Enabling Disaster Resilient 4G Mobile Communication Networks

The 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the cellular technology expected to outperform the previous generations and to some extent revolutionize the experience of the users by taking advantage of the most advanced radio access techniques (i.e. OFDMA, SC-FDMA, MIMO). However, the strong dependencies between user equipments (UEs), base stations (eNBs) and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) limit the flexibility, manageability and resiliency in such networks. In case the communication links between UEs-eNB or eNB-EPC are disrupted, UEs are in fact unable to communicate. In this article, we reshape the 4G mobile network to move towards more virtual and distributed architectures for improving disaster resilience, drastically reducing the dependency between UEs, eNBs and EPC. The contribution of this work is twofold. We firstly present the Flexible Management Entity (FME), a distributed entity which leverages on virtualized EPC functionalities in 4G cellular systems. Second, we introduce a simple and novel device-todevice (D2D) communication scheme allowing the UEs in physical proximity to communicate directly without resorting to the coordination with an eNB.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Communications Magazin

Flexible Application-Layer Multicast in Heterogeneous Networks

This work develops a set of peer-to-peer-based protocols and extensions in order to provide Internet-wide group communication. The focus is put to the question how different access technologies can be integrated in order to face the growing traffic load problem. Thereby, protocols are developed that allow autonomous adaptation to the current network situation on the one hand and the integration of WiFi domains where applicable on the other hand

Security and Privacy Issues in Wireless Mesh Networks: A Survey

This book chapter identifies various security threats in wireless mesh network (WMN). Keeping in mind the critical requirement of security and user privacy in WMNs, this chapter provides a comprehensive overview of various possible attacks on different layers of the communication protocol stack for WMNs and their corresponding defense mechanisms. First, it identifies the security vulnerabilities in the physical, link, network, transport, application layers. Furthermore, various possible attacks on the key management protocols, user authentication and access control protocols, and user privacy preservation protocols are presented. After enumerating various possible attacks, the chapter provides a detailed discussion on various existing security mechanisms and protocols to defend against and wherever possible prevent the possible attacks. Comparative analyses are also presented on the security schemes with regards to the cryptographic schemes used, key management strategies deployed, use of any trusted third party, computation and communication overhead involved etc. The chapter then presents a brief discussion on various trust management approaches for WMNs since trust and reputation-based schemes are increasingly becoming popular for enforcing security in wireless networks. A number of open problems in security and privacy issues for WMNs are subsequently discussed before the chapter is finally concluded.Comment: 62 pages, 12 figures, 6 tables. This chapter is an extension of the author's previous submission in arXiv submission: arXiv:1102.1226. There are some text overlaps with the previous submissio

Secure Routing in Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have emerged as a promising concept to meet the challenges in next-generation networks such as providing flexible, adaptive, and reconfigurable architecture while offering cost-effective solutions to the service providers. Unlike traditional Wi-Fi networks, with each access point (AP) connected to the wired network, in WMNs only a subset of the APs are required to be connected to the wired network. The APs that are connected to the wired network are called the Internet gateways (IGWs), while the APs that do not have wired connections are called the mesh routers (MRs). The MRs are connected to the IGWs using multi-hop communication. The IGWs provide access to conventional clients and interconnect ad hoc, sensor, cellular, and other networks to the Internet. However, most of the existing routing protocols for WMNs are extensions of protocols originally designed for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and thus they perform sub-optimally. Moreover, most routing protocols for WMNs are designed without security issues in mind, where the nodes are all assumed to be honest. In practical deployment scenarios, this assumption does not hold. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of security issues in WMNs and then particularly focuses on secure routing in these networks. First, it identifies security vulnerabilities in the medium access control (MAC) and the network layers. Various possibilities of compromising data confidentiality, data integrity, replay attacks and offline cryptanalysis are also discussed. Then various types of attacks in the MAC and the network layers are discussed. After enumerating the various types of attacks on the MAC and the network layer, the chapter briefly discusses on some of the preventive mechanisms for these attacks.Comment: 44 pages, 17 figures, 5 table

On secure communication in integrated internet and heterogeneous multi-hop wireless networks.

Integration of the Internet with a Cellular Network, WMAN, WLAN, and MANET presents an exceptional promise by having co-existence of conventional WWANs/WMANs/WLANs with wireless ad hoc networks to provide ubiquitous communication. We call such integrated networks providing internet accessibility for mobile users as heterogeneous multi-hop wireless networks where the Internet and wireless infrastructure such as WLAN access points (APs) and base stations (BSs) constitute the backbone for various emerging wireless networks (e.g., multi-hop WLAN and ad hoc networks. Earlier approaches for the Internet connectivity either provide only unidirectional connectivity for ad hoc hosts or cause high overhead as well as delay for providing full bi-directional connections. In this dissertation, a new protocol is proposed for integrated Internet and ad hoc networks for supporting bi-directional global connectivity for ad hoc hosts. In order to provide efficient mobility management for mobile users in an integrated network, a mobility management protocol called multi-hop cellular IP (MCIP) has been proposed to provide a micro-mobility management framework for heterogeneous multi-hop network. The micro-mobility is achieved by differentiating the local domain from the global domain. At the same time, the MCIP protocol extends Mobile IP protocol for providing macro-mobility support between local domains either for single hop MSs or multi-hop MSs. In the MCIP protocol, new location and mobility management approaches are developed for tracking mobile stations, paging, and handoff management. This dissertation also provides a security protocol for integrated Internet and MANET to establish distributed trust relationships amongst mobile infrastructures. This protocol protects communication between two mobile stations against the attacks either from the Internet side or from wireless side. Moreover, a secure macro/micro-mobility protocol (SM3P) have been introduced and evaluated for preventing mobility-related attacks either for single-hop MSs or multi-hop MSs. In the proposed SM3P, mobile IP security has been extended for supporting macro-mobility across local domains through the process of multi-hop registration and authentication. In a local domain, a certificate-based authentication achieves the effective routing and micro-mobility protection from a range of potential security threats

An Overview of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks for the Existing Protocols and Applications

Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of two or more devices or nodes or terminals with wireless communications and networking capability that communicate with each other without the aid of any centralized administrator also the wireless nodes that can dynamically form a network to exchange information without using any existing fixed network infrastructure. And it's an autonomous system in which mobile hosts connected by wireless links are free to be dynamically and some time act as routers at the same time, and we discuss in this paper the distinct characteristics of traditional wired networks, including network configuration may change at any time, there is no direction or limit the movement and so on, and thus needed a new optional path Agreement (Routing Protocol) to identify nodes for these actions communicate with each other path, An ideal choice way the agreement should not only be able to find the right path, and the Ad Hoc Network must be able to adapt to changing network of this type at any time. and we talk in details in this paper all the information of Mobile Ad Hoc Network which include the History of ad hoc, wireless ad hoc, wireless mobile approaches and types of mobile ad Hoc networks, and then we present more than 13 types of the routing Ad Hoc Networks protocols have been proposed. In this paper, the more representative of routing protocols, analysis of individual characteristics and advantages and disadvantages to collate and compare, and present the all applications or the Possible Service of Ad Hoc Networks.Comment: 24 Pages, JGraph-Hoc Journa