Exploiting the Synchronization of Nonlinear Dynamics to Secure Distributed Consensus
Distributed cooperative multi-agent operations, which are emerging as effective solutions in countless application domains, are prone to eavesdropping by malicious entities due to their exposure on the network. Moreover, in several cases, agents are reluctant to disclose their initial conditions (ev...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IEEE
2023-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Open Journal of Control Systems |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10196002/ |
| _version_ | 1797384385928888320 |
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| author | Camilla Fioravanti Valeria Bonagura Gabriele Oliva Christoforos N. Hadjicostis Stefano Panzieri |
| author_facet | Camilla Fioravanti Valeria Bonagura Gabriele Oliva Christoforos N. Hadjicostis Stefano Panzieri |
| author_sort | Camilla Fioravanti |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Distributed cooperative multi-agent operations, which are emerging as effective solutions in countless application domains, are prone to eavesdropping by malicious entities due to their exposure on the network. Moreover, in several cases, agents are reluctant to disclose their initial conditions (even to legitimate neighbors) due to their sensitivity to private data. Providing security guarantees against external readings by malicious entities and the privacy of exchanged data while allowing agents to reach an agreement on some shared variables is an essential feature to foster the adoption of distributed protocols. In this article, we propose to implement a secure and privacy-preserving consensus strategy that exploits, for this purpose, the performance of synchronization of nonlinear continuous-time dynamical systems. This is achieved by splitting the initial conditions into two information fragments, one of which is subject to nonlinear manipulation. In this way, the information being exchanged in the network will always be subject to the influence of nonlinear dynamics. However, by exploiting the ability of such dynamics to synchronize, the combination of the two fragments still converges to a weighted average of each node's actual initial conditions. Furthermore, due to the dependence of the hidden dynamics on a coordinate transformation known only to the legitimate nodes, message security is ensured even once consensus is reached; our approach relies on the assumption that a secure communication channel is available during an initialization phase. The article is complemented by a simulation campaign aimed at numerically demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T21:35:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ff060a2066064154aec6b79e227f70f5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2694-085X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T21:35:47Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Open Journal of Control Systems |
| spelling | doaj.art-ff060a2066064154aec6b79e227f70f52023-12-21T00:02:00ZengIEEEIEEE Open Journal of Control Systems2694-085X2023-01-01224926210.1109/OJCSYS.2023.329952110196002Exploiting the Synchronization of Nonlinear Dynamics to Secure Distributed ConsensusCamilla Fioravanti0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0581-193XValeria Bonagura1https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4346-2233Gabriele Oliva2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7257-4079Christoforos N. Hadjicostis3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1706-708XStefano Panzieri4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6042-5479University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Rome, ItalyUniversity Roma Tre, Rome, ItalyUniversity Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Rome, ItalyUniversity of Cyprus, Nicosia, CyprusUniversity Roma Tre, Rome, ItalyDistributed cooperative multi-agent operations, which are emerging as effective solutions in countless application domains, are prone to eavesdropping by malicious entities due to their exposure on the network. Moreover, in several cases, agents are reluctant to disclose their initial conditions (even to legitimate neighbors) due to their sensitivity to private data. Providing security guarantees against external readings by malicious entities and the privacy of exchanged data while allowing agents to reach an agreement on some shared variables is an essential feature to foster the adoption of distributed protocols. In this article, we propose to implement a secure and privacy-preserving consensus strategy that exploits, for this purpose, the performance of synchronization of nonlinear continuous-time dynamical systems. This is achieved by splitting the initial conditions into two information fragments, one of which is subject to nonlinear manipulation. In this way, the information being exchanged in the network will always be subject to the influence of nonlinear dynamics. However, by exploiting the ability of such dynamics to synchronize, the combination of the two fragments still converges to a weighted average of each node's actual initial conditions. Furthermore, due to the dependence of the hidden dynamics on a coordinate transformation known only to the legitimate nodes, message security is ensured even once consensus is reached; our approach relies on the assumption that a secure communication channel is available during an initialization phase. The article is complemented by a simulation campaign aimed at numerically demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10196002/Chua oscillatorsdistributed algorithmsdistributed consensusnonlinear synchronizationprivacy preservationsecurity |
| spellingShingle | Camilla Fioravanti Valeria Bonagura Gabriele Oliva Christoforos N. Hadjicostis Stefano Panzieri Exploiting the Synchronization of Nonlinear Dynamics to Secure Distributed Consensus IEEE Open Journal of Control Systems Chua oscillators distributed algorithms distributed consensus nonlinear synchronization privacy preservation security |
| title | Exploiting the Synchronization of Nonlinear Dynamics to Secure Distributed Consensus |
| title_full | Exploiting the Synchronization of Nonlinear Dynamics to Secure Distributed Consensus |
| title_fullStr | Exploiting the Synchronization of Nonlinear Dynamics to Secure Distributed Consensus |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploiting the Synchronization of Nonlinear Dynamics to Secure Distributed Consensus |
| title_short | Exploiting the Synchronization of Nonlinear Dynamics to Secure Distributed Consensus |
| title_sort | exploiting the synchronization of nonlinear dynamics to secure distributed consensus |
| topic | Chua oscillators distributed algorithms distributed consensus nonlinear synchronization privacy preservation security |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10196002/ |
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