Homology-based Distributed Coverage Hole Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Homology theory provides new and powerful solutions to address the coverage problems in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). They are based on algebraic objects, such as Cech complex and Rips complex. Cech complex gives accurate information about coverage quality but requires a precise knowledge of the relative locations of nodes. This assumption is rather strong and hard to implement in practical deployments. Rips complex provides an approximation of Cech complex. It is easier to build and does not require any knowledge of nodes location. This simplicity is at the expense of accuracy. Rips complex can not always detect all coverage holes. It is then necessary to evaluate its accuracy. This work proposes to use the proportion of the area of undiscovered coverage holes as performance criteria. Investigations show that it depends on the ratio between communication and sensing radii of a sensor. Closed-form expressions for lower and upper bounds of the accuracy are also derived. For those coverage holes which can be discovered by Rips complex, a homology-based distributed algorithm is proposed to detect them. Simulation results are consistent with the proposed analytical lower bound, with a maximum difference of 0.5%. Upper bound performance depends on the ratio of communication and sensing radii. Simulations also show that the algorithm can localize about 99% coverage holes in about 99% cases

VERTEX COVER BASED LINK MONITORING TECHNIQUES FOR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

VERTEX COVER BASED LINK MONITORING TECHNIQUES FOR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKSAbstractWireless sensor networks (WSNs) are generally composed of numerous battery-powered tiny nodes that can sense from the environment and send this data through wireless communication. WSNs have wide range of application areas such as military surveillance, healthcare, miner safety, and outer space exploration. Inherent security weaknesses of wireless communication may prone WSNs to various attacks such as eavesdropping, jamming and spoofing. This situation attracts researchers to study countermeasures for detection and prevention of these attacks. Graph theory provides a very useful theoretical basis for solving WSN problems related to communication and security issues. One of the important graph theoretic structures is vertex cover (VC) in which a set of nodes are selected to cover the edges of the graph where each edge is incident to at least one node in VC set. Finding VC set having the minimum cardinality for a given graph is an NP-hard problem. In this paper, we describe VC algorithms aiming link monitoring where nodes in VC are configured as secure points. We investigate variants of VC problems such as weight and capacity constrained versions on different graph types to meet the energy-efficiency and load-balancing requirements of WSNs. Moreover, we present clustering and backbone formation operations as alternative applications of different VC infrastructures. For each VC sub-problem, we propose greedy heuristic based algorithms.Keywords: Wireless Sensor Networks, Link Monitoring, Graph Theory, Vertex Cover, NP-Hard Problem.KABLOSUZ SENSÖR AĞLARI İÇİN KÖŞE ÖRTME TABANLI BAĞLANTI İZLEME TEKNİKLERİÖzetKablosuz sensor ağlar (KSAlar) genellikle ortamdan algılayabilen ve bu verileri kablosuz iletişim yoluyla gönderebilen pille çalışan çok sayıda küçük düğümden oluşur. KSAlar askeri gözetim, sağlık hizmetleri, madenci güvenliği ve uzay keşfi gibi çok çeşitli uygulama alanlarına sahiptir. Kablosuz iletişimin doğasında var olan güvenlik zayıflıkları, KSAları gizli dinleme, sinyal bozma ve sahtekarlık gibi çeşitli saldırılara eğilimli hale getirebilmektedir. Bu durum, araştırmacıları bu saldırıların tespiti ve önlenmesine yönelik karşı önlemleri incelemeye yöneltmektedir. Çizge teorisi, iletişim ve güvenlik sorunları ile ilgili KSA sorunlarını çözmek için çok yararlı bir teorik temel sağlar. Önemli çizge teorik yapılardan biri köşe örtmedir (KÖ), bu yapıda her bir kenarın KÖ kümesindeki en az bir düğüme bitişik olacak şekilde çizgenin tüm kenarlarını kapsayacak bir dizi düğüm seçilmektedir. Verilen bir çizge için en az elemana sahip KÖ kümesini bulmak NP-zor bir problemdir. Bu makalede, KÖdeki düğümlerin güvenli noktalar olarak yapılandırıldığı bağlantı izlemeyi amaçlayan KÖ algoritmaları açıklanmaktadır. KSAların enerji verimliliği ve yük dengeleme gereksinimlerini karşılamak için, farklı çizge yapılarında KÖ problemlerinin ağırlık ve kapasite kısıtlı versiyonları gibi çeşitli türleri çalışılmaktadır. Ayrıca kümeleme ve omurga oluşturma işlemlerini farklı KÖ altyapılarının alternatif uygulamaları olarak sunulmaktadır. Her KÖ alt problemi için, açgözlü sezgisel tabanlı algoritmalar önerilmektedir.Anahtar Kelimeler: Kablosuz Sensör Ağları, Bağlantı İzleme, Çizge Teorisi, Kenar Örtme, NP-Zor Problem.

Intrusion detection in IPv6-enabled sensor networks.

In this research, we study efficient and lightweight Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) for ad-hoc networks through the lens of IPv6-enabled Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks. These networks consist of highly constrained devices able to communicate wirelessly in an ad-hoc fashion, thus following the architecture of ad-hoc networks. Current state of the art IDS in IoT and WSNs have been developed considering the architecture of conventional computer networks, and as such they do not efficiently address the paradigm of ad-hoc networks, which is highly relevant in emerging network paradigms, such as the Internet of Things (IoT). In this context, the network properties of resilience and redundancy have not been extensively studied. In this thesis, we first identify a trade-off between the communication and energy overheads of an IDS (as captured by the number of active IDS agents in the network) and the performance of the system in terms of successfully identifying attacks. In order to fine-tune this trade-off, we model networks as Random Geometric Graphs; these are a rigorous approach that allows us to capture underlying structural properties of the network. We then introduce a novel IDS architectural approach that consists of a central IDS agent and set of distributed IDS agents deployed uniformly at random over the network area. These nodes are able to efficiently detect attacks at the networking layer in a collaborative manner by monitoring locally available network information provided by IoT routing protocols, such as RPL. The detailed experimental evaluation conducted in this research demonstrates significant performance gains in terms of communication overhead and energy dissipation while maintaining high detection rates. We also show that the performance of our IDS in ad-hoc networks does not rely on the size of the network but on fundamental underling network properties, such as the network topology and the average degree of the nodes. The experiments show that our proposed IDS architecture is resilient against frequent topology changes due to node failures

Energy efficient clustering and secure data aggregation in wireless sensor networks

Communication consumes the majority of a wireless sensor network\u27s limited energy. There are several ways to reduce the communication cost. Two approaches used in this work are clustering and in-network aggregation. The choice of a cluster head within each cluster is important because cluster heads use additional energy for their responsibilities and that burden needs to be carefully distributed. We introduce the energy constrained minimum dominating set (ECDS) to model the problem of optimally choosing cluster heads in the presence of energy constraints. We show its applicability to sensor networks and give an approximation algorithm of O(log n) for solving the ECDS problem. We propose a distributed algorithm for the constrained dominating set which runs in O(log n log [triangle]) rounds with high probability. We show experimentally that the distributed algorithm performs well in terms of energy usage, node lifetime, and clustering time and thus is very suitable for wireless sensor networks. Using aggregation in wireless sensor networks is another way to reduce the overall communication cost. However, changes in security are necessary when in- network aggregation is applied. Traditional end-to-end security is not suitable for use with in-network aggregation. A corrupted sensor has access to the intermediate data and can falsify results. Additively homomorphic encryption allows for aggregation of encrypted values, with the result being the same as the result as if unencrypted data were aggregated. Using public key cryptography, digital signatures can be used to achieve integrity. We propose a new algorithm using homomorphic encryption and additive digital signatures to achieve confidentiality, integrity and availability for in- network aggregation in wireless sensor networks. We prove that our digital signature algorithm which is based on Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) is at least as secure as ECDSA. Even without in-network aggregation, security is a challenge in wireless sensor networks. In wireless sensor networks, not all messages need to be secured with the same level of encryption. We propose a new algorithm which provides adequate levels of security while providing much higher availablility [sic] than other security protocols. Our approach uses similar amounts of energy as a network without security --Abstract, page iv

Towards Spatial Queries over Phenomena in Sensor Networks

Today, technology developments enable inexpensive production and deployment of tiny sensing and computing nodes. Networked through wireless radio, such senor nodes form a new platform, wireless sensor networks, which provide novel ability to monitor spatiotemporally continuous phenomena. By treating a wireless sensor network as a database system, users can pose SQL-based queries over phenomena without needing to program detailed sensor node operations. DBMS-internally, intelligent and energyefficient data collection and processing algorithms have to be implemented to support spatial query processing over sensor networks. This dissertation proposes spatial query support for two views of continuous phenomena: field-based and object-based. A field-based view of continuous phenomena depicts them as a value distribution over a geographical area. However, due to the discrete and comparatively sparse distribution of sensor nodes, estimation methods are necessary to generate a field-based query result, and it has to be computed collaboratively ‘in-the-network’ due to energy constraints. This dissertation proposes SWOP, an in-network algorithm using Gaussian Kernel estimation. The key contribution is the use of a small number of Hermite coefficients to approximate the Gaussian Kernel function for sub-clustered sensor nodes, and processes the estimation result efficiently. An object-based view of continuous phenomena is interested in aspects such as the boundary of an ‘interesting region’ (e.g. toxic plume). This dissertation presents NED, which provides object boundary detection in sensor networks. NED encodes partial event estimation results based on confidence levels into optimized, variable length messages exchanged locally among neighboring sensor nodes to save communication cost. Therefore, sensor nodes detect objects and boundaries based on moving averages to eliminate noise effects and enhance detection quality. Furthermore, the dissertation proposes the SNAKE-based approach, which uses deformable curves to track the spatiotemporal changes of such objects incrementally in sensor networks. In the proposed algorithm, only neighboring nodes exchange messages to maintain the curve structures. Based on in-network tracking of deformable curves, other types of spatial and spatiotemporal properties of objects, such as area, can be provided by the sensor network. The experimental results proved that our approaches are resource friendly within the constrained sensor networks, while providing high quality query results

Energy Constrained Dominating Set for Clustering in Wireless Sensor Networks

Using partitioning in wireless sensor networks to create clusters for routing, data management, and other protocols has been proven as a way to ensure scalability and to deal with sensor network shortcomings such as limited communication ranges and energy. Choosing a cluster head within each cluster is important because cluster heads use additional energy for their responsibilities and that burden needs to be carefully passed around. Many existing protocols either choose cluster heads randomly or use nodes with the highest remaining energy. We introduce the energy constrained minimum dominating set (ECDS) to model the problem of optimally choosing cluster heads with energy constraints. We propose a distributed algorithm for the constrained dominating set which runs in O(log n log Δ) rounds with high probability. We experimentally show that the distributed algorithm performs well in terms of energy usage, node lifetime, and clustering time and, thus, is very suitable for wireless sensor networks

A 3D multi-objective optimization planning algorithm for wireless sensor networks

The complexity of planning a wireless sensor network is dependent on the aspects of optimization and on the application requirements. Even though Murphy's Law is applied everywhere in reality, a good planning algorithm will assist the designers to be aware of the short plates of their design and to improve them before the problems being exposed at the real deployment. A 3D multi-objective planning algorithm is proposed in this paper to provide solutions on the locations of nodes and their properties. It employs a developed ray-tracing scheme for sensing signal and radio propagation modelling. Therefore it is sensitive to the obstacles and makes the models of sensing coverage and link quality more practical compared with other heuristics that use ideal unit-disk models. The proposed algorithm aims at reaching an overall optimization on hardware cost, coverage, link quality and lifetime. Thus each of those metrics are modelled and normalized to compose a desirability function. Evolutionary algorithm is designed to efficiently tackle this NP-hard multi-objective optimization problem. The proposed algorithm is applicable for both indoor and outdoor 3D scenarios. Different parameters that affect the performance are analyzed through extensive experiments; two state-of-the-art algorithms are rebuilt and tested with the same configuration as that of the proposed algorithm. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm converges efficiently within 600 iterations and performs better than the compared heuristics

07151 Abstracts Collection -- Geometry in Sensor Networks

From 9.4.2007 to 13.4.07, the Dagstuhl Seminar 07151 ``Geometry in Sensor Networks\u27\u27 was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available

Performance optimization of wireless sensor networks for remote monitoring

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have gained worldwide attention in recent years because of their great potential for a variety of applications such as hazardous environment exploration, military surveillance, habitat monitoring, seismic sensing, and so on. In this thesis we study the use of WSNs for remote monitoring, where a wireless sensor network is deployed in a remote region for sensing phenomena of interest while its data monitoring center is located in a metropolitan area that is geographically distant from the monitored region. This application scenario poses great challenges since such kind of monitoring is typically large scale and expected to be operational for a prolonged period without human involvement. Also, the long distance between the monitored region and the data monitoring center requires that the sensed data must be transferred by the employment of a third-party communication service, which incurs service costs. Existing methodologies for performance optimization of WSNs base on that both the sensor network and its data monitoring center are co-located, and therefore are no longer applicable to the remote monitoring scenario. Thus, developing new techniques and approaches for severely resource-constrained WSNs is desperately needed to maintain sustainable, unattended remote monitoring with low cost. Specifically, this thesis addresses the key issues and tackles problems in the deployment of WSNs for remote monitoring from the following aspects. To maximize the lifetime of large-scale monitoring, we deal with the energy consumption imbalance issue by exploring multiple sinks. We develop scalable algorithms which determine the optimal number of sinks needed and their locations, thereby dynamically identifying the energy bottlenecks and balancing the data relay workload throughout the network. We conduct experiments and the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms significantly prolong the network lifetime. To eliminate imbalance of energy consumption among sensor nodes, a complementary strategy is to introduce a mobile sink for data gathering. However, the limited communication time between the mobile sink and nodes results in that only part of sensed data will be collected and the rest will be lost, for which we propose the concept of monitoring quality with the exploration of sensed data correlation among nodes. We devise a heuristic for monitoring quality maximization, which schedules the sink to collect data from selected nodes, and uses the collected data to recover the missing ones. We study the performance of the proposed heuristic and validate its effectiveness in improving the monitoring quality. To strive for the fine trade-off between two performance metrics: throughput and cost, we investigate novel problems of minimizing cost with guaranteed throughput, and maximizing throughput with minimal cost. We develop approximation algorithms which find reliable data routing in the WSN and strategically balance workload on the sinks. We prove that the delivered solutions are fractional of the optimum. We finally conclude our work and discuss potential research topics which derive from the studies of this thesis