendations is to act as advice, guidance and instructions for the continuity of this project as the client might decide to further expand the solution by co-workers.