ZugChain: Blockchain-Based Juridical Data Recording in Railway Systems

Schwarz-Rüsch S, Bleeke K, Messadi I, Schmidt S, Krampf A, Olze K, Stahnke S, Schmid R, Pirl L, Kittel R, Polze A, Franz M, Müller M, Jehl L, Kapitza R (2022)

Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Conference contribution, Conference Contribution

Publication year: 2022

Series: DSN'22

Conference Proceedings Title: Proceedings of the 52nd International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks

Event location: Baltimore, Maryland, USA US

URI: https://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/users/ruesch/papers/ruesch-dsn22.pdf

DOI: 10.1109/DSN53405.2022.00019

Abstract

In modern trains, a juridical recording unit logs events that occur during operation. This data is used to reconstruct the exact chain of events in case of failures and crashes. To ensure data recovery after an accident, the recorder is hardened against physical damage and secured against tampering; however, it is a single proprietary device and by no means indestructible.

This paper presents ZugChain, a distributed, blockchain-based juridical recording unit that opportunistically utilizes on-train hardware. ZugChain offers high reliability via replication and tamper-resistance due to the nature of blockchains. It implements a permissioned blockchain based on a Byzantine fault-tolerant agreement protocol suitable for diverse communication systems. To utilize the logged data for advanced services, e. g., predictive maintenance, ZugChain securely and continuously exports traces to private data centers. We demonstrate ZugChain's feasibility with an implementation running on real train hardware, where we show that ZugChain orders data within 14 ms using at maximum 15 % of the total available shared CPU resources, thus fulfilling requirements of juridical recorders.

Authors with CRIS profile

Signe Schwarz-Rüsch Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 (Systemsoftware) Ines Messadi Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 (Systemsoftware) Rüdiger Kapitza Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 (Systemsoftware)

Involved external institutions

Hasso-Plattner-Institut für Digital Engineering gGmbH (HPI) DE Germany (DE) Technische Universität Braunschweig DE Germany (DE) Siemens AG DE Germany (DE) University of Stavanger / Universitetet i Stavanger NO Norway (NO)

How to cite

APA:

Schwarz-Rüsch, S., Bleeke, K., Messadi, I., Schmidt, S., Krampf, A., Olze, K.,... Kapitza, R. (2022). ZugChain: Blockchain-Based Juridical Data Recording in Railway Systems. In Proceedings of the 52nd International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks. Baltimore, Maryland, USA, US.

MLA:

Schwarz-Rüsch, Signe, et al. "ZugChain: Blockchain-Based Juridical Data Recording in Railway Systems." Proceedings of the Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, Baltimore, Maryland, USA 2022.

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