Towards a Framework for Modelling Multimedia Conferencing Calls in the Next Generation Network

This paper is concerned with the creation of a multiparty multimedia conferencing application which can be used in Next Generation Networks. It begins by suggesting ways in which conferencing can be modeled with a focus on separating signaling and media transfer functionality. Enabling technologies which could support the modeling framework derived and which are compatible with Next Generation Network (NGN) principles are reviewed. Finally, a design and implementation for a simple multimedia conferencing application are described

Current challenges and future trends in the field of communication architectures for microgrids

[EN] The concept of microgrid has emerged as a feasible answer to cope with the increasing number of distributed renewable energy sources which are being introduced into the electrical grid. The microgrid communication network should guarantee a complete and bidirectional connectivity among the microgrid resources, a high reliability and a feasible interoperability. This is in a contrast to the current electrical grid structure which is characterized by the lack of connectivity, being a centralized-unidirectional system. In this paper a review of the microgrids information and communication technologies (ICT) is shown. In addition, a guideline for the transition from the current communication systems to the future generation of microgrid communications is provided. This paper contains a systematic review of the most suitable communication network topologies, technologies and protocols for smart microgrids. It is concluded that a new generation of peer-to-peer communication systems is required towards a dynamic smart microgrid. Potential future research about communications of the next microgrid generation is also identified.This work is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under Grant ENE2015-64087-C2-2. This work is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under grant BES-2013-064539.Marzal-Romeu, S.; Salas-Puente, RA.; González Medina, R.; Garcerá, G.; Figueres Amorós, E. (2018). Current challenges and future trends in the field of communication architectures for microgrids. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 82(2):3610-3622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.10.101S3610362282

An assessment of blockchain consensus protocols for the Internet of Things

In a few short years the Internet of Things has become an intrinsic part of everyday life, with connected devices included in products created for homes, cars and even medical equipment. But its rapid growth has created several security problems, with respect to the transmission and storage of vast amounts of customers data, across an insecure heterogeneous collection of networks. The Internet of Things is therefore creating a unique set of risk and problems that will affect most households. From breaches in confidentiality, which could allow users to be snooped on, through to failures in integrity, which could lead to consumer data being compromised; devices are presenting many security challenges to which consumers are ill equipped to protect themselves from. Moreover, when this is coupled with the heterogeneous nature of the industry, and the interoperable and scalability problems it becomes apparent that the Internet of Things has created an increased attack surface from which security vulnerabilities may be easily exploited. However, it has been conjectured that blockchain may provide a solution to the Internet of Things security and scalability problems. Because of blockchain’s immutability, integrity and scalability, it is possible that its architecture could be used for the storage and transfer of Internet of Things data. Within this paper a cross section of blockchain consensus protocols have been assessed against a requirement framework, to establish each consensus protocols strengths and weaknesses with respect to their potential implementation in an Internet of Things blockchain environment

On the Edge of Secure Connectivity via Software-Defined Networking

Securing communication in computer networks has been an essential feature ever since the Internet, as we know it today, was started. One of the best known and most common methods for secure communication is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution, mainly operating with an IP security (IPsec) protocol suite originally published in 1995 (RFC1825). It is clear that the Internet, and networks in general, have changed dramatically since then. In particular, the onset of the Cloud and the Internet-of-Things (IoT) have placed new demands on secure networking. Even though the IPsec suite has been updated over the years, it is starting to reach the limits of its capabilities in its present form. Recent advances in networking have thrown up Software-Defined Networking (SDN), which decouples the control and data planes, and thus centralizes the network control. SDN provides arbitrary network topologies and elastic packet forwarding that have enabled useful innovations at the network level. This thesis studies SDN-powered VPN networking and explains the benefits of this combination. Even though the main context is the Cloud, the approaches described here are also valid for non-Cloud operation and are thus suitable for a variety of other use cases for both SMEs and large corporations. In addition to IPsec, open source TLS-based VPN (e.g. OpenVPN) solutions are often used to establish secure tunnels. Research shows that a full-mesh VPN network between multiple sites can be provided using OpenVPN and it can be utilized by SDN to create a seamless, resilient layer-2 overlay for multiple purposes, including the Cloud. However, such a VPN tunnel suffers from resiliency problems and cannot meet the increasing availability requirements. The network setup proposed here is similar to Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) solutions and is extremely useful for applications with strict requirements for resiliency and security, even if best-effort ISP is used. IPsec is still preferred over OpenVPN for some use cases, especially by smaller enterprises. Therefore, this research also examines the possibilities for high availability, load balancing, and faster operational speeds for IPsec. We present a novel approach involving the separation of the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) and the Encapsulation Security Payload (ESP) in SDN fashion to operate from separate devices. This allows central management for the IKE while several separate ESP devices can concentrate on the heavy processing. Initially, our research relied on software solutions for ESP processing. Despite the ingenuity of the architectural concept, and although it provided high availability and good load balancing, there was no anti-replay protection. Since anti-replay protection is vital for secure communication, another approach was required. It thus became clear that the ideal solution for such large IPsec tunneling would be to have a pool of fast ESP devices, but to confine the IKE operation to a single centralized device. This would obviate the need for load balancing but still allow high availability via the device pool. The focus of this research thus turned to the study of pure hardware solutions on an FPGA, and their feasibility and production readiness for application in the Cloud context. Our research shows that FPGA works fluently in an SDN network as a standalone IPsec accelerator for ESP packets. The proposed architecture has 10 Gbps throughput, yet the latency is less than 10 µs, meaning that this architecture is especially efficient for data center use and offers increased performance and latency requirements. The high demands of the network packet processing can be met using several different approaches, so this approach is not just limited to the topics presented in this thesis. Global network traffic is growing all the time, so the development of more efficient methods and devices is inevitable. The increasing number of IoT devices will result in a lot of network traffic utilising the Cloud infrastructures in the near future. Based on the latest research, once SDN and hardware acceleration have become fully integrated into the Cloud, the future for secure networking looks promising. SDN technology will open up a wide range of new possibilities for data forwarding, while hardware acceleration will satisfy the increased performance requirements. Although it still remains to be seen whether SDN can answer all the requirements for performance, high availability and resiliency, this thesis shows that it is a very competent technology, even though we have explored only a minor fraction of its capabilities

Application Dependent GEO Routing Protocol on Multi Radio Networks

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Intrusion tolerant routing with data consensus in wireless sensor networks

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia InformáticaWireless sensor networks (WSNs) are rapidly emerging and growing as an important new area in computing and wireless networking research. Applications of WSNs are numerous, growing, and ranging from small-scale indoor deployment scenarios in homes and buildings to large scale outdoor deployment settings in natural, industrial, military and embedded environments. In a WSN, the sensor nodes collect data to monitor physical conditions or to measure and pre-process physical phenomena, and forward that data to special computing nodes called Syncnodes or Base Stations (BSs). These nodes are eventually interconnected, as gateways, to other processing systems running applications. In large-scale settings, WSNs operate with a large number of sensors – from hundreds to thousands of sensor nodes – organised as ad-hoc multi-hop or mesh networks, working without human supervision. Sensor nodes are very limited in computation, storage, communication and energy resources. These limitations impose particular challenges in designing large scale reliable and secure WSN services and applications. However, as sensors are very limited in their resources they tend to be very cheap. Resilient solutions based on a large number of nodes with replicated capabilities, are possible approaches to address dependability concerns, namely reliability and security requirements and fault or intrusion tolerant network services. This thesis proposes, implements and tests an intrusion tolerant routing service for large-scale dependable WSNs. The service is based on a tree-structured multi-path routing algorithm, establishing multi-hop and multiple disjoint routes between sensors and a group of BSs. The BS nodes work as an overlay, processing intrusion tolerant data consensus over the routed data. In the proposed solution the multiple routes are discovered, selected and established by a self-organisation process. The solution allows the WSN nodes to collect and route data through multiple disjoint routes to the different BSs, with a preventive intrusion tolerance approach, while handling possible Byzantine attacks and failures in sensors and BS with a pro-active recovery strategy supported by intrusion and fault tolerant data-consensus algorithms, performed by the group of Base Stations

Internet of Things From Hype to Reality

The Internet of Things (IoT) has gained significant mindshare, let alone attention, in academia and the industry especially over the past few years. The reasons behind this interest are the potential capabilities that IoT promises to offer. On the personal level, it paints a picture of a future world where all the things in our ambient environment are connected to the Internet and seamlessly communicate with each other to operate intelligently. The ultimate goal is to enable objects around us to efficiently sense our surroundings, inexpensively communicate, and ultimately create a better environment for us: one where everyday objects act based on what we need and like without explicit instructions

On a test-bed application for the ART-WiSe framework

This report describes the development of a Test-bed Application for the ART-WiSe Framework with the aim of providing a means of access, validate and demonstrate that architecture. The chosen application is a kind of pursuit-evasion game where a remote controlled robot, navigating through an area covered by wireless sensor network (WSN), is detected and continuously tracked by the WSN. Then a centralized control station takes the appropriate actions for a pursuit robot to chase and “capture” the intruder one. This kind of application imposes stringent timing requirements to the underlying communication infrastructure. It also involves interesting research problems in WSNs like tracking, localization, cooperation between nodes, energy concerns and mobility. Additionally, it can be easily ported into a real-world application. Surveillance or search and rescue operations are two examples where this kind of functionality can be applied. This is still a first approach on the test-bed application and this development effort will be continuously pushed forward until all the envisaged objectives for the Art-WiSe architecture become accomplished

Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2008, nr 2

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