Method of designing a cyber-resilient information and communication network

Abstract

The proposed method for designing a cyber-resilient information and communication network (ICN) is based on solving an optimization problem related to the mutually coordinated calculation of various control variables responsible for choosing the network topology; the order of connecting access networks to ICN core routers; determining the characteristics of the equipment used in terms of its performance and security level; determining the order of routing packet flows. The method assumes that the locations of the probable placement of network routers are known in advance. Due to the synthesized mathematical model, the method provides not a sequential but a simultaneous solution to the primary design tasks, which significantly affects the level of efficiency of the final solutions. The mathematical model on which the developed design method is based is mostly linear. Only the conditions for preventing the overloading of communication links (router interfaces) are non-linear. The cyber resilience of design solutions is ensured by the fact that in the objective function to be minimized, the weighting coefficients, along with cost and quality of service indicators, should also consider network (information) security indicators – the compromise probability or information security risks of network equipment. This will make it possible to synthesize a network with specified or predicted cyber resilience indicators. Prospects for further research in this area are related to the introduction of a mathematical model and a method for designing conditions for ensuring guaranteed quality of service, which will allow only the requirements for the level of cyber resilience to be taken into account at the level of the optimality criterion. On the other hand, an attempt to move to a linear version of the conditions for preventing communication link overload is a certain direction of model improvement, which will somewhat reduce the computational complexity of calculations related to the determination of a large number of control variables.