System-Wide Information Management (SWIM) Demonstration Security Architecture

Abstract

System-wide information management (SWIM) is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) network-centric environment that facilitates software application integration in the National Airspace System (NAS). Built on a set of five core service types - interfaces, registries, message brokers, information assurance and system management - SWIM accelerates NAS evolution by defining a secure common infrastructure for application integration and a framework for information modeling and exchange. Providing information security in this distributed network-centric environment is a significant challenge. System users must be confident that their critical data is protected. Competing requirements, the transportation of sensitive data and air-to-ground bandwidth constraints mean that a network layer-based approach to security is no longer sufficient. Trusted security at every layer of a network-centric architecture - combined with strong identity management and a data-oriented approach to information assurance - is the key to success. This paper introduces the FAA SWIM demonstration security architecture, and explores some of the methods and mechanisms used to provide end-to-end security, confidentiality, integrity, availability and privacy for NAS applications and their users