Decentralized Privacy Provision in Dynamically Reconfigurable and Self-Organizing Aero-Physical Cyber Systems

The paper introduces a data and communication security approach in decentralized, cloud-based, self-organizing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) swarms. UAV swarms exhibit emergent behavior, where local interactions lead to globally coordinated actions. Peers within the swarm autonomously establish communication links, adapt to changes in hazardous and hostile environments, and collaboratively perform distributed tasks without relying on a fixed infrastructure or external control. Each UAV in the swarm is governed by aerodynamics and physical constraints like lift, drag, and weight which together determine their maneuverability and real-time stability. In our construction, the underlying logical and technological framework consists of three main models, each developed by the authors: the information full exchange during the swarm quasi-random walk; the rotor-router model interpreting the peers’ discrete-time walk, and fault-tolerant gossip/broadcast schemes supporting the swarm resilience to internal failures and external cyber-attacks. The proposed cloud network topology encompasses connectivity options and ensures the swarm’s expected behavior. To ensure swarm security, we suggest embedding a blockchain-equipped robust identity verification scheme to ensure peers’ tamper-proof, transparent, and decentralized authentication, while accounting for the inherent limitations posed by their resource-constrained nature.