Challenges of Multi-Factor Authentication for Securing Advanced IoT (A-IoT) Applications

The unprecedented proliferation of smart devices together with novel communication, computing, and control technologies have paved the way for the Advanced Internet of Things~(A-IoT). This development involves new categories of capable devices, such as high-end wearables, smart vehicles, and consumer drones aiming to enable efficient and collaborative utilization within the Smart City paradigm. While massive deployments of these objects may enrich people's lives, unauthorized access to the said equipment is potentially dangerous. Hence, highly-secure human authentication mechanisms have to be designed. At the same time, human beings desire comfortable interaction with their owned devices on a daily basis, thus demanding the authentication procedures to be seamless and user-friendly, mindful of the contemporary urban dynamics. In response to these unique challenges, this work advocates for the adoption of multi-factor authentication for A-IoT, such that multiple heterogeneous methods - both well-established and emerging - are combined intelligently to grant or deny access reliably. We thus discuss the pros and cons of various solutions as well as introduce tools to combine the authentication factors, with an emphasis on challenging Smart City environments. We finally outline the open questions to shape future research efforts in this emerging field.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. The work has been accepted for publication in IEEE Network, 2019. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Multi-Channel Random Access with Replications

This paper considers a class of multi-channel random access algorithms, where contending devices may send multiple copies (replicas) of their messages to the central base station. We first develop a hypothetical algorithm that delivers a lower estimate for the access delay performance within this class. Further, we propose a feasible access control algorithm achieving low access delay by sending multiple message replicas, which approaches the performance of the hypothetical algorithm. The resulting performance is readily approximated by a simple lower bound, which is derived for a large number of channels.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted by ISIT 201

Eukaryotic translation initiation machinery can operate in a prokaryotic-like mode without eIF2

Unlike prokaryotes, a specialized eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2), in the form of the ternary complex eIF2*GTP*Met-tRNAiMet is utilized to deliver the initiator tRNA to the ribosome within all eukaryotic cells1. Phosphorylation of eIF2 is known to be central to the global regulation of protein synthesis under stress conditions and infection2. Another distinctive feature of eukaryotic translation is scanning of mRNA 5'-leaders, whose origin in evolution may be relevant to the appearance of eIF2 in eukaryotes. Translation initiation on the hepatitis C virus (HCV) internal ribosome entry site (IRES) occurs without scanning3,4. Whether these unique features of the HCV IRES account for the formation of the final 80S initiation complex is unknown. Here we show that the HCV IRES-directed translation can occur without either eIF2 or its GTPase activating protein eIF5. In addition to the general eIF2- and eIF5-dependent pathway of 80S complex assembly, the HCV IRES makes use of a prokaryotic-like pathway which involves eIF5B, the analogue of bacterial IF25,6, instead of eIF2. This switch from a eukaryotic-like mode of AUG selection to a "bacterial" one occurs when eIF2 is inactivated by phosphorylation, a way with which host cells counteract infection. The relative resistance of HCV IRES-directed translation to eIF2 phosphorylation may represent one more line of defense used by this virus against host antiviral responses and can contribute to the well known resistance of HCV to interferon based therapy

Optimizing Wirelessly Powered Crowd Sensing: Trading energy for data

To overcome the limited coverage in traditional wireless sensor networks, \emph{mobile crowd sensing} (MCS) has emerged as a new sensing paradigm. To achieve longer battery lives of user devices and incentive human involvement, this paper presents a novel approach that seamlessly integrates MCS with wireless power transfer, called \emph{wirelessly powered crowd sensing} (WPCS), for supporting crowd sensing with energy consumption and offering rewards as incentives. The optimization problem is formulated to simultaneously maximize the data utility and minimize the energy consumption for service operator, by jointly controlling wireless-power allocation at the \emph{access point} (AP) as well as sensing-data size, compression ratio, and sensor-transmission duration at \emph{mobile sensor} (MS). Given the fixed compression ratios, the optimal power allocation policy is shown to have a \emph{threshold}-based structure with respect to a defined \emph{crowd-sensing priority} function for each MS. Given fixed sensing-data utilities, the compression policy achieves the optimal compression ratio. Extensive simulations are also presented to verify the efficiency of the contributed mechanisms.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1711.0206

On the effect of combining cooperative communication with sleep mode

Cooperation is crucial in (next-generation) wireless networks as it can greatly attribute to ensuring connectivity, reliability, performance, ... Relaying looks promising in a wide variety of network types (cellular, ad-hoc on-demand), each using a certain protocol. Energy efficiency constitutes another key aspect of such networks, as battery power is often limited, and is typically achieved by sleep mode operation. As the range of applications is very broad, rather than modelling one of the protocols in detail, we construct a high-level model capturing the two essential characteristics of cooperation and energy efficiency: relaying and sleep mode, and study their interaction. The used analytical approach allows for accurate performance evaluation and enables us to unveil less trivial trade-offs and to formulate rules-of-thumb applicable across all potential scenarios

MODELS AND ALGORITHMS FOR CONSTRUCTING A FORMALIZED DESCRIPTION OF PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES

The problem of technological knowledge formalization is being considered. Discussed features of systems in the scope of ontological engineering of processes, applied to solving the problems of the structural representation of technologies associated with the organization of their analysis. Proposed a model of the concept of technological action, which identifies technological actions as holistic conceptual formations. Constructed the model of formalized description of technologies, which provides unambiguous transition from verbal descriptions of technologies to their ontological representations. Described algorithms for constructing a formalized description of technologies, which implement the logical procedures for automated and automatic construction of ontological representations of technologies. Concluded in the development of a new method of formalized description of technologies, the fundamental principles of which constitute the distinctive features of the proposed models and constructed algorithms