## 6 Security Analysis and Discussion
### Deployment Considerations and Practical Security  
SMART DShot's design prioritizes seamless integration with current UAV architectures through backward compatibility with standard DShot protocol interfaces, incremental deployment capability enabling selective activation per channel or flight phase, configuration flexibility providing adjustable security-performance trade-offs through software parame  
Figure 9: CVSS severity score comparison showing substantial risk reduction from High (7.3 average) to Low (3.1 average) severity across all attack categories.  
ters, and minimal hardware impact with 2.16% FPGA utilization enabling deployment on existing flight controllers.  
Three operational modes accommodate diverse security requirements across different application domains. High-Security Mode activates all four ML algorithms with maximum sensitivity, consuming 132.6 mW total power with detection latency below 10 ms average, suitable for critical infrastructure or defense applications. The balanced mode employs adaptive selection with HATC with medium sensitivity, optimal for commercial applications requiring efficiency security, consuming 89.4 mW (32% reduction) with detection latency below 15 ms average. Efficiency mode utilizes single algorithm selection based on operational profile, appropriate for recreational or low-risk applications, consuming 56.2 mW (58% reduction) with detection latency below the 25 ms average.  
The power-performance trade-off analysis reveals critical considerations for practical deployment:  
Measured Power Consumption: Our PolarFire SoC implementation demonstrates efficient power utilization with 16.6 mW per channel total consumption, distributed as: DShot core (42.1 mW for 8 channels), ML engine (23.4 mW), and neural network (18.9 mW). The total system power of 132.6 mW for 8 channels represents a reasonable overhead for the achieved security benefits.  
Performance vs. Resource Trade-off:  
* HATC achieves the highest 31.01% success rate but requires 180 ns latency and 7.1 KB memory
* FLTC provides 29.34% success rate with only 50 ns latency and 1.8 KB memory
* The system achieves 2.16% LUT utilization while maintaining 3.1\(\times\) timing margin  
Security vs. Overhead Balance: The 88.3% attack detection rate with only 2.3% false positives justifies the power overhead, particularly considering the CVSS score reduction from High (7.3) to Low (3.1) severity across all attack categories.  
For practical deployment, we recommend starting with high-value applications such as critical infrastructure inspection, defense operations, and commercial delivery systems where security benefits justify additional complexity. The initial rollout should employ a hybrid operation that maintains traditional CRC validation as a backup during the transition period, ensuring safety through redundant protection mechanisms. The deployment infrastructure should include comprehensive monitoring and logging systems to track algorithm performance, attack detection events, and system health metrics. Regular algorithm updates should be established based on operational experience and emerging threat intelligence, while maintaining certification compliance through structured update protocols. For widespread adoption, phased integration starting with new UAV designs before retrofitting existing platforms allows manufacturers to optimize system integration and validate performance in diverse operational scenarios.