Drones, or UAVs, are developed very intensively. There are many effective applications of drones for problems of monitoring, searching, detection, communication, delivery, and transportation of cargo in various sectors of the economy. The reliability of drones in the resolution of these problems should play a principal role. Therefore, studies encompassing reliability analysis of drones and swarms (fleets) of drones are important. As shown in this paper, the analysis of drone reliability and its components is considered in studies often. Reliability analysis of drone swarms is investigated less often, despite the fact that many applications cannot be performed by a single drone and require the involvement of several drones. In this paper, a systematic review of the reliability analysis of drone swarms is proposed. Based on this review, a new method for the analysis and quantification of the topological aspects of drone swarms is considered. In particular, this method allows for the computing of swarm availability and importance measures. Importance measures in reliability analysis are used for system maintenance and to indicate the components (drones) whose fault has the most impact on the system failure. Structural and Birnbaum importance measures are introduced for drone swarms’ components. These indices are defined for the following topologies: a homogenous irredundant drone fleet, a homogenous hot stable redundant drone fleet, a heterogeneous irredundant drone fleet, and a heterogeneous hot stable redundant drone fleet.

Traffic control in modern computer networks, including those within critical infrastructures (e.g. Nuclear Power Plants), implies various optimization problems solving by switching/routing devices in real time. Some of such problems include, for example, choosing of optimal route, distribution of data packets during multiway routing, redistribution of both service and user data, efficient changing of virtual configuration in network segment containing a bottleneck, which, in turn, appeared due to fault or failure of some physical links. In a majority of cases, input data in such problems have a discrete character (for example, traffic samples, statistical estimations, etc.); hence, it is inevitable to use algorithms of discrete optimization. Combinatorial algorithms for finding the solution in discrete optimization problem, applied to switching/routing nodes of critical infrastructures' networks, are considered. Conditions for selection of algorithm type, depending on nature of the problem, are determined. Implicit enumeration algorithms on lacing and tree, as well as algorithms of dynamic programming method are analyzed in details.

The application of complex electronic components such as systems-on-chips (including systems-on-programmable-chips using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)) in industrial instrumentation and control systems (I&Cs) causes risks for ensuring of safety. Nuclear power plant (NPP) I&C projects on FPGA are complex solutions which include both software and hardware components. Information security (system’s ability to protect the information and data from unauthorized access and modification) is a subordinate property with respect to safety of many I&Cs, primarily to the NPP reactor trip systems. Such hierarchy may be taken into account by implementation of security informed safety (SIS) approach. Recent events like Stuxnet or Duqu showed vulnerabilities in industrial embedded IT-Systems. In order to remove or reduce security risks, which could increase overall safety risk, the holistic analytical technique are necessary. The goal of the paper is to present the technique for of SIS-based assessment of the NPP I&C systems. The proposed SIS-oriented method of NPP I&C systems assessment includes the models and techniques. To decrease the risk of manual errors, the tool for the SIS-oriented assessment automation is described. The tool is based on joint use of abovementioned models and techniques, is proposed. The tool allows conducting the joint use of the following analysis techniques: GAP and IMECA.

The paper discusses importance of assessment of interference degree for various attributes of safety-critical systems, including safety and security, proposes applicable metrics, as well as represents an approach to assessment of safety-critical systems. Such approach relies on performance of gap analysis and consideration of influence of human, technique and tool. The approach is applicable to various safety-critical systems, including FPGA-based instrumentation and control (I&C) systems. Requirements of US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to security assessment and assurance for safety critical NNP I&C systems are analyzed. Profiling of the requirements considering features of FPGA-based I&Cs is described. As a case-study some results of security assessing for FPGA platform using Intrusion Modes and Effect Criticality Analysis (IMECA) are illustrated.