A lightweight framework for secure life-logging in smart environments

As the world becomes an interconnected network where objects and humans interact with each other, new challenges and threats appear in the ecosystem. In this interconnected world, smart objects have an important role in giving users the chance for life-logging in smart environments. However, smart devices have several limitations with regards to memory, resources and computation power, hindering the opportunity to apply well-established security algorithms and techniques for secure life-logging on the Internet of Things (IoT) domain. The need for secure and trustworthy life-logging in smart environments is vital, thus, a lightweight approach has to be considered to overcome the constraints of smart objects. The purpose of this paper is to present in details the current topics of life-logging in smart environments, while describing interconnection issues, security threats and suggesting a lightweight framework for ensuring security, privacy and trustworthy life-logging. In order to investigate the efficiency of the lightweight framework and the impact of the security attacks on energy consumption, an experimental test-bed was developed including two interconnected users and one smart attacker, who attempts to intercept transmitted messages or interfere with the communication link. Several mitigation factors, such as power control, channel assignment and AES-128 encryption were pplied for secure life-logging. Finally, research into the degradation of the consumed energy regarding the described intrusions is presented

Design and performance evaluation of a lightweight wireless early warning intrusion detection prototype

The proliferation of wireless networks has been remarkable during the last decade. The license-free nature of the ISM band along with the rapid proliferation of the Wi-Fi-enabled devices, especially the smart phones, has substantially increased the demand for broadband wireless access. However, due to their open nature, wireless networks are susceptible to a number of attacks. In this work, we present anomaly-based intrusion detection algorithms for the detection of three types of attacks: (i) attacks performed on the same channel legitimate clients use for communication, (ii) attacks on neighbouring channels, and (iii) severe attacks that completely block network's operation. Our detection algorithms are based on the cumulative sum change-point technique and they execute on a real lightweight prototype based on a limited resource mini-ITX node. The performance evaluation shows that even with limited hardware resources, the prototype can detect attacks with high detection rates and a few false alarms. © 2012 Fragkiadakis et al

Ubiquitous robust communications for emergency response using multi-operator heterogeneous networks

A number of disasters in various places of the planet have caused an extensive loss of lives, severe damages to properties and the environment, as well as a tremendous shock to the survivors. For relief and mitigation operations, emergency responders are immediately dispatched to the disaster areas. Ubiquitous and robust communications during the emergency response operations are of paramount importance. Nevertheless, various reports have highlighted that after many devastating events, the current technologies used, failed to support the mission critical communications, resulting in further loss of lives. Inefficiencies of the current communications used for emergency response include lack of technology inter-operability between different jurisdictions, and high vulnerability due to their centralized infrastructure. In this article, we propose a flexible network architecture that provides a common networking platform for heterogeneous multi-operator networks, for interoperation in case of emergencies. A wireless mesh network is the main part of the proposed architecture and this provides a back-up network in case of emergencies. We first describe the shortcomings and limitations of the current technologies, and then we address issues related to the applications and functionalities a future emergency response network should support. Furthermore, we describe the necessary requirements for a flexible, secure, robust, and QoS-aware emergency response multi-operator architecture, and then we suggest several schemes that can be adopted by our proposed architecture to meet those requirements. In addition, we suggest several methods for the re-tasking of communication means owned by independent individuals to provide support during emergencies. In order to investigate the feasibility of multimedia transmission over a wireless mesh network, we measured the performance of a video streaming application in a real wireless metropolitan multi-radio mesh network, showing that the mesh network can meet the requirements for high quality video transmissions

Securing Cognitive Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have gained a lot of attention recently due to the potential they provide for developing a plethora of cost-efficient applications. Although research on WSNs has been performed for more than a decade, only recently has the explosion of their potential applicability been identified. However, due to the fact that the wireless spectrum becomes congested in the unlicensed bands, there is a need for a next generation of WSNs, utilizing the advantages of cognitive radio (CR) technology for identifying and accessing the free spectrum bands. Thus, the next generation of wireless sensor networks is the cognitive wireless sensor networks (CWSNs). For the successful adoption of CWSNs, they have to be trustworthy and secure. Although the concept of CWSNs is quite new, a lot of work in the area of security and privacy has been done until now, and this work attempts to present an overview of the most important works for securing the CWSNs. Moreover, a discussion regarding open research issues is also given in the end of this work

Energy Efficient Policies for Data Transmission in Disruption Tolerant Heterogeneous IoT Networks

The Internet-of-things facilitates the development of many groundbreaking applications. A large number of these applications involve mobile end nodes and a sparsely deployed network of base stations that operate as gateways to the Internet. Most of the mobile nodes, at least within city areas, are connected through low power wide area networking technologies (LPWAN) using public frequencies. Mobility and sparse network coverage result in long delays and intermittent connectivity for the end nodes. Disruption Tolerant Networks and utilization of heterogeneous wireless interfaces have emerged as key technologies to tackle the problem at hand. The first technology renders communication resilient to intermittent connectivity by storing and carrying data while the later increases the communication opportunities of the end nodes and at the same time reduces energy consumption whenever short-range communication is possible. However, one has to consider that end nodes are typically both memory and energy constrained devices which makes finding an energy efficient data transmission policy for heterogeneous disruption tolerant networks imperative. In this work we utilize information related to the spatial availability of network resources and localization information to formulate the problem at hand as a dynamic programming problem. Next, we utilize the framework of Markov Decision Processes to derive approximately optimal and suboptimal data transmission policies. We also prove that we can achieve improved packet transmission policies and reduce energy consumption, extending battery lifetime. This is achieved by knowing the spatial availability of heterogeneous network resources combined with the mobile node’s location information. Numerical resultsshow significant gains achieved by utilizing the derived approximately optimal and suboptimal policies

Automatically configured, optimised and QoS aware wireless mesh networks

Abstract—Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are comprised of nodes with multiple radio interfaces and provide broadband residential internet access or connectivity to temporal events. Our goal is to simplify the network deployment of such a mesh network, and towards that we are presenting procedures for automatic configuration and optimisation of the network. We first present an architecture framework that supports the integration of key mechanisms to ensure the optimisation of the performance of a wireless mesh network. Secondly, we present three key mechanisms, namely autoconfiguration, channel assignment and quality of service (QoS) enforcement based on QoS routing. We provide a method for automatic mesh start-up, joining a node into an existing mesh network and automatic repair of temporary connectivity outage, targeting at simplifying the node configuration as much as possible. The second mechanism supports an efficient algorithm for joint channel selection and topology control, supporting different target objective expressed as utility functions. The third mechanism supports QoS, by allowing routing and admission control decisions, in order to ensure that all flows are handled with the demanded QoS. Finally, we give some simulation results that show the increased performance of our framework. Index Terms—Wireless Mesh Networks, channel selection, topology control, automatic configuration, quality of service, routing, admission control. I