Certificate-Based Trust Establishment in eEnabled Airplane Applications: Challenges and Approaches

This chapter describes potential roles of trust in future aviation information systems. The next-generation air transportation systems are envisioned to be a highly networked environment with aircraft digitally linked with ground systems and wireless technologies allowing real-time continuous sensing, collection and distribution of aircraft information assets. The resulting enhancements promise to revolutionize manufacturing, operation and maintenance of commercial airplanes. Safe and dependable aircraft operation as well as public well-being in these complex system-of-systems with multiple stakeholders, demands that the distributed information assets can be trusted to be correct and that the level of trustworthiness in systems can be established. This chapter considers two recent abstractions of such aviation systems – an electronic distribution system connecting aircraft with ground components for exchanging updates and data of onboard software, and a radio frequency identification (RFID) system for logistics and maintenance of aircraft – which use digital certificates to establish trust in integrity and authenticity of information assets as well as in authorized components handling these assets. The chapter presents unique challenges of aviation, such as regulations and business models, which can complicate implementation of certificate-based trust and further warrant trustworthiness proofs.