Research Issues in Ad-Hoc Distributed Personal Networking

This paper discusses the research issues that need to be addressed in order to create a personal distributed environment where people interact with various companion, embedded, or invisible computers not only in their close vicinity but potentially anywhere. These systems are called personal networks (PNs). They constitute a category of distributed systems with very specific characteristics. They are configured in an ad hoc fashion, as the opportunity and the demand arise, to support personal applications. PNs consist of communicating clusters of personal digital devices, devices shared with other people and even infrastructure-based systems. At the heart of a PN is a core Personal Area Network (PAN), which is physically associated with the owner of the PN. Unlike the present PANs that have a geographically limited coverage, the Personal Operating Space, PNs have an unrestricted geographical span, and incorporate devices into the personal environment regardless of their geographic location. In order to do this they need the services of infrastructure-based networks and ad-hoc networks to extend their reach. A PN extends and complements the concept of pervasive computing. We show that PNs introduce new design challenges due to the heterogeneity of the involved technologies, the need for self-organization, the dynamics of the system composition, the application-driven nature, the co-operation with infrastructure-based networks, and the security hazards. We discuss the impact of these problems on network design, assess present and proposed solutions, and identify the research issues

A personal networking solution

This paper presents an overview of research being conducted on Personal Networking Solutions within the Mobile VCE Personal Distributed Environment Work Area. In particular it attempts to highlight areas of commonality with the MAGNET initiative. These areas include trust of foreign devices and service providers, dynamic real-time service negotiation to permit context-aware service delivery, an automated controller algorithm for wireless ad hoc networks, and routing protocols for ad hoc networking environments. Where possible references are provided to Mobile VCE publications to enable further reading

A secure and lightweight ad-hoc routing algorithm for personal networks

Over the past few years, there has been increasing interest in utilizing Personal Area Networks (PANs) to offer users innovative and personalized services. This interest is a consequence of the widespread use of mobile devices such as laptops, mobile phones, PDAs, digital cameras, wireless headsets, etc. to carry out a variety of user-centric tasks. The PAN itself is built upon an ad-hoc network where devices trust their neighbors to route their packets. The cooperative nature of ad-hoc networks allows malicious nodes to easily cripple the network by inserting false route information, replaying old messages, modifying messages of other nodes, etc. An applicable area still under research, and the focus of this paper, is secure routing protocols for ad-hoc networks. To achieve availability in the PAN, the routing protocol used must be robust against both dynamically changing topology and malicious attacks. However, the heterogeneous nature of Personal Network (PN) devices means that traditional security mechanisms are too resource intensive to be sufficient by themselves. This paper describes a new ad-hoc secure routing protocol for Personal Networks (PNs), suitable in a limited multi-hop scenario. This protocol is based on ADOV and relies on efficient cryptographic primitives to safeguard the security and privacy of PN users. Following that, a number of attacks in the area of ad-hoc networks are discussed, and it is shown that the new algorithm protects against multiple un-coordinated active attackers, in spite of compromised nodes in the network

Optical technologies in future personal networks

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A security architecture for personal networks

Abstract Personal Network (PN) is a new concept utilizing pervasive computing to meet the needs of the user. As PNs edge closer towards reality, security becomes an important concern since any vulnerability in the system will limit its practical use. In this paper we introduce a security architecture designed for PNs. Our aim is to use secure but lightweight mechanisms suitable for resource constrained devices and wireless communication. We support pair-wise keys for secure cluster formation and use group keys for securing intra-cluster communication. In order to analyze the performance of our proposed mechanisms, we carry out simulations using ns-2. The results show that our mechanisms have a low overhead in terms of delay and energy consumption

La dispersión geográfica de las redes personales : cálculo y significado

Background of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004. WP1: CompilationEn este artículo se comparan tres índices que representan la dispersión geográfica de las redes personales. El primer índice se construye en base al cómputo de las distancias para cada Ego con sus Alteri y de éstos entre sí. Una vez calculada la distancia total, se obtiene la media para cada Ego. El valor absoluto del logaritmo de esta media es la medida propuesta. El segundo índice se construye teniendo en cuenta solamente las relaciones Ego-Alter de la fórmula anterior y el tercero, habitual en este tipo de estudios, muestra la distribución de los contactos activos en un ranking de distancias (mismo barrio, misma ciudad, Cataluña, resto de España, extranjero). La comparación se realiza explorando el efecto de los tres índices en el apoyo social intercambiado de la población residente en Cataluña. Los datos se han tomado de la encuesta de redes personales realizada en el marco del proyecto CASREDIN interesado en explorar las redes sociales y la cohesión social en Cataluña. Así, dividimos la población residente entre "nacionales" e "inmigrantes" y en cada uno de los grupos evaluamos el apoyo social en función de la dispersión geográfica de las redes personales. Finalmente, proponemos una discusión de los resultados en el marco de la teoría del "transnacionalismo".This article compares three indices that represent the geographical dispersion of personal networks. The first index is built on the computation of distances for each Ego with their Alters and among each one them. After calculating the total distance, it is obtained the average for each Ego. The absolute value of the logarithm of this average is the proposed measure. The second index is constructed taking into account only the relations Ego-Alter of the above formula and the third, common in such studies, shows the distribution of active contacts in a ranking of distances (same neighbourhood, same city, Catalonia, rest of Spain, other countries). The comparison is made exploring the effect of the three indexes on the exchanged social support of people living in Catalonia. The data are taken from the survey of personal networks in the project CASREDIN, interested in exploring social networks and social cohesion in Catalonia. Thus, the resident population divided between "national" and "migrants" and in each of the groups social support is evaluated depending on the geographic dispersion of personal networks. Finally, we propose a discussion of the results within the framework of the theory of "transnationalism"

Architectural aspects of QoS-aware personal networks

Personal Networks (PN) are future communication systems that combine wireless and infracuture based networks to provide users a variety of services anywhere and anytime. PNs introduce new design challenges due to the heterogeneity of the involved technologies, the need for self-organization, the dynamics of the system composition, the application-driven nature, the co-operation with infrastructure-based networks, and the security hazards. This paper discusses the challenges of security and QoS provisioning in designing self-organized personal networks and combines them all into an integrated architectural framework

An infrastructure to communicate with wireless devices

Contemporary and future network protocols allow wireless devices to send and receive information with reasonable reliability and at reasonable speed. Yet, for an application to take advantage of the full networking capabilities of modern devices, much overhead is needed. Although the physical networking capabilities are embedded in the wireless device, an accepted standardized software protocol for utilizing these capabilities is not fully in place yet. There is a need for an infrastructure and a protocol for data communication with wireless devices. Such an infrastructure could serve as a middleware tool for wireless application developers that will decrease the amount of overhead for wireless application development. This work proposes the function and structure for that infrastructure, the details of the protocol that can be used and discusses issues of selfishness and cooperation when such middleware is used cooperatively by uncoordinated parties

Interim research assessment 2003-2005 - Computer Science

This report primarily serves as a source of information for the 2007 Interim Research Assessment Committee for Computer Science at the three technical universities in the Netherlands. The report also provides information for others interested in our research activities