drDRM: A PUF-Based Dynamically Reconfigurable DRM Mechanism for FPGA-Based Platform

This paper presents a PUF-based dynamically reconfigurable DRM mechanism to manage application IP cores licensing. The proposed DRM mechanism effectively obstructs cloning by binding IP core to reconfigurable partition based on the intrinsic ID derived from PUF. Besides, the proposed DRM mechanism provides developers the controllability on IP cores usage and metering based on session management and activation. Uniquely, the proposed DRM module is entirely implemented with logic resources within reconfigurable partition as this region is managed solely by Core Developer. Particularly, the proposed DRM mechanism allows multiple IP cores to be independently managed at respective reconfigurable partition in a single FPGA device. Lastly, the proposed DRM mechanism does not depend on Trusted Third Party (TTP) and is applicable in PC software licensing as well. The proposed DRM mechanism has been prototyped and tested experimentally in NetFPGA CML board through packets injection and extensive packets analysis in Wireshark. The implemented DRM mechanism occupied less than 6% of slices and BRAM in a Kintex 7 FPGA.