16,131 research outputs found

    Challenges in the Design and Implementation of IoT Testbeds in Smart-Cities : A Systematic Review

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    Advancements in wireless communication and the increased accessibility to low-cost sensing and data processing IoT technologies have increased the research and development of urban monitoring systems. Most smart city research projects rely on deploying proprietary IoT testbeds for indoor and outdoor data collection. Such testbeds typically rely on a three-tier architecture composed of the Endpoint, the Edge, and the Cloud. Managing the system's operation whilst considering the security and privacy challenges that emerge, such as data privacy controls, network security, and security updates on the devices, is challenging. This work presents a systematic study of the challenges of developing, deploying and managing urban monitoring testbeds, as experienced in a series of urban monitoring research projects, followed by an analysis of the relevant literature. By identifying the challenges in the various projects and organising them under the V-model development lifecycle levels, we provide a reference guide for future projects. Understanding the challenges early on will facilitate current and future smart-cities IoT research projects to reduce implementation time and deliver secure and resilient testbeds

    ICT enabled approach for humanitarian disaster management: a systems perspective

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    Purpose Each stage in disaster management faces different challenges concerning information gathering, sharing, interpretation and dissemination. However, a comprehensive understanding of different information and communication technology (ICT) systems utilised for humanitarian disaster management is limited. Therefore, the paper follows a systems thinking approach to examine ten major man-made and/or natural disasters to comprehend the influence of ICT systems on humanitarian relief operations. Design/methodology/approach A longitudinal, multi-case study captures the use of ICT tools, stakeholders involvement, disaster stages and zones of operations for relief operations over the past two decades. A systems thinking approach is utilised to draw several inferences and develop frameworks. Findings Multiple ICT tools such as geographic information systems, online webpages/search engines, social media, unmanned aerial vehicles/robots and artificial intelligence are used for rapid disaster response and mitigation. Speed and coordination of relief operations have significantly increased in recent years due to the increased use of ICT systems. Research limitations/implications Secondary data on the past ten disasters is utilised to draw inferences. The developed ICT-driven model must be validated during upcoming humanitarian relief operations. Practical implications A holistic understanding of a complex inter-relationship between influential variables (stakeholders, disaster stages, zones of operation, ICT systems) is beneficial for effectively managing humanitarian disasters. Originality/value Broadly classifying the ICT systems into surveillance, decision support and broadcasting systems, a novel ICT-enabled model for humanitarian relief operations is developed

    A Low-Delay MAC for IoT Applications: Decentralized Optimal Scheduling of Queues without Explicit State Information Sharing

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    We consider a system of several collocated nodes sharing a time slotted wireless channel, and seek a MAC (medium access control) that (i) provides low mean delay, (ii) has distributed control (i.e., there is no central scheduler), and (iii) does not require explicit exchange of state information or control signals. The design of such MAC protocols must keep in mind the need for contention access at light traffic, and scheduled access in heavy traffic, leading to the long-standing interest in hybrid, adaptive MACs. Working in the discrete time setting, for the distributed MAC design, we consider a practical information structure where each node has local information and some common information obtained from overhearing. In this setting, "ZMAC" is an existing protocol that is hybrid and adaptive. We approach the problem via two steps (1) We show that it is sufficient for the policy to be "greedy" and "exhaustive". Limiting the policy to this class reduces the problem to obtaining a queue switching policy at queue emptiness instants. (2) Formulating the delay optimal scheduling as a POMDP (partially observed Markov decision process), we show that the optimal switching rule is Stochastic Largest Queue (SLQ). Using this theory as the basis, we then develop a practical distributed scheduler, QZMAC, which is also tunable. We implement QZMAC on standard off-the-shelf TelosB motes and also use simulations to compare QZMAC with the full-knowledge centralized scheduler, and with ZMAC. We use our implementation to study the impact of false detection while overhearing the common information, and the efficiency of QZMAC. Our simulation results show that the mean delay with QZMAC is close that of the full-knowledge centralized scheduler.Comment: 28 pages, 19 figure

    Weather or not? The role of international sanctions and climate on food prices in Iran

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    IntroductionThe scarcity of resources have affected food production, which has challenged the ability of Iran to provide adequate food for the population. Iterative and mounting sanctions on Iran by the international community have seriously eroded Iran's access to agricultural technology and resources to support a growing population. Limited moisture availability also affects Iran's agricultural production. The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of inflation, international sanctions, weather disturbances, and domestic crop production on the price of rice, wheat and lentils from 2010 to 2021 in Iran.MethodData were obtained from the statistical yearbooks of the Ministry of Agriculture in Iran, Statistical Center of Iran, and the Central Bank of Iran. We analyzed econometric measures of food prices, including CPI, food inflation, subsidy reform plan and sanctions to estimate economic relationships. After deflating the food prices through CPI and detrending the time series to resolve the non-linear issue, we used monthly Climate Hazards group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) precipitation data to analyze the influence of weather disturbances on food prices.Results and discussionThe price of goods not only provides an important indicator of the balance between agricultural production and market demand, but also has strong impacts on food affordability and food security. This novel study used a combination of economic and climate factors to analyze the food prices in Iran. Our statistical modeling framework found that the monthly precipitation on domestic food prices, and ultimately food access, in the country is much less important than the international sanctions, lowering Iran's productive capability and negatively impacting its food security

    Optimal Estimator Design and Properties Analysis for Interconnected Systems with Asymmetric Information Structure

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    This paper studies the optimal state estimation problem for interconnected systems. Each subsystem can obtain its own measurement in real time, while, the measurements transmitted between the subsystems suffer from random delay. The optimal estimator is analytically designed for minimizing the conditional error covariance. The boundedness of the expected error covariance (EEC) is analyzed. In particular, a new condition that is easy to verify is established for the boundedness of EEC. Further, the properties of EEC with respect to the delay probability are studied. We found that there exists a critical probability such that the EEC is bounded if the delay probability is below the critical probability. Also, a lower and upper bound of the critical probability is derived. Finally, the proposed results are applied to a power system, and the effectiveness of the designed methods is illustrated by simulations

    Blockchain-Empowered Security Enhancement IoT Framework in Building Management System

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    Centralized architectures, like the cloud model, have their advantages, but they also come with drawbacks, such as higher upfront costs, longer deployment times, and a higher probability of catastrophic failure. Building Management Systems (BMS) is an application that can adopt Internet of Things (IoT) designs and services. However, implementing IoT in a highly modular environment with various moving parts and interdependencies between stakeholders can create security issues. Therefore, this paper proposes a system design using Blockchain technology as a means to protect and control the system, which includes the integration of IoT and BMS technologies. This paper has also included broad discussion on current Blockchain based IoT solution and its IoT limitations in Building Management Systems

    On the Age of Information of Processor Sharing Systems

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    In this paper, we examine the Age of Information (AoI) of a source sending status updates to a monitor through a queue operating under the Processor Sharing (PS) discipline. In the PS queueing discipline, all the updates are served simultaneously and, therefore, none of of the jobs wait in the queue to get service. While AoI has been well studied for various queuing models and policies, less attention has been given so far to the PS discipline. We first consider the M/M/1/2 queue with and without preemption and provide closed-form expressions for the average AoI in this case. We overcome the challenges of deriving the AoI expression by employing the Stochastic Hybrid Systems (SHS) tool. We then extend the analysis to the M/M/1 queue with one and two sources and provide numerical results for these cases. Our results show that PS can outperform the M/M/1/1* queue in some cases

    2023-2024 Boise State University Undergraduate Catalog

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    This catalog is primarily for and directed at students. However, it serves many audiences, such as high school counselors, academic advisors, and the public. In this catalog you will find an overview of Boise State University and information on admission, registration, grades, tuition and fees, financial aid, housing, student services, and other important policies and procedures. However, most of this catalog is devoted to describing the various programs and courses offered at Boise State

    Security Allocation in Networked Control Systems under Stealthy Attacks

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    This paper considers the problem of security allocation in a networked control system under stealthy attacks in which the system is comprised of interconnected subsystems represented by vertices. A malicious adversary selects a single vertex on which to conduct a stealthy data injection attack to maximally disrupt the local performance while remaining undetected. On the other hand, a defender selects several vertices on which to allocate defense resources against the adversary. First, the objectives of the adversary and the defender with uncertain targets are formulated in probabilistic ways, resulting in an expected worst-case impact of stealthy attacks. Next, we provide a graph-theoretic necessary and sufficient condition under which the cost for the defender and the expected worst-case impact of stealthy attacks are bounded. This condition enables the defender to restrict the admissible actions to a subset of available vertex sets. Then, we cast the problem of security allocation in a Stackelberg game-theoretic framework. Finally, the contribution of this paper is highlighted by utilizing the proposed admissible actions of the defender in the context of large-scale networks. A numerical example of a 50-vertex networked control system is presented to validate the obtained results.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, and 1 table, journal submissio
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