136 research outputs found
Cryptographic Key Management in Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs): A survey
Since their appearance at the dawn of the second millennium, Delay or Disruption Tolerant Networks (DTNs) have gradually evolved, spurring the development of a variety of methods and protocols for making them more secure and resilient. In this context, perhaps, the most challenging problem to deal with is that of cryptographic key management. To the best of our knowledge, the work at hand is the first to survey the relevant literature and classify the various so far proposed key management approaches in such a restricted and harsh environment. Towards this goal, we have grouped the surveyed key management methods into three major categories depending on whether the particular method copes with a) security initialization, b) key establishment, and c) key revocation. We have attempted to provide a concise but fairly complete evaluation of the proposed up-to-date methods in a generalized way with the aim of offering a central reference point for future research
Cryptographic Key Management in Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs): A survey
Since their appearance at the dawn of the second millennium, Delay or Disruption Tolerant Networks (DTNs) have gradually evolved, spurring the development of a variety of methods and protocols for making them more secure and resilient. In this context, perhaps, the most challenging problem to deal with is that of cryptographic key management. To the best of our knowledge, the work at hand is the first to survey the relevant literature and classify the various so far proposed key management approaches in such a restricted and harsh environment. Towards this goal, we have grouped the surveyed key management methods into three major categories depending on whether the particular method copes with a) security initialization, b) key establishment, and c) key revocation. We have attempted to provide a concise but fairly complete evaluation of the proposed up-to-date methods in a generalized way with the aim of offering a central reference point for future research
Performance evaluation of cooperation strategies for m-health services and applications
Health telematics are becoming a major improvement for patients’ lives, especially for
disabled, elderly, and chronically ill people. Information and communication technologies have
rapidly grown along with the mobile Internet concept of anywhere and anytime connection.
In this context, Mobile Health (m-Health) proposes healthcare services delivering, overcoming
geographical, temporal and even organizational barriers. Pervasive and m-Health services aim
to respond several emerging problems in health services, including the increasing number of
chronic diseases related to lifestyle, high costs in existing national health services, the need
to empower patients and families to self-care and manage their own healthcare, and the need
to provide direct access to health services, regardless the time and place. Mobile Health (m-
Health) systems include the use of mobile devices and applications that interact with patients
and caretakers. However, mobile devices have several constraints (such as, processor, energy,
and storage resource limitations), affecting the quality of service and user experience. Architectures
based on mobile devices and wireless communications presents several challenged issues
and constraints, such as, battery and storage capacity, broadcast constraints, interferences, disconnections,
noises, limited bandwidths, and network delays. In this sense, cooperation-based
approaches are presented as a solution to solve such limitations, focusing on increasing network
connectivity, communication rates, and reliability. Cooperation is an important research topic
that has been growing in recent years. With the advent of wireless networks, several recent
studies present cooperation mechanisms and algorithms as a solution to improve wireless networks
performance. In the absence of a stable network infrastructure, mobile nodes cooperate
with each other performing all networking functionalities. For example, it can support intermediate
nodes forwarding packets between two distant nodes.
This Thesis proposes a novel cooperation strategy for m-Health services and applications.
This reputation-based scheme uses a Web-service to handle all the nodes reputation and networking
permissions. Its main goal is to provide Internet services to mobile devices without
network connectivity through cooperation with neighbor devices. Therefore resolving the above
mentioned network problems and resulting in a major improvement for m-Health network architectures
performances. A performance evaluation of this proposal through a real network
scenario demonstrating and validating this cooperative scheme using a real m-Health application
is presented. A cryptography solution for m-Health applications under cooperative environments,
called DE4MHA, is also proposed and evaluated using the same real network scenario and
the same m-Health application. Finally, this work proposes, a generalized cooperative application
framework, called MobiCoop, that extends the incentive-based cooperative scheme for
m-Health applications for all mobile applications. Its performance evaluation is also presented
through a real network scenario demonstrating and validating MobiCoop using different mobile
applications
Data availability in challenging networking environments in presence of failures
This Doctoral thesis presents research on improving data availability in challenging networking environments where failures frequently occur. The thesis discusses the data retrieval and transfer mechanisms in challenging networks such as the Grid and the delay-tolerant networking (DTN). The Grid concept has gained adaptation as a solution to high-performance computing challenges that are faced in international research collaborations. Challenging networking is a novel research area in communications.
The first part of the thesis introduces the challenges of data availability in environment where resources are scarce. The focus is especially on the challenges faced in the Grid and in the challenging networking scenarios. A literature overview is given to explain the most important research findings and the state of the standardization work in the field.
The experimental part of the thesis consists of eight scientific publications and explains how they contribute to research in the field. Focus in on explaining how data transfer mechanisms have been improved from the application and networking layer points of views. Experimental methods for the Grid scenarios comprise of running a newly developed storage application on the existing research infrastructure. A network simulator is extended for the experimentation with challenging networking mechanisms in a network formed by mobile users. The simulator enables to investigate network behavior with a large number of nodes, and with conditions that are difficult to re-instantiate.
As a result, recommendations are given for data retrieval and transfer design for the Grid and mobile networks. These recommendations can guide both system architects and application developers in their work. In the case of the Grid research, the results give first indications on the applicability of the erasure correcting codes for data storage and retrieval with the existing Grid data storage tools. In the case of the challenging networks, the results show how an application-aware communication approach can be used to improve data retrieval and communications. Recommendations are presented to enable efficient transfer and management of data items that are large compared to available resources
Hybrid routing in delay tolerant networks
This work addresses the integration of today\\u27s infrastructure-based networks with infrastructure-less networks. The resulting Hybrid Routing System allows for communication over both network types and can help to overcome cost, communication, and overload problems. Mobility aspect resulting from infrastructure-less networks are analyzed and analytical models developed. For development and deployment of the Hybrid Routing System an overlay-based framework is presented
Hybrid Routing in Delay Tolerant Networks
This work addresses the integration of today\u27s infrastructure-based networks with infrastructure-less networks. The resulting Hybrid Routing System allows for communication over both network types and can help to overcome cost, communication, and overload problems. Mobility aspect resulting from infrastructure-less networks are analyzed and analytical models developed. For development and deployment of the Hybrid Routing System an overlay-based framework is presented
Optimizing groups of colluding strong attackers in mobile urban communication networks with evolutionary algorithms
In novel forms of the Social Internet of Things, any mobile user within communication range may help routing messages for another user in the network. The resulting message delivery rate depends both on the users’ mobility patterns and the message load in the network. This new type of configuration, however, poses new challenges to security, amongst them, assessing the effect that a group of colluding malicious participants can have on the global message delivery rate in such a network is far from trivial. In this work, after modeling such a question as an optimization problem, we are able to find quite interesting results by coupling a network simulator with an evolutionary algorithm. The chosen algorithm is specifically designed to solve problems whose solutions can be decomposed into parts sharing the same structure. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach on two medium-sized Delay-Tolerant Networks, realistically simulated in the urban contexts of two cities with very different route topology: Venice and San Francisco. In all experiments, our methodology produces attack patterns that greatly lower network performance with respect to previous studies on the subject, as the evolutionary core is able to exploit the specific weaknesses of each target configuration.<br/
Performance of management solutions and cooperation approaches for vehicular delay-tolerant networks
A wide range of daily-life applications supported by vehicular networks attracted the interest,
not only from the research community, but also from governments and the automotive
industry. For example, they can be used to enable services that assist drivers on the roads (e.g.,
road safety, traffic monitoring), to spread commercial and entertainment contents (e.g., publicity),
or to enable communications on remote or rural regions where it is not possible to have
a common network infrastructure. Nonetheless, the unique properties of vehicular networks
raise several challenges that greatly impact the deployment of these networks.
Most of the challenges faced by vehicular networks arise from the highly dynamic network
topology, which leads to short and sporadic contact opportunities, disruption, variable
node density, and intermittent connectivity. This situation makes data dissemination an interesting
research topic within the vehicular networking area, which is addressed by this study.
The work described along this thesis is motivated by the need to propose new solutions to deal
with data dissemination problems in vehicular networking focusing on vehicular delay-tolerant
networks (VDTNs).
To guarantee the success of data dissemination in vehicular networks scenarios it is important
to ensure that network nodes cooperate with each other. However, it is not possible
to ensure a fully cooperative scenario. This situation makes vehicular networks suitable to the
presence of selfish and misbehavior nodes, which may result in a significant decrease of the
overall network performance. Thus, cooperative nodes may suffer from the overwhelming load
of services from other nodes, which comprises their performance.
Trying to solve some of these problems, this thesis presents several proposals and studies
on the impact of cooperation, monitoring, and management strategies on the network performance
of the VDTN architecture. The main goal of these proposals is to enhance the network
performance. In particular, cooperation and management approaches are exploited to improve
and optimize the use of network resources. It is demonstrated the performance gains attainable
in a VDTN through both types of approaches, not only in terms of bundle delivery probability,
but also in terms of wasted resources.
The results and achievements observed on this research work are intended to contribute
to the advance of the state-of-the-art on methods and strategies for overcome the challenges
that arise from the unique characteristics and conceptual design of vehicular networks.O vasto número de aplicações e cenários suportados pelas redes veiculares faz com que
estas atraiam o interesse não só da comunidade científica, mas também dos governos e da indústria
automóvel. A título de exemplo, estas podem ser usadas para a implementação de serviços
e aplicações que podem ajudar os condutores dos veículos a tomar decisões nas estradas, para
a disseminação de conteúdos publicitários, ou ainda, para permitir que existam comunicações
em zonas rurais ou remotas onde não é possível ter uma infraestrutura de rede convencional.
Contudo, as propriedades únicas das redes veiculares fazem com que seja necessário ultrapassar
um conjunto de desafios que têm grande impacto na sua aplicabilidade.
A maioria dos desafios que as redes veiculares enfrentam advêm da grande mobilidade dos
veículos e da topologia de rede que está em constante mutação. Esta situação faz com que este
tipo de rede seja suscetível de disrupção, que as oportunidades de contacto sejam escassas e de
curta duração, e que a ligação seja intermitente. Fruto destas adversidades, a disseminação dos
dados torna-se um tópico de investigação bastante promissor na área das redes veiculares e por
esta mesma razão é abordada neste trabalho de investigação. O trabalho descrito nesta tese é
motivado pela necessidade de propor novas abordagens para lidar com os problemas inerentes
à disseminação dos dados em ambientes veiculares.
Para garantir o sucesso da disseminação dos dados em ambientes veiculares é importante
que este tipo de redes garanta a cooperação entre os nós da rede. Contudo, neste tipo de ambientes
não é possível garantir um cenário totalmente cooperativo. Este cenário faz com que
as redes veiculares sejam suscetíveis à presença de nós não cooperativos que comprometem
seriamente o desempenho global da rede. Por outro lado, os nós cooperativos podem ver o seu
desempenho comprometido por causa da sobrecarga de serviços que poderão suportar.
Para tentar resolver alguns destes problemas, esta tese apresenta várias propostas e estudos
sobre o impacto de estratégias de cooperação, monitorização e gestão de rede no desempenho
das redes veiculares com ligações intermitentes (Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks
- VDTNs). O objetivo das propostas apresentadas nesta tese é melhorar o desempenho global
da rede. Em particular, as estratégias de cooperação e gestão de rede são exploradas para
melhorar e optimizar o uso dos recursos da rede. Ficou demonstrado que o uso deste tipo de
estratégias e metodologias contribui para um aumento significativo do desempenho da rede,
não só em termos de agregados de pacotes (“bundles”) entregues, mas também na diminuição
do volume de recursos desperdiçados.
Os resultados observados neste trabalho procuram contribuir para o avanço do estado
da arte em métodos e estratégias que visam ultrapassar alguns dos desafios que advêm das
propriedades e desenho conceptual das redes veiculares
Towards Efficient File Sharing and Packet Routing in Mobile Opportunistic Networks
With the increasing popularity of portable digital devices (e.g., smartphones, laptops, and tablets), mobile opportunistic networks (MONs) [40, 90] consisting of portable devices have attracted much attention recently. MONs are also known as pocket switched networks (PSNs) [52]. MONs can be regarded as a special form of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) [7] or delay tolerant networks (DTNs) [35, 56]. In such networks, mobile nodes (devices) move continuously and meet opportunistically. Two mobile nodes can communicate with each other only when they are within the communication range of each other in a peer-to-peer (P2P) manner (i.e., without the need of infrastructures). Therefore, such a network structure can potentially provide file sharing or packet routing services among portable devices without the support of network infrastructures. On the other hand, mobile opportunistic networks often experience frequent network partition, and no end-to-end contemporaneous path can be ensured in the network. These distinctive properties make traditional file sharing or packet routing algorithms in Internet or mobile networks a formidable challenge in MONs. In summary, it is essential and important to achieve efficient file sharing and packet routing algorithms in MONs, which are the key for providing practical and novel services and applications over such networks. In this Dissertation, we develop several methods to resolve the aforementioned challenges. Firstly, we propose two methods to enhance file sharing efficiency in MONs by creating replicas and by leveraging social network properties, respectively. In the first method, we investigate how to create file replicas to optimize file availability for file sharing in MONs. We introduce a new concept of resource for file replication, which considers both node storage and meeting frequency with other nodes. We theoretically study the influence of resource allocation on the average file access delay and derive a resource allocation rule to minimize the average file access delay. We also propose a distributed file replication protocol to realize the deduced optimal file replication rule. In the second method, we leverage social network properties to improve the file searching efficiency in MONs. This method groups common-interest nodes that frequently meet with each other into a community. It takes advantage of node mobility by designating stable nodes, which have the most frequent contact with community members, as community coordinators for intra-community file request forwarding, and highly-mobile nodes that visit other communities frequently as community ambassadors for inter-community file request forwarding. Based on such a community structure, an interest-oriented file searching scheme is proposed to first search local community and then search the community that is most likely to contain the requested file, leading to highly efficient file sharing in MONs. Secondly, we propose two methods to realize efficient packet routing among mobile nodes and among different landmarks in MONs, respectively. The first method utilizes distributed social map to route packets to mobile nodes efficiently with a low-cost in MONs. Each node builds its own social map consisting of nodes it has met and their frequently encountered nodes in a distributed manner. Based on both encountering frequency and social closeness of two linked nodes in the social map, we decide the weight of each link to reflect the packet delivery ability between the two nodes. The social map enables more accurate forwarder selection through a broader view and reduces the cost on information exchange. The second method realizes high-throughput packet routing among different landmarks in MONs. It selects popular places that nodes visit frequently as landmarks and divides the entire MON area into sub-areas represented by landmarks. Nodes transiting between two landmarks relay packets between the two landmarks. The frequency of node transits between two landmarks is measured to represent the forwarding capacity between them, based on which routing tables are built on each landmark to guide packet routing. Finally, packets are routed landmark by landmark to reach their destination landmarks. Extensive analysis and real-trace based experiments are conducted to support the designs in this Dissertation and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods in comparison with the state-of-art methods. In the future, we plan to further enhance the file sharing and packet routing efficiency by considering more realistic scenarios or including more useful information. We will also investigate the security and privacy issues in the proposed methods
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