SILKOSTU

The increasing digitalization of systems and functions is finding its way into all branches of industry relevant to Germany. From mobility and Industry 4.0 to energy systems, networked systems and IoT devices are increasingly being used. In mobility in particular, the direct networking of all players in road traffic is an essential building block for safe, efficient and ultimately autonomous mobility. In order to enable this networking, new communication technologies are required that connect road users with each other and meet high safety requirements. A high level of security in communication between devices in the transport infrastructure can be guaranteed by additional hardware security modules. The mobile communication path used can be secured by means of a special security element in the form of an embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC). 5G/ 6G enables, for example, faster and more reliable mobile internet provision, creating real-time communication as a prerequisite for connected and ultimately autonomous driving.The benefits of connected driving are manifold. For example, the flow of traffic in cities can be improved (e.g. through communication and coordination between vehicles and traffic lights), which has a positive effect in two ways: On the one hand, increased efficiency leads to time savings and, for example, greater punctuality in public transport. Secondly, emissions are reduced because the efficient operation of traffic lights can reduce the number of stops and starts by vehicles with petrol and diesel engines. Last but not least, networked driving has the advantage of increasing traffic safety because communication between vehicles (Vehicle-2-Vehicle, or V2V for short) and between vehicles and traffic infrastructure (Vehicle-2-Everything, or V2X for short) can reduce the likelihood of traffic jams and accidents.

The project aims to develop a communication unit (hardware platform) that can be used both as an on-board unit and as a roadside unit (OBU/RSU). This consists of a RISC-V hardware platform to be developed in the project, including an accelerator for a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), to which 5G/6G, WLANp and C-V2X modems can be connected. This communication unit thus enables the connection and combination of 5G/6G, WLANp and C-V2X modems.The aim of this sub-project is the development, integration and demonstrator implementation of the RISC-V hardware platform consisting of a secure RISC-V base architecture with hardware acceleration for a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) and a lightweight TEE itself.
For this purpose, the basic architecture is extended by suitable cryptographic accelerator units to support the TEE. In addition to TEE acceleration, a particular goal here is a fast, secure boot process (secure boot).
At the end of the project, a dedicated, RISC-V-based host platform will be developed as an SoC solution (“Board 2”), which, in addition to the named accelerator units for the TEE, will also provide the necessary interfaces to the communication hardware provided by the partners CIT and GD, so that the demonstration environment can be migrated to Board 2 at the end of the project. This platform is based on two Xilinx evaluation boards (VCU128, U280) to accommodate the RISC-V SoC environment and the dedicated accelerator units.
The company's own work is therefore closely networked with that of the other partners and coordinated accordingly.