Open IoT sensor platform
Ingenics Digital supports project »SASPIT«
The increasing connection of everyday things to the IoT creates many advantages. On the other hand, the resulting collection of data creates the need to protect sensitive data. This can only be achieved through appropriate security standards.
Eight partners from industry and science officially launched the research project »SASPIT« (Safe and Secure Sensor Platform for IoT) on 01.05.2023. One of the participating companies is Ingenics Digital, which emerged from Pixel and Mixed Mode. The project's collaborative coordinator is the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Kaiserslautern. The project has a budget of €3.49 million, of which 73 % is funded by the BMBF. The duration is from 5/2023 to 4 /2026. The core topic is IoT security in smart homes, production and sensitive infrastructures.
Use of open source technologies such as RISC-V
The goals of the SASPIT project are to develop an open IoT sensor platform with end-to-end security guarantees for the correctness, integrity, and confidentiality of the data (safety, security, and privacy), as well as to develop the concepts and tools required for this purpose. The required hardware and software will be developed with the goal of verification and certification. Individual, directly reusable components are verified in an exemplary and openly traceable manner. The certification of a system developed on this basis is facilitated by a guideline. Furthermore, novel methods for the safeguarding of electronic components or sensors (after manufacture, on the delivery route and in operation) are being researched.
This will take advantage of unique properties of electromagnetic radiation that can be measured during wireless communications. Wherever possible, open-source techniques and tools, such as a RISC-V-based architecture and relevant open-source software, will be used, with tie-ins to proprietary techniques where necessary. The results of the project will be validated and presented using demonstrators from the field of building automation.
Improving security and sustainability in IoT
Among other things, Ingenics Digital will work on a secure update mechanism for the platform's embedded operating system over the three years of the project to create a way to update the operating system independently of the application. This should make it possible for users of the IoT sensor platform to provide important security updates to the devices independently of manufacturer support. With its objectives, the project thus makes an important contribution to improving security and sustainability in the IoT sector.
