List of Use Cases

Overview

Bunker-Centric Architecture (BCA), powered by CLARE-Hypervisor, enables a new class of secure embedded systems by providing zero-trust isolation between untrusted Open World applications and security-critical Bunker OS services. The following use cases demonstrate how this architectural segregation solves real-world security, safety, and operational challenges across industries.

Industrial Automation

Challenge: Protecting mission-critical control logic from increasingly sophisticated remote attacks while maintaining operational flexibility and real-time responsiveness.

Solution: BCA separates control system logic and safety functions into the Bunker OS, isolated from the Open World environment running sensor processing, user interfaces, and networking components. Control decisions and state transitions remain protected in the secure domain, immune to vulnerabilities in userspace applications or network-exposed services.

Key Benefits:

  • Attack Surface Reduction: Only hardened, minimal code runs in the security boundary. Legacy or complex applications remain isolated in Open World.

  • Audit and Compliance: All control actions are logged in Bunker OS with tamper-proof timestamping, supporting regulatory compliance and forensic analysis.

  • Safe OTA Updates: Firmware and control logic updates are staged and verified in the secure domain before deployment, preventing rollback attacks or installation of corrupted binaries.

Industrial Automation systems increasingly require remote diagnostics and updates, creating tension between connectivity and security. BCA resolves this by allowing Open World to handle connectivity and remote management protocols while Bunker OS enforces policy and isolation.

Automotive

Challenge: Isolating domain-critical functions (instrument cluster) from non-safety entertainment systems (infotainment) on the same ECU, while preventing information leakage and simplifying certification requirements.

Real-World Scenario: Modern automotive ECUs consolidate multiple domains onto multi-core platforms for cost efficiency. The instrument cluster requires specific safety certification (ISO 26262 ASIL levels) and must reliably display critical vehicle information, while infotainment systems require different libraries, third-party integrations, and frequent updates. Previously, infotainment had access to cluster services and vehicle data, creating cross-domain contamination and certification complexity.

Solution: BCA isolates the instrument cluster and its safety-critical services in Bunker OS, while infotainment runs in Open World. The hypervisor enforces strict isolation: infotainment cannot directly access cluster services or vehicle sensor data. Instead, cluster explicitly exposes safe APIs through Turmux RPC, allowing infotainment to request information (vehicle speed, temperature gauges) without direct access to the underlying systems.

Key Benefits:

  • Domain Separation: Cluster and infotainment run independently. A crash or compromise in infotainment cannot affect cluster functionality or safety-critical displays.

  • Simplified Certification: Cluster code certifies once against ASIL requirements in the isolated Bunker OS environment. Infotainment updates and changes don’t require re-certification of the cluster.

  • Controlled Information Flow: Cluster explicitly controls what information infotainment can access. Sensitive CAN/LIN bus messages, diagnostic data, and security-critical signals remain protected in Bunker OS.

  • Independent Update Cycles: Infotainment can receive frequent OTA updates, host new apps, or integrate third-party services without disrupting cluster stability or requiring coordination of certification timelines.

  • Reduced Attack Surface: Infotainment vulnerabilities cannot directly compromise vehicle data or cluster operations. Any interaction goes through audited, minimal APIs in the hypervisor.

This pattern solves the core automotive integration challenge: multiple domains with different safety, security, and update requirements must coexist efficiently on resource-constrained hardware.

Medical Devices

Challenge: Protecting patient data and ensuring device firmware integrity while maintaining regulated compliance audit trails and supporting controlled update procedures.

Solution: BCA segregates patient data processing and firmware management into Bunker OS, where encryption, access control, and event logging are enforced. Open World handles user interfaces, connectivity, and non-critical applications under standard Linux.

Key Benefits:

  • Data Protection: Patient data (medical records, measurement history, device configuration) is encrypted at rest in Bunker OS and never exposed to Open World in unencrypted form.

  • Audit Trails: All access to sensitive data and firmware changes are logged in Bunker OS with cryptographic evidence. These logs support regulatory requirements and post-incident investigation.

  • Controlled Updates: Firmware updates are staged, verified, and applied through the security boundary, ensuring only authorized, signed images are installed. Failed or malicious updates cannot compromise the device.

  • Compliance: The architectural separation and immutable logging simplify compliance demonstrations and reduce the scope of security audits.

Medical device regulations often mandate that modifications to device functionality be traceable and authorized. BCA provides the technical foundation for this through Bunker OS’s control over state changes and cryptographic verification of firmware.

Railway and Transportation

Challenge: Integrating legacy certified railway signaling systems (SIL 4 proprietary OS) with modern plant monitoring and remote diagnostics capabilities without re-certification.

Real-World Scenario: Railway signaling systems are mission-critical and heavily certified to Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 4 standards. These systems typically run proprietary, real-time operating systems optimized for safety and determinism. Adding remote monitoring, diagnostics, and plant integration required connecting these systems to standard networking infrastructure and Linux-based management tools, creating certification complexity and security risks. The signaling OS itself could not be modified or replaced without costly re-certification.

Solution: BCA runs the certified proprietary SIL 4 signaling OS in Bunker partition, completely isolated from external networks and untrusted software. Open World partition hosts standard Linux to handle remote monitoring, diagnostics collection, and connectivity protocols. The hypervisor enforces strict boundaries: monitoring systems can query signaling state through audited APIs but cannot directly access or modify safety-critical logic.

Key Benefits:

  • Certification Preservation: While the system as a whole may require certification for the integrated platform, the hypervisor’s guaranteed freedom from interference means the proprietary SIL 4 signaling OS doesn’t require re-certification. Its certification remains valid because CLARE-Hypervisor certifiably prevents Open World from interfering with its execution.

  • Legacy System Integration: Decades-old, heavily validated proprietary OSes continue operation without modification. The hypervisor’s isolation eliminates certification burden on existing, proven safety-critical infrastructure.

  • Reduced Certification Scope: Rather than re-certifying the entire signaling OS and its hardware test libraries against new system requirements, certification focuses on the hypervisor’s isolation guarantees and the new monitoring/diagnostics layer.

  • Remote Monitoring Without Risk: Operators and maintenance teams access monitoring, logs, and diagnostics through Open World Linux without exposing signaling logic or safety-critical data to compromise.

  • Secure Diagnostics: Failed signaling events are logged and diagnostics data is collected in Bunker OS, then securely transferred to Open World for analysis and remote access.

  • Independent Update Cycles: Monitoring and diagnostics tools update independently on the Linux side. Signaling system updates remain controlled and coordinated with certification authorities.

This approach enables railway operators to modernize operations and add connectivity to certified, legacy systems without re-engineering or re-certifying mission-critical infrastructure.

Robotics and Autonomous Systems

Challenge: Enabling autonomous operation and complex algorithms (machine learning, path planning) while protecting real-time safety guarantees and ensuring safe fallback behaviors.

Solution: BCA allows advanced algorithms and AI inference to run in Open World (which may have variable latency and non-deterministic execution), while safety-critical functions (motor control, emergency stop, collision avoidance) run in Bunker OS with real-time guarantees. CLARE-Hypervisor ensures that safe behavior is always possible regardless of Open World state.

Key Benefits:

  • Deterministic Safety: Core safety functions execute with guaranteed latency and resource availability, isolated from the complexity of modern ML frameworks or perception pipelines.

  • AI/ML Integration: Complex algorithms run in Open World without compromising safety. If Open World fails or hangs, Bunker OS can enforce safe states (e.g., stop robot movement).

  • Secure Teleoperation: Remote operators can control robots through untrusted networks. Commands are verified in Bunker OS before actuation, preventing injection of dangerous commands.

  • Safe Landing: Systems can implement graceful degradation. If Open World or a component fails, Bunker OS ensures the system reaches a safe state (landing drone, stopping robot, shutting down actuators).

Teleoperation of specialized robots (surgical, inspection, rescue) or autonomous systems (drones, autonomous vehicles) often requires real-time guarantees while supporting ML-based perception and decision-making. BCA enables both by isolating timing-critical functions in the secure domain.

Current Status

This use cases page is currently under active development. We are working with customers across multiple industries to document additional real-world deployments and industrial scenarios. As our customers approve publication of their applications, we will expand this section with:

  • Detailed case studies with architecture diagrams

  • Performance and security metrics from production deployments

  • Integration patterns and best practices for each industry

  • Compliance and certification considerations

  • Lessons learned and design trade-offs

For questions about potential applications of BCA to your use case, please contact our sales or support team.