Rail Radio Intrusion Detection System (RRIDS) for Communication Based Train Control (CBTC)

Abstract

Control systems for trains, such as the European Traffic Management System (ERTMS), Shinkansen (Japan), Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System II (ACSESII) (Amtrak in USA), and Interoperable Electronic Train Management System (IETMS) (USA) use Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) and future Software Defined Radio (SDR) technologies in the communication framework to command and control train movements and relay advisory messages. The commands and advisories provided to the locomotive represent signal aspects, stops, speed limits, and track conditions. Once received, the locomotive performs appropriate actions to ensure safe navigation. CBTC networks that utilize SDR technologies may be subject to cyber security attacks which would compromise safe navigation of trains and possibly lead to collisions with other trains or endanger railroad workers. As a solution, Rail Radio Intrusion Detection System (RRIDS) is introduced to detect and deter cyber attacks such as: command replay, guessing, and message corruption attacks. RRIDS is a rail command specific IDS designed for locomotive and beacon communications security. RRIDS performs intrusion detection in near real time. Presented in this work is the design, theory, and experimental results describing the effectiveness and performance of RRIDS against a hypothetical attacker.