A reference architecture for digital immune systems

Smarsly, Kay

A reference architecture for digital immune systems

Publikationstyp

Conference Paper

Date Issued

2026-06

Sprache

English

Author(s)

Smarsly, Kay

Digitales und autonomes Bauen B-1

TORE-URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11420/63999

First published in

Lecture notes in computer science

Number in series

16787 LNCS

Start Page

129

End Page

143

Citation

26th International Conference on Computational Science, ICCS 2026

Contribution to Conference

26th International Conference on Computational Science, ICCS 2026

Publisher DOI

10.1007/978-3-032-29909-3_10

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-105043951563

Publisher

Springer

ISBN of container

978-3-032-29909-3

978-3-032-29908-6

978-3-032-29910-9

Modern structural health monitoring (SHM) systems and the physical structures being monitored constitute coupled cyber-physical systems that must be protected as a whole. As a consequence, threats no longer solely stem from structural anomalies, but also from internal SHM system faults and, in particular, from cyberattacks that may falsify sensor data, disrupt communication, or even sabotage critical infrastructure. The capabilities required to withstand the threats are often subsumed under the notion of a “digital immune system”. However, prior work on digital immune systems either targets other application domains that cannot be directly transferred to civil infrastructure or uses the label “digital immune system” as a buzzword without systematically mapping biological immune functions to digital counterparts. This paper presents a biologically inspired reference architecture for digital immune systems for civil infrastructure, defines and formally specifies the threat categories relevant to coupled cyber-physical SHM systems, introduces a compact illustrative sensor-fault scenario, and derives implementation-oriented recommendations intended to support computational modeling and simulation. Explicitly drawing from the biological immune functions, the reference architecture includes innate and adaptive layers, distinguishing between cellular-oriented, local modules and humoral-oriented, global elements. The architecture is intended to serve as a generally applicable blueprint for designing digital immune systems for civil infrastructure, aiming to advance cyber-physical SHM systems at the interface between civil engineering and computer science.