Enhancing network-on-chip components to support security of processing elements

Network-on-Chip (NoC) has emerged as a promising solution for scalable communication among steadily growing number of cores integrated in MultiProcessor System-on-Chips (MPSoCs). The increasing system heterogeneity together with the possibility of reconfiguration makes the overall system security one of the major concerns in MPSoC design. On the other hand, modular and scalable design of NoCs enables their enhancements in various directions for supporting services other than simple data routing. In this work we propose and implement a solution to secure attached processing units from a buffer overflow type of the attacks that comes in a form of a protection module that is embedded into the Network Interface of the NoC. At the same time, our solution prevents potential propagation of the attack through the NoC towards other processors. We prove feasibility via prototype realization in FPGA technology for a MicroBlaze processor on Xilinx Virtex-II Pro board.