N-Versions-Based Resilient Traffic Control Systems

Abstract

Increasing the resilience of traffic control systems is a priority for many important cities worldwide. This is due to the ever-increasing problems leading to different failures in such systems. We are witnessing the intensive introduction of new technologies that automatically manage traffic but are exposed to different kinds of attacks. There are also unpredictable increases in climatic changes and the number of cars in many cities. These factors will surely enhance the failure risks of such systems and consequently increase the damage caused by traffic jams and road accidents. In this paper, we introduce a resilient traffic control system that consists of three levels: sensor control, display, and light control. Each level has three (or more) versions and a dynamic voter. Hence, the introduced system is based on diversity and redundancy (replication), called N-versions. We propose two techniques for the introduced resilient traffic control system. The first technique uses N-versions and dynamic voters to vote between the outcomes in each level. The second technique uses N-versions, dynamic voters, and acceptance testing units. The overhead in the second technique is evidently greater than that of the first technique, but its resilience is better. A fine analytical study is conducted and shows that the first technique requires only three versions to reach the optimal results, bounded by 1/15 probability of having a faulty system. The second technique leads to better results, which can determine small probabilities.