Secure Information Interaction Within a Group of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Based on Economic Approach

Abstract

Groups of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are considered in the context of territory monitoring. Preference is given to decentralized collective strategy of group management due to opportunity of providing consensual agent interaction with the help of common communication channel presence. For the correct group functioning there is a necessity in providing security of information transfer via communication channels. The emphasis is put on providing pragmatic information integrity, and to avoid violation occurrence in this category, method, based on credit theory was developed. The method implies regulation of information volume transferred by agents through establishment of fixed amount for information conventional units per time discrete (installment plan). In case of data retention by agent, subsequently its payment value is reduced, thus, its indebtedness is increased. At the end of installment plan period agent’s level of trust and reputation is calculated. During introduction into the group of a new agent the credit is determined, according to which the new agent gets from other group members not full information but information reduced by the established interest rate. However, this agent must transmit data in accordance with predetermined installment plan conditions. At the end of credit period the decision whether the new agent is accepted or blocked is made. To assess the proposed method, the interaction in UAV group was modeled. Saboteur and correct agent were introduced into the group. Series of independent tests were conducted, in the 90,2% of them the saboteur was blocked. Calculated F-measure of saboteur recognition was equal to 0,94.