Do we need a Contact Tracing App?

The goal of this paper is to shed some light on the usefulness of a contact tracing smartphone app for the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic. We review the basics of contact tracing during the spread of a virus, we contextualize the numbers to the case of COVID-19 and we analyse the state of the art for proximity detection using Bluetooth Low Energy. Our contribution is to assess if there is scientific evidence of the benefit of a contact tracing app in slowing down the spread of the virus using present technologies. Our conclusion is that such evidence is lacking, and we should re-think the introduction of such a privacy-invasive measure

A Big Data and machine learning approach for network monitoring and security

In the last decade the performances of 802.11 (Wi-Fi) devices skyrocketed. Today it is possible to realize gigabit wireless links spanning across kilometers at a fraction of the cost of the wired equivalent. In the same period, mesh network evolved from being experimental tools confined into university labs, to systems running in several real world scenarios. Mesh networks can now provide city-wide coverage and can compete on the market of Internet access. Yet, being wireless distributed networks, mesh networks are still hard to maintain and monitor. This paper explains how today we can perform monitoring, anomaly detection and root cause analysis in mesh networks using Big Data techniques. It first describes the architecture of a modern mesh network, it justifies the use of Big Data techniques and provides a design for the storage and analysis of Big Data produced by a large-scale mesh network. While proposing a generic infrastructure, we focus on its application in the security domain

Waterwall: a cooperative, distributed firewall for wireless mesh networks

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Vehicles or Pedestrians: On the gNB Placement in Ultradense Urban Areas

This paper tackles the problem of base stations placement to guarantee line of sight connectivity to vehicles in urban areas, when high frequency communications (mmWave or TeraHertz) are used. We introduce a novel methodology mixing vehicular networks simulations and show that the density of base stations per squared km is low enough to be feasibly reached. However, optimizing the placement for vehicles coverage provides an advantage but may not be enough for pedestrians coverage

On the Properties of Next Generation Wireless Backhaul

With the advent of 5G, cellular networks require a high number of base stations, possibly interconnected with wireless links, an evolution introduced in the last revision of 5G as the Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB). Researchers are now working to optimize the complex topologies of the backhaul network, using synthetic models for the underlying visibility graph, i.e., the graph of possible connections between the base stations. The goal of this paper is to provide a novel methodology to generate visibility graphs starting from real data (and the data sets themselves together with the source code for their manipulation), in order to base the IAB design and optimization on assumptions that are as close as possible to reality. We introduce a GPU-based method to create visibility graphs from open data, we analyze the properties of the realistic visibility graphs, and we show that different geographic areas produce very different graphs. We run state-of-the-art algorithms to create wireless backhaul networks on top of visibility graphs, and we show that the results that exploit synthetic models are far from those that use our realistic graphs. Our conclusion is that the data-based approach we propose is essential to design mobile networks that work in a variety of real-world situations

Reliability analysis in a wireless ISP

Report de recerca del Departament d'Arquitectura de ComputadorsThis brief report investigates different quality parameters to assess the reliability in Wireless Internet Service Providers, WISPs. In our analysis we use a Markov chain approach. We investigate the time to failure, failure probability and reliability. We obtain a closed-form reliability formula for the failure of a system subject to the failure of k devices.Preprin

Improving P2P streaming in Wireless Community Networks

Wireless Community Networks (WCNs) are bottom-up broadband networks empowering people with their on-line communication means. Too often, however, services tailored for their characteristics are missing, with the consequence that they have worse performance than what they could. We present here an adaptation of an Open Source P2P live streaming platform that works efficiently, and with good application-level quality, over WCNs. WCNs links are normally symmetric (unlike standard ADSL access), and a WCN topology is local and normally flat (contrary to the global Internet), so that the P2P overlay used for video distribution can be adapted to the underlaying network characteristics. We exploit this observation to derive overlay building strategies that make use of cross-layer information to reduce the impact of the P2P streaming on the WCN while maintaining good application performance. We experiment with a real application in real WCN nodes, both in the Community-Lab provided by the CONFINE EU Project and within an emulation framework based on Mininet, where we can build larger topologies and interact more efficiently with the mesh underlay, which is unfortunately not accessible in Community-Lab. The results show that, with the overlay building strategies proposed, the P2P streaming applications can reduce the load on the WCN to about one half, also equalizing the load on links. At the same time the delivery rate and delay of video chunks are practically unaffected. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Integração do protocolo SIP à norma IEEE 1451 para redes de sensores sem fio

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Computação.Redes de sensores sem fio (RSSF) são compostas por dispositivos chamados nós sensores, os quais são capazes de monitorar alguns fenômenos do meio ambiente que os rodeia, tais como informações escalares (temperatura, aceleração) ou multimídia (áudio, vídeo), transformando-os em sinais digitais e comunicando-se com outros nós da rede. A fim de padronizar o acesso e o comportamento das diversas plataformas existentes, a família de padrões IEEE 1451 foi desenvolvida. Esta padronização introduz conceitos interessantes, como a divisão do sistema em duas partes principais, NCAP (Network Capable Application Processor) e TIM (Transducer Interface Module), e a definição dos TEDS (Transducer Electronic Data Sheet). Porém, o padrão não trata eficientemente os requisitos das RSSF atuais, tal como a necessidade dos sensores executarem de forma eficiente e energeticamente consciente, permitindo economizar sua energia, fator crítico em grande parte destes dispositivos. Assim, este trabalho apresenta um novo modo de execução chamado TIM-IM (TIM Initiated Message), o qual permite que TIMs reportem seus dados sempre que houver novas leituras sensoriadas, ao invés de aguardar por polling originado pelo NCAP, evitando permanecer com o módulo de comunicação ligado grande parte do tempo. Adicionalmente, o padrão IEEE 1451 limita-se às redes de sensores que captam informações escalares. Assim, a presente dissertação visa, também, a integração de sensores multimídia à norma, apresentando algumas modificações tanto nos TEDS quanto nas mensagens trafegadas entre NCAP e TIM. A fim de permitir o acesso aos sensores através da rede do usuário, foi utilizado o protocolo SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). SIP vem sendo bastante utilizado atualmente junto à tecnologia VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), sendo responsável por estabelecer, modificar e finalizar uma sessão. Devido ao seu tamanho, torna-se inviável seu uso em muitos sistemas embarcados com restrição de recursos. Logo, este trabalho apresenta uma miniaturização do mesmo, alcançada através da eliminação de algumas requisições e campos de cabeçalho (do inglês header fields). Por fim, é apresentada a integração do protocolo SIP ao IEEE 1451. Para isto, foi utilizado o estabelecimento de sessões, assim como o esquema de notificação de presença presente no SIP e a extensão relativa à transferência de mensagens instantâneas. Assim, com a união de ambas as normas, permite-se que sensores sejam acessados por usuários remotos utilizando SIP phones, através da Internet, independentemente de sua localização física.Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are formed by devices called sensor nodes capable of monitoring some phenomena around them, such as scalar information (temperature, acceleration) or multimedia (audio, video), transforming them into digital signals and communicating with other nodes. In order to standardize the access and behavior of the various platforms available, the IEEE 1451 standards family was developed. This standardization introduces interesting concepts, such as splitting the system into two major parts, NCAP (Network Capable Application Processor) and TIM (Transducer Interface Module), and the definition of TEDS (Transducer Electronic Data Sheet). However, the standard does not address efficiently the requirements of current WSN, such as the need for sensors perform efficiently and energyconscious, saving its energy, which is critical for most of these devices. This work presents a new execution mode called TIM-IM (TIM Initiated Message), which allows TIMs to report its data whenever there are new sensed readings, rather than wait for polling originated by NCAP, avoiding remain with the communication module connected all the time. Additionally, IEEE 1451 is limited to sensor networks that collect scalar information. Thus, this thesis also aims at the integration of multimedia sensors to the standard, presenting some modifications in TEDS and in the messages sent between NCAP and TIM. In order to allow the access to sensors via user#s network, it was used the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) protocol. SIP has been widely used today by the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology and it is responsible to establish, modify and terminate a session. Due to its size, its use is not feasible in many resource-constrained embedded systems. Thus, this work presented a miniaturization of the protocol, achieved through the elimination of some requests and header fields. Finally, it was presented the integration of SIP to IEEE 1451. For this, it was used the session establishment, as well as the presence notification scheme of the SIP protocol and the extension for the transfer of instant messages. Thus, with the union of both standards, sensors can be accessed by remote users using SIP phones through the Internet, regardless of their physical location

Toward Smart Community Networks

The advent of IEEE 802.11 in the late 1990s spurred the development of new network paradigms. In particular, new technology enthusiasts saw the potential of WiFi to bring broadband Internet connections to under-provisioned areas, giving rise to networks deployed and maintained by their users. This paradigm led to non-profit decentralized structures that grow by the unplanned addition of heterogeneous network devices: community networks (CNs). There have been hundreds of CN deployments worldwide; some have disappeared, while others have blossomed into complex networks with thousands of nodes. The networking research community has been aware of CNs, and many works studied CNs in their various aspects: design (routing, scalability, security), deployment, measurements, services, and so on. We argue that emerging technologies will give a new impetus to CNs by transforming them into smart CNs. This article aims to lay out the technical features of future CNs and encourage the research community to tackle the stimulating research challenges they raise

Towards scalable Community Networks topologies

Community Networks (CNs) are grassroots bottom-up initiatives that build local infrastructures, normally using Wi-Fi technology, to bring broadband networking in areas with inadequate offer of traditional infrastructures such as ADSL, FTTx or wide-band cellular (LTE, 5G). Albeit they normally operate as access networks to the Internet, CNs are ad-hoc networks that evolve based on local requirements and constraints, often including additional local services on top of Internet access. These networks grow in highly decentralized manner that radically deviates from the top-down network planning practiced in commercial mobile networks, depending, on the one hand, on the willingness of people to participate, and, on the other hand, on the feasibility of wireless links connecting the houses of potential participants with each other. In this paper, we present a novel methodology and its implementation into an automated tool, which enables the exercise of (light) centralized control to the dynamic and otherwise spontaneous CN growth process. The goal of the methodology is influencing the choices to connect a new node to the CN so that it can grow with more balance and to a larger size. Input to our methodology are open source resources about the physical terrain of the CN deployment area, such as Open Street Map and very detailed (less than 1 m resolution) LIDAR-based data about buildings layout and height, as well as technical descriptions and pricing data about off-the-shelf networking devices that are made available by manufacturers. Data related to demographics can be easily added to refine the environment description. With these data at hand, the tool can estimate the technical and economic feasibility of adding new nodes to the CN and actively assist new CN users in selecting proper equipment and CN node(s) to connect with to improve the CN scalability. We test our methodology in four different areas representing standard territorial characterization categories: urban, suburban, intermediate, and rural. In all four cases our tool shows that CNs scale to much larger size using the assisted, network-aware methodology when compared with de facto practices. Results also show that the CNs deployed with the assisted methodology are more balanced and have a lower per-node cost for the same per-node guaranteed bandwidth. Moreover, this is achieved with fewer devices per node, which means that the network is cheaper to build and easier to maintain.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft