5,463 research outputs found
A critical analysis of research potential, challenges and future directives in industrial wireless sensor networks
In recent years, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs) have emerged as an important research theme with applications spanning a wide range of industries including automation, monitoring, process control, feedback systems and automotive. Wide scope of IWSNs applications ranging from small production units, large oil and gas industries to nuclear fission control, enables a fast-paced research in this field. Though IWSNs offer advantages of low cost, flexibility, scalability, self-healing, easy deployment and reformation, yet they pose certain limitations on available potential and introduce challenges on multiple fronts due to their susceptibility to highly complex and uncertain industrial environments. In this paper a detailed discussion on design objectives, challenges and solutions, for IWSNs, are presented. A careful evaluation of industrial systems, deadlines and possible hazards in industrial atmosphere are discussed. The paper also presents a thorough review of the existing standards and industrial protocols and gives a critical evaluation of potential of these standards and protocols along with a detailed discussion on available hardware platforms, specific industrial energy harvesting techniques and their capabilities. The paper lists main service providers for IWSNs solutions and gives insight of future trends and research gaps in the field of IWSNs
Assessing and augmenting SCADA cyber security: a survey of techniques
SCADA systems monitor and control critical infrastructures of national importance such as power generation and distribution, water supply, transportation networks, and manufacturing facilities. The pervasiveness, miniaturisations and declining costs of internet connectivity have transformed these systems from strictly isolated to highly interconnected networks. The connectivity provides immense benefits such as reliability, scalability and remote connectivity, but at the same time exposes an otherwise isolated and secure system, to global cyber security threats. This inevitable transformation to highly connected systems thus necessitates effective security safeguards to be in place as any compromise or downtime of SCADA systems can have severe economic, safety and security ramifications. One way to ensure vital asset protection is to adopt a viewpoint similar to an attacker to determine weaknesses and loopholes in defences. Such mind sets help to identify and fix potential breaches before their exploitation. This paper surveys tools and techniques to uncover SCADA system vulnerabilities. A comprehensive review of the selected approaches is provided along with their applicability
Internet of Things-aided Smart Grid: Technologies, Architectures, Applications, Prototypes, and Future Research Directions
Traditional power grids are being transformed into Smart Grids (SGs) to
address the issues in existing power system due to uni-directional information
flow, energy wastage, growing energy demand, reliability and security. SGs
offer bi-directional energy flow between service providers and consumers,
involving power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization systems.
SGs employ various devices for the monitoring, analysis and control of the
grid, deployed at power plants, distribution centers and in consumers' premises
in a very large number. Hence, an SG requires connectivity, automation and the
tracking of such devices. This is achieved with the help of Internet of Things
(IoT). IoT helps SG systems to support various network functions throughout the
generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy by
incorporating IoT devices (such as sensors, actuators and smart meters), as
well as by providing the connectivity, automation and tracking for such
devices. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on IoT-aided SG
systems, which includes the existing architectures, applications and prototypes
of IoT-aided SG systems. This survey also highlights the open issues,
challenges and future research directions for IoT-aided SG systems
Security, Privacy and Safety Risk Assessment for Virtual Reality Learning Environment Applications
Social Virtual Reality based Learning Environments (VRLEs) such as vSocial
render instructional content in a three-dimensional immersive computer
experience for training youth with learning impediments. There are limited
prior works that explored attack vulnerability in VR technology, and hence
there is a need for systematic frameworks to quantify risks corresponding to
security, privacy, and safety (SPS) threats. The SPS threats can adversely
impact the educational user experience and hinder delivery of VRLE content. In
this paper, we propose a novel risk assessment framework that utilizes attack
trees to calculate a risk score for varied VRLE threats with rate and duration
of threats as inputs. We compare the impact of a well-constructed attack tree
with an adhoc attack tree to study the trade-offs between overheads in managing
attack trees, and the cost of risk mitigation when vulnerabilities are
identified. We use a vSocial VRLE testbed in a case study to showcase the
effectiveness of our framework and demonstrate how a suitable attack tree
formalism can result in a more safer, privacy-preserving and secure VRLE
system.Comment: Tp appear in the CCNC 2019 Conferenc
Security for the Industrial IoT: The Case for Information-Centric Networking
Industrial production plants traditionally include sensors for monitoring or
documenting processes, and actuators for enabling corrective actions in cases
of misconfigurations, failures, or dangerous events. With the advent of the
IoT, embedded controllers link these `things' to local networks that often are
of low power wireless kind, and are interconnected via gateways to some cloud
from the global Internet. Inter-networked sensors and actuators in the
industrial IoT form a critical subsystem while frequently operating under harsh
conditions. It is currently under debate how to approach inter-networking of
critical industrial components in a safe and secure manner.
In this paper, we analyze the potentials of ICN for providing a secure and
robust networking solution for constrained controllers in industrial safety
systems. We showcase hazardous gas sensing in widespread industrial
environments, such as refineries, and compare with IP-based approaches such as
CoAP and MQTT. Our findings indicate that the content-centric security model,
as well as enhanced DoS resistance are important arguments for deploying
Information Centric Networking in a safety-critical industrial IoT. Evaluation
of the crypto efforts on the RIOT operating system for content security reveal
its feasibility for common deployment scenarios.Comment: To be published at IEEE WF-IoT 201
Open source SCADA systems for small renewable power generation
Low cost monitoring and control is essential for small renewable power systems. While
large renewable power systems can use existing commercial technology for monitoring and
control, that is not cost-effective for small renewable generation. Such small assets require
cost-effective, flexible, secure, and reliable real-time coordinated data monitoring and
control systems. Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) is the perfect technology
for this task. The available commercial SCADA solutions are mostly pricey and
economically unjustifiable for smaller applications. They also pose interoperability issues
with the existing components which are often from multiple vendors. Therefore, an open
source SCADA system represents the most flexible and the most cost-effective SCADA solution.
This thesis has been done in two phases. The first phase demonstrates the design
and dynamic simulation of a small hybrid power system with a renewable power generation
system as a case study. In the second phase, after an extensive study of the proven
commercial SCADA solutions and some open source SCADA packages, three different secure,
reliable, low-cost open source SCADA options are developed using the most recent
SCADA architecture, the Internet of Things. The implemented prototypes of the three open
source SCADA systems were tested extensively with a small renewable power system (a
solar PV system). The results show that the developed open source SCADA systems perform
optimally and accurately, and could serve as viable options for smaller applications
such as renewable generation that cannot afford commercial SCADA solutions
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