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

Adaptive Error Control Schemes For Supporting Quality Of Service In Wireless Atm Networks

This thesis deals with the error control problems, which is one of the major issues for supporting quality of service (QoS) in wireless ATM (W A TM). Generally in wireless communication, error is induced by impairment prone wireless links. As a method of quality of service based error control, the design and performance evaluation of a retransmission based error control scheme is proposed to overcome wireless channel impairments for multimedia traffic support over wireless A TM networks. The purpose of the proposed error control scheme is to provide error-free services to the higher layers by either correcting the errors in a packet or recovering corrupted packets by retransmission in a wireless link. From the perspective of error control, multimedia traffic can be divided into two types: loss-sensitive traffic and delay-sensitive traffic. To support all these traffic over W ATM networks, we propose two approaches for error control. One approach is to utilize the reliable AAL protocol, which are referd to as AALXl and AALX2, as the end-to-end error control, based on our knowledge-based selectivereject automatic repeat request (KSRARQ) scheme, and adaptive header protection with KSRARQ scheme for loss-sensitive and delay-sensitive traffic, respectively

TCP for Wireless Environments

Computer networks have experienced an explosive growth over the past few years, which has lead to some severe congestion problems. Reliable protocols like TCP works well in wired networks where loss occurs mostly because of congestion. However, in wireless networks, loss occurs because of bit rates and handoffs too. TCP responds all losses by congestion control and avoidance algorithms, which results in degradation of TCP\u27s End-To-End performance in wireless networks. This paper discusses different issues and problems regarding use of TCP in wireless networks and provides comprehensive survey of various schemes to improve performance of TCP in Wireless Networks

Development of an Embedded Smart Home System

Smart home systems are expected to become key research area for ubiquitous and embedded system computing in coming years. In this thesis, a new scheme in smart home systems technology using embedded system for providing intelligent control of home appliances is proposed. An embedded system act as protocol glue that incorporates wired and wireless option such as Short Message Service (SMS) router with wireless local area network (WI-FI) for intelligent automation and higher speed of home appliances connectivity. The system is implemented in 2 tier models. First-tier model consist of incorporated design of SMS Router and Wireless Access Point. Wireless local area network (WI-FI) is selected as mechanism due to its transmission range within 100m which suits the smart home requirement for automation and control, justifies the Personal Area Network (PAN) for mobile device connectivity. Second tier model consist of remote application server systems, which cater a conceptual model between embedded hardware and software integration of appliances in smart home. This interface model will be between in house networks and external communication environment, whereas embedded system acts as storage media and server for information interchange between systems especially with mobile devices within a smart home. Embedded system sits at the core of the home network, acts as residential gateway and enables bi-directional communication and data transfer channel among networked appliances in the home and across the Internet. On the other hand, client-side application provides a user-friendly Graphic User Interface (GUI) to enhance the usability of the system. The proposed embedded system has been implemented and verified that the system can be a core device for smart home environment functionality

Different Transmission Control Protocol Variants in Wireless Environments

Computer networks have experienced an explosive growth over the past few years, which has lead to some severe congestion problems. Reliable protocols like TCP works well in wired networks where loss occurs mostly because of congestion. However, in wireless networks, loss occurs because of bit rates and handoffs too. TCP responds all losses by congestion control and avoidance algorithms, which results in degradation of TCP’s End-To-End performance in wireless networks. This paper discusses different issues and problems regarding use of TCP in wireless networks and provides comprehensive survey of various schemes to improve performance of TCP in Wireless Networks

Cyberthreats, Attacks and Intrusion Detection in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Networks

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are computer-based process control systems that interconnect and monitor remote physical processes. There have been many real world documented incidents and cyber-attacks affecting SCADA systems, which clearly illustrate critical infrastructure vulnerabilities. These reported incidents demonstrate that cyber-attacks against SCADA systems might produce a variety of financial damage and harmful events to humans and their environment. This dissertation documents four contributions towards increased security for SCADA systems. First, a set of cyber-attacks was developed. Second, each attack was executed against two fully functional SCADA systems in a laboratory environment; a gas pipeline and a water storage tank. Third, signature based intrusion detection system rules were developed and tested which can be used to generate alerts when the aforementioned attacks are executed against a SCADA system. Fourth, a set of features was developed for a decision tree based anomaly based intrusion detection system. The features were tested using the datasets developed for this work. This dissertation documents cyber-attacks on both serial based and Ethernet based SCADA networks. Four categories of attacks against SCADA systems are discussed: reconnaissance, malicious response injection, malicious command injection and denial of service. In order to evaluate performance of data mining and machine learning algorithms for intrusion detection systems in SCADA systems, a network dataset to be used for benchmarking intrusion detection systemswas generated. This network dataset includes different classes of attacks that simulate different attack scenarios on process control systems. This dissertation describes four SCADA network intrusion detection datasets; a full and abbreviated dataset for both the gas pipeline and water storage tank systems. Each feature in the dataset is captured from network flow records. This dataset groups two different categories of features that can be used as input to an intrusion detection system. First, network traffic features describe the communication patterns in a SCADA system. This research developed both signature based IDS and anomaly based IDS for the gas pipeline and water storage tank serial based SCADA systems. The performance of both types of IDS were evaluates by measuring detection rate and the prevalence of false positives

On Cyber Attacks and Signature Based Intrusion Detection for Modbus Based Industrial Control Systems

Industrial control system communication networks are vulnerable to reconnaissance, response injection, command injection, and denial of service attacks. Such attacks can lead to an inability to monitor and control industrial control systems and can ultimately lead to system failure. This can result in financial loss for control system operators and economic and safety issues for the citizens who use these services. This paper describes a set of 28 cyber attacks against industrial control systems which use the MODBUS application layer network protocol. The paper also describes a set of standalone and state based intrusion detection system rules which can be used to detect cyber attacks and to store evidence of attacks for post incident analysis. All attacks described in this paper were validated in a laboratory environment. The detection rate of the intrusion detection system rules presented by attack class is also presented