Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-Enabled Wireless Communications and Networking

The emerging massive density of human-held and machine-type nodes implies larger traffic deviatiolns in the future than we are facing today. In the future, the network will be characterized by a high degree of flexibility, allowing it to adapt smoothly, autonomously, and efficiently to the quickly changing traffic demands both in time and space. This flexibility cannot be achieved when the network’s infrastructure remains static. To this end, the topic of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) have enabled wireless communications, and networking has received increased attention. As mentioned above, the network must serve a massive density of nodes that can be either human-held (user devices) or machine-type nodes (sensors). If we wish to properly serve these nodes and optimize their data, a proper wireless connection is fundamental. This can be achieved by using UAV-enabled communication and networks. This Special Issue addresses the many existing issues that still exist to allow UAV-enabled wireless communications and networking to be properly rolled out

Efficient Security Protocols for Constrained Devices

During the last decades, more and more devices have been connected to the Internet.Today, there are more devices connected to the Internet than humans.An increasingly more common type of devices are cyber-physical devices.A device that interacts with its environment is called a cyber-physical device.Sensors that measure their environment and actuators that alter the physical environment are both cyber-physical devices.Devices connected to the Internet risk being compromised by threat actors such as hackers.Cyber-physical devices have become a preferred target for threat actors since the consequence of an intrusion disrupting or destroying a cyber-physical system can be severe.Cyber attacks against power and energy infrastructure have caused significant disruptions in recent years.Many cyber-physical devices are categorized as constrained devices.A constrained device is characterized by one or more of the following limitations: limited memory, a less powerful CPU, or a limited communication interface.Many constrained devices are also powered by a battery or energy harvesting, which limits the available energy budget.Devices must be efficient to make the most of the limited resources.Mitigating cyber attacks is a complex task, requiring technical and organizational measures.Constrained cyber-physical devices require efficient security mechanisms to avoid overloading the systems limited resources.In this thesis, we present research on efficient security protocols for constrained cyber-physical devices.We have implemented and evaluated two state-of-the-art protocols, OSCORE and Group OSCORE.These protocols allow end-to-end protection of CoAP messages in the presence of untrusted proxies.Next, we have performed a formal protocol verification of WirelessHART, a protocol for communications in an industrial control systems setting.In our work, we present a novel attack against the protocol.We have developed a novel architecture for industrial control systems utilizing the Digital Twin concept.Using a state synchronization protocol, we propagate state changes between the digital and physical twins.The Digital Twin can then monitor and manage devices.We have also designed a protocol for secure ownership transfer of constrained wireless devices. Our protocol allows the owner of a wireless sensor network to transfer control of the devices to a new owner.With a formal protocol verification, we can guarantee the security of both the old and new owners.Lastly, we have developed an efficient Private Stream Aggregation (PSA) protocol.PSA allows devices to send encrypted measurements to an aggregator.The aggregator can combine the encrypted measurements and calculate the decrypted sum of the measurements.No party will learn the measurement except the device that generated it

Access Mars: Assessing Cave Capabilities Establishing Specific Solutions: Final Report

The human race has evolved, grown and expanded through the exploration of Earth. After initial steps on the Moon, our next challenge is to explore the solar system. Mars shows potential for both scientific discovery and future human settlement, and so is a prime candidate for the next leap of human exploration. Such a bold endeavor will be a driver for an unprecedented worldwide cooperative effort and the catalyst for a new era of international, intercultural and interdisciplinary human relations. Scientific and technological progress will also accelerate as mankind is ushered into a new era of space exploration. Currently proposed Mars missions have identified a number of challenges such as high levels of radiation, harsh climate and limited launch windows. Recently discovered lava tubes on Mars present potential solutions to some of these issues, but raise a variety of intriguing new challenges. These encompass not only technological and engineering considerations, but also legal, ethical and societal issues such as planetary protection and crew safety. This report assesses the feasibility of overcoming such challenges through the exploitation of Mars caves. This report reviews existing reference missions and identifies areas of further research essential for adapting mission architectures to utilize caves. Cave suitability is considered with respect to size, type, location and their potential to mitigate hazards. They are also assessed with respect to their potential for scientific work adhering to astrobiology guidelines and the search for extra-terrestrial life. This report compares surface and subsurface habitat options. Engineering challenges arising from the use of caves are addressed along with proposals for alternate architecture solutions. Mission analysis is conducted to determine the transit trajectory and define two possible mission scenarios with surface crews of 6 and 12 crew members. Different types of habitat are described and evaluated. An architecture for precursor missions is provided utilizing surface rovers, cargo delivery rovers and pressurized human transport vehicles. The implications of sub-surface operations on thermal control, communications and power systems are investigated with recommendations given. Crew selection, training methods and life support system solutions are also addressed. Literature suggests a low radiation environment within Martian caves, allowing for extended duration missions. The ACCESS Mars Team concludes that using lava tubes as human habitats is not merely a viable habitat solution for a Mars expedition, but also potentially more beneficial than proposed surface solutions

High-Performance Modelling and Simulation for Big Data Applications

This open access book was prepared as a Final Publication of the COST Action IC1406 “High-Performance Modelling and Simulation for Big Data Applications (cHiPSet)“ project. Long considered important pillars of the scientific method, Modelling and Simulation have evolved from traditional discrete numerical methods to complex data-intensive continuous analytical optimisations. Resolution, scale, and accuracy have become essential to predict and analyse natural and complex systems in science and engineering. When their level of abstraction raises to have a better discernment of the domain at hand, their representation gets increasingly demanding for computational and data resources. On the other hand, High Performance Computing typically entails the effective use of parallel and distributed processing units coupled with efficient storage, communication and visualisation systems to underpin complex data-intensive applications in distinct scientific and technical domains. It is then arguably required to have a seamless interaction of High Performance Computing with Modelling and Simulation in order to store, compute, analyse, and visualise large data sets in science and engineering. Funded by the European Commission, cHiPSet has provided a dynamic trans-European forum for their members and distinguished guests to openly discuss novel perspectives and topics of interests for these two communities. This cHiPSet compendium presents a set of selected case studies related to healthcare, biological data, computational advertising, multimedia, finance, bioinformatics, and telecommunications

Intelligent Devices for IoT Applications

Internet of Things (IoT) devices refer to a vast network of physical devices that are connected to the internet and can communicate with each other through sensors and software. These devices range from simple household appliances, like smart thermostats and security cameras, to more complex industrial equipment, such as sensors used in manufacturing and logistics. Specially, IoT enabled wireless gas sensing systems which can withstand harsh environments without compromising the performance are getting popular day by day, which necessitates adequate developments in this field. By being the essential components of a wireless gas sensing system, both the sensor and the elements for communication should be agile and resilient when it comes to tackle unfavorable scenario. Moreover, gas sensors are prone to drift, which can lead to inaccurate readings and decreased reliability over time. Again, recent advancements in antenna design, such as fractal antennas and metamaterial structures, have shown promises in improving the bandwidth and gain parameters of the antennas built on top of high temperature tackling substrates. This piece of research targets three fundamental sections: demonstration of recent advances in data driven techniques for gas sensing system optimization, designing of antennas for different applications, and device design as well as fabrication. The Dimatix DMP-2831 inkjet printer has been optimized to operate with six different inks and two different substrates including PET and 3 mol yttria-stabilized zirconia (3YSZ) based ceramic substrate. Later, the feature oriented gas sensor data analysis to investigate correlations among stability, selectivity and long term drift is illustrated, which should significant relations among those parameters that can be considered while designing different intelligent data driven models to compensate drift. Moreover, a subspace transfer based approach is proposed to classify drifted gas sensor response to detect particular gas with higher accuracy. The model achieved an average accuracy greater than 87% while using only 40% of the total dataset to be trained. In the field of antenna technology, a co-planar waveguide (CPW) fed super wideband antenna is proposed which can cover C, X, Ku, K, Ka, Q, V, and W bands according to the simulated performance with high gain and radiation efficiency. Again, a high temperature tolerant antenna based on 3YSZ substrate is proposed which achieved good alignment between the simulated and fabricated device performance

High-Performance Modelling and Simulation for Big Data Applications

This open access book was prepared as a Final Publication of the COST Action IC1406 “High-Performance Modelling and Simulation for Big Data Applications (cHiPSet)“ project. Long considered important pillars of the scientific method, Modelling and Simulation have evolved from traditional discrete numerical methods to complex data-intensive continuous analytical optimisations. Resolution, scale, and accuracy have become essential to predict and analyse natural and complex systems in science and engineering. When their level of abstraction raises to have a better discernment of the domain at hand, their representation gets increasingly demanding for computational and data resources. On the other hand, High Performance Computing typically entails the effective use of parallel and distributed processing units coupled with efficient storage, communication and visualisation systems to underpin complex data-intensive applications in distinct scientific and technical domains. It is then arguably required to have a seamless interaction of High Performance Computing with Modelling and Simulation in order to store, compute, analyse, and visualise large data sets in science and engineering. Funded by the European Commission, cHiPSet has provided a dynamic trans-European forum for their members and distinguished guests to openly discuss novel perspectives and topics of interests for these two communities. This cHiPSet compendium presents a set of selected case studies related to healthcare, biological data, computational advertising, multimedia, finance, bioinformatics, and telecommunications

Routing protocols for next generation mobile wireless sensor networks

The recent research interest in wireless sensor networks has caused the development of many new applications and subsequently, these emerging applications have ever increasing requirements. One such requirement is that of mobility, which has inspired an entirely new array of applications in the form of mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSNs). In terms of communications, MWSNs present a challenging environment due to the high rate at which the topology may be changing. As such, the motivation of this work is to investigate potential communications solutions, in order to satisfy the performance demands of new and future MWSN applications. As such this work begins by characterising and evaluating the requirement of a large variety of these emerging applications. This thesis focuses on the area of routing, which is concerned with the reliable and timely delivery of data from multiple, mobile sensor nodes to a data sink. For this purpose the technique of gradient routing was identified as a suitable solution, since data can quickly be passed down a known gradient that is anchored at the sink. However, in a mobile network, keeping the gradient up-to-date is a key issue. This work proposes the novel use of a global time division multiple access (GTDMA) MAC as a solution to this problem, which mitigates the need for regularly flooding the network. Additionally, the concept of blind forwarding is utilised for its low overhead and high reliability through its inherent route diversity. The key contribution of this thesis is in three novel routing protocols, which use the aforementioned principles. The first protocol, PHASeR, uses a hop-count metric and encapsulates data from multiple nodes in its packets. The hop-count metric was chosen because it is simple and requires no additional hardware. The inclusion of encapsulation is intended to enable the protocol to cope with network congestion. The second protocol, LASeR, utilises location awareness to maintain a gradient and performs no encapsulation. Since many applications require location awareness, the communications systems may also take advantage of this readily available information and it can be used as a gradient metric. This protocol uses no encapsulation in order to reduce delay times. The third protocol, RASeR, uses the hop-count metric as a gradient and also does not perform encapsulation. The reduced delay time and the relaxed requirement for any existing method of location awareness makes this the most widely applicable of the three protocols. In addition to analytical expressions being derived, all three protocols are thoroughly tested through simulation. Results show the protocols to improve on the state-of-the-art and yield excellent performance over varying speeds, node numbers and data generation rates. LASeR shows the lowest overhead and delay, which comes from the advantage of having available location information. Alternatively, at the expense of increased overhead, RASeR gives comparatively high performance metrics without the need for location information. Overall, RASeR can be suitably deployed in the widest range of applications, which is taken further by including four additional modes of operation. These include a supersede mode for applications in which the timely delivery of the most recent data is prioritised. A reverse flooding mechanism, to enable the sink to broadcast control messages to the sensor nodes. An energy saving mode, which uses sleep cycles to reduce the networks power consumption, and finally a pseudo acknowledgement scheme to increase the reliability of the protocol. These additions enable RASeR to satisfy the needs of some of the most demanding MWSN applications. In order to assess the practicality of implementation, RASeR was also evaluated using a small testbed of mobile nodes. The successful results display the protocols feasibility to be implemented on commercially available hardware and its potential to be deployed in the real world. Furthermore, a key issue in the real world deployment of networks, is security and for this reason a fourth routing protocol was designed called RASeR-S. RASeR-S is based on RASeR, but introduces the use of encryption and suggests a security framework that should be followed in order to significantly reduce the possibility of a security threat. Whilst the main focus of this work is routing, alternative MAC layers are assessed for LASeR. Unlike the other two protocols, LASeR uses available location information to determine its gradient and as such, it is not reliant on the GTDMA MAC. For this reason several MAC layers are tested and the novel idea of dedicated sensing slots is introduced, as well as a network division multiple access scheme. The selected and proposed MACs are simulated and the GTDMA and two proposed protocols are shown to give the best results in certain scenarios. This work demonstrates the high levels of performance that can be achieved using gradient orientated routing in a mobile network. It has also shown that the use of a GTDMA MAC is an efficient solution to the gradient maintenance problem. The high impact of this work comes from the versatility and reliability of the presented routing protocols, which means they are able to meet the requirements of a large number of MWSN applications. Additionally, given the importance of security, RASeR-S has been designed to provide a secure and adaptable routing solution for vulnerable or sensitive applications