Application of service composition mechanisms to Future Networks architectures and Smart Grids

Aquesta tesi gira entorn de la hipòtesi de la metodologia i mecanismes de composició de serveis i com es poden aplicar a diferents camps d'aplicació per a orquestrar de manera eficient comunicacions i processos flexibles i sensibles al context. Més concretament, se centra en dos camps d'aplicació: la distribució eficient i sensible al context de contingut multimèdia i els serveis d'una xarxa elèctrica intel·ligent. En aquest últim camp es centra en la gestió de la infraestructura, cap a la definició d'una Software Defined Utility (SDU), que proposa una nova manera de gestionar la Smart Grid amb un enfocament basat en programari, que permeti un funcionament molt més flexible de la infraestructura de xarxa elèctrica. Per tant, revisa el context, els requisits i els reptes, així com els enfocaments de la composició de serveis per a aquests camps. Fa especial èmfasi en la combinació de la composició de serveis amb arquitectures Future Network (FN), presentant una proposta de FN orientada a serveis per crear comunicacions adaptades i sota demanda. També es presenten metodologies i mecanismes de composició de serveis per operar sobre aquesta arquitectura, i posteriorment, es proposa el seu ús (en conjunció o no amb l'arquitectura FN) en els dos camps d'estudi. Finalment, es presenta la investigació i desenvolupament realitzat en l'àmbit de les xarxes intel·ligents, proposant diverses parts de la infraestructura SDU amb exemples d'aplicació de composició de serveis per dissenyar seguretat dinàmica i flexible o l'orquestració i gestió de serveis i recursos dins la infraestructura de l'empresa elèctrica.Esta tesis gira en torno a la hipótesis de la metodología y mecanismos de composición de servicios y cómo se pueden aplicar a diferentes campos de aplicación para orquestar de manera eficiente comunicaciones y procesos flexibles y sensibles al contexto. Más concretamente, se centra en dos campos de aplicación: la distribución eficiente y sensible al contexto de contenido multimedia y los servicios de una red eléctrica inteligente. En este último campo se centra en la gestión de la infraestructura, hacia la definición de una Software Defined Utility (SDU), que propone una nueva forma de gestionar la Smart Grid con un enfoque basado en software, que permita un funcionamiento mucho más flexible de la infraestructura de red eléctrica. Por lo tanto, revisa el contexto, los requisitos y los retos, así como los enfoques de la composición de servicios para estos campos. Hace especial hincapié en la combinación de la composición de servicios con arquitecturas Future Network (FN), presentando una propuesta de FN orientada a servicios para crear comunicaciones adaptadas y bajo demanda. También se presentan metodologías y mecanismos de composición de servicios para operar sobre esta arquitectura, y posteriormente, se propone su uso (en conjunción o no con la arquitectura FN) en los dos campos de estudio. Por último, se presenta la investigación y desarrollo realizado en el ámbito de las redes inteligentes, proponiendo varias partes de la infraestructura SDU con ejemplos de aplicación de composición de servicios para diseñar seguridad dinámica y flexible o la orquestación y gestión de servicios y recursos dentro de la infraestructura de la empresa eléctrica.This thesis revolves around the hypothesis the service composition methodology and mechanisms and how they can be applied to different fields of application in order to efficiently orchestrate flexible and context-aware communications and processes. More concretely, it focuses on two fields of application that are the context-aware media distribution and smart grid services and infrastructure management, towards a definition of a Software-Defined Utility (SDU), which proposes a new way of managing the Smart Grid following a software-based approach that enable a much more flexible operation of the power infrastructure. Hence, it reviews the context, requirements and challenges of these fields, as well as the service composition approaches. It makes special emphasis on the combination of service composition with Future Network (FN) architectures, presenting a service-oriented FN proposal for creating context-aware on-demand communication services. Service composition methodology and mechanisms are also presented in order to operate over this architecture, and afterwards, proposed for their usage (in conjunction or not with the FN architecture) in the deployment of context-aware media distribution and Smart Grids. Finally, the research and development done in the field of Smart Grids is depicted, proposing several parts of the SDU infrastructure, with examples of service composition application for designing dynamic and flexible security for smart metering or the orchestration and management of services and data resources within the utility infrastructure

ENABLING IOT AUTHENTICATION, PRIVACY AND SECURITY VIA BLOCKCHAIN

Although low-power and Internet-connected gadgets and sensors are increasingly integrated into our lives, the optimal design of these systems remains an issue. In particular, authentication, privacy, security, and performance are critical success factors. Furthermore, with emerging research areas such as autonomous cars, advanced manufacturing, smart cities, and building, usage of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices is expected to skyrocket. A single compromised node can be turned into a malicious one that brings down whole systems or causes disasters in safety-critical applications. This dissertation addresses the critical problems of (i) device management, (ii) data management, and (iii) service management in IoT systems. In particular, we propose an integrated platform solution for IoT device authentication, data privacy, and service security via blockchain-based smart contracts. We ensure IoT device authentication by blockchain-based IC traceability system, from its fabrication to its end-of-life, allowing both the supplier and a potential customer to verify an IC’s provenance. Results show that our proposed consortium blockchain framework implementation in Hyperledger Fabric for IC traceability achieves a throughput of 35 transactions per second (tps). To corroborate the blockchain information, we authenticate the IC securely and uniquely with an embedded Physically Unclonable Function (PUF). For reliable Weak PUF-based authentication, our proposed accelerated aging technique reduces the cumulative burn-in cost by ∼ 56%. We also propose a blockchain-based solution to integrate the privacy of data generated from the IoT devices by giving users control of their privacy. The smart contract controlled trust-base ensures that the users have private access to their IoT devices and data. We then propose a remote configuration of IC features via smart contracts, where an IC can be programmed repeatedly and securely. This programmability will enable users to upgrade IC features or rent upgraded IC features for a fixed period after users have purchased the IC. We tailor the hardware to meet the blockchain performance. Our on-die hardware module design enforces the hardware configuration’s secure execution and uses only 2,844 slices in the Xilinx Zedboard Zynq Evaluation board. The blockchain framework facilitates decentralized IoT, where interacting devices are empowered to execute digital contracts autonomously

A new MDA-SOA based framework for intercloud interoperability

Cloud computing has been one of the most important topics in Information Technology which aims to assure scalable and reliable on-demand services over the Internet. The expansion of the application scope of cloud services would require cooperation between clouds from different providers that have heterogeneous functionalities. This collaboration between different cloud vendors can provide better Quality of Services (QoS) at the lower price. However, current cloud systems have been developed without concerns of seamless cloud interconnection, and actually they do not support intercloud interoperability to enable collaboration between cloud service providers. Hence, the PhD work is motivated to address interoperability issue between cloud providers as a challenging research objective. This thesis proposes a new framework which supports inter-cloud interoperability in a heterogeneous computing resource cloud environment with the goal of dispatching the workload to the most effective clouds available at runtime. Analysing different methodologies that have been applied to resolve various problem scenarios related to interoperability lead us to exploit Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) methods as appropriate approaches for our inter-cloud framework. Moreover, since distributing the operations in a cloud-based environment is a nondeterministic polynomial time (NP-complete) problem, a Genetic Algorithm (GA) based job scheduler proposed as a part of interoperability framework, offering workload migration with the best performance at the least cost. A new Agent Based Simulation (ABS) approach is proposed to model the inter-cloud environment with three types of agents: Cloud Subscriber agent, Cloud Provider agent, and Job agent. The ABS model is proposed to evaluate the proposed framework.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - (Referencia da bolsa: SFRH SFRH / BD / 33965 / 2009) and EC 7th Framework Programme under grant agreement n° FITMAN 604674 (http://www.fitman-fi.eu