SecMon: End-to-End Quality and Security Monitoring System

The Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is becoming a more available and popular way of communicating for Internet users. This also applies to Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems and merging these two have already proven to be successful (e.g. Skype). Even the existing standards of VoIP provide an assurance of security and Quality of Service (QoS), however, these features are usually optional and supported by limited number of implementations. As a result, the lack of mandatory and widely applicable QoS and security guaranties makes the contemporary VoIP systems vulnerable to attacks and network disturbances. In this paper we are facing these issues and propose the SecMon system, which simultaneously provides a lightweight security mechanism and improves quality parameters of the call. SecMon is intended specially for VoIP service over P2P networks and its main advantage is that it provides authentication, data integrity services, adaptive QoS and (D)DoS attack detection. Moreover, the SecMon approach represents a low-bandwidth consumption solution that is transparent to the users and possesses a self-organizing capability. The above-mentioned features are accomplished mainly by utilizing two information hiding techniques: digital audio watermarking and network steganography. These techniques are used to create covert channels that serve as transport channels for lightweight QoS measurement's results. Furthermore, these metrics are aggregated in a reputation system that enables best route path selection in the P2P network. The reputation system helps also to mitigate (D)DoS attacks, maximize performance and increase transmission efficiency in the network.Comment: Paper was presented at 7th international conference IBIZA 2008: On Computer Science - Research And Applications, Poland, Kazimierz Dolny 31.01-2.02 2008; 14 pages, 5 figure

SecMon: end-to-end quality and security monitoring system

The Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is becoming a more available and popular way of communication for the Internet users. This also applies to the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems and merging these two have already proven to be successful (e.g. Skype). Even the existing standards of VoIP provide an assurance of security and Quality of Service (QoS), however, these features are usually optional and supported by a limited number of implementations. As a result, the lack of mandatory and widely applicable QoS and security guarantee makes the contemporary VoIP systems vulnerable to attacks and network disturbances. In this paper we are facing these issues and propose the SecMon system, which simultaneously provides a lightweight security mechanism and improves quality parameters of the call. SecMon is intended specially for VoIP service over P2P networks and its main advantage is that it provides authentication, data integrity services, adaptive QoS and (D)DoS attack detection. Moreover, the SecMon approach represents a lowbandwidth consumption solution that is transparent to the users and possesses a self-organizing capability. The above-mentioned features are accomplished mainly by utilizing two information hiding techniques: digital audio watermarking and network steganography. These techniques are used to create covert channels that serve as transport channels for lightweight QoS measurement results. Furthermore, these metrics are aggregated in a reputation system that enables best route path selection in the P2P network. The reputation system helps also to mitigate (D)DoS attacks, maximize performance and increase transmission efficiency in the network

Dimensioneringsstudie för ett vägavgiftssystem

Road User Charging (RUC) solutions based on the concept of thin clients rely upon timely delivery of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) positions towards a RUC provider, which then performs the map matching and the calculation of the road user charges. In order to avoid data loss and late delivery, a proper dimensioning of the system is required. For the Swedish case, we investigate the feasibility of legacy mobile and wireless systems (in particular GPRS, UMTS and WLAN) for both streaming and bulk transfer of positioning data, and we determine sensible combinations of sampling and reporting intervals in terms of efficient and economic reporting. We also highlight a couple of traps regarding the dimensioning, in particular of sending patterns that might cause overload at the server side of the system. It becomes obvious that mobile networks can well cope with the extra load caused by reporting HGVs, while bulk transfer in wireless hot-spots can be used as a complementary solution.Vägavgiftslösningar baserade på konceptet med tunna klienter är beroende av tidskorrekta leveranser av positioner för lastbilar till leverantören av vägavgiftssystemet, som sedan utför kartjämförelsen samt uträkningen av vägavgifter. För att undvika dataförluster och sena leveranser måste en ordentlig dimensionering av systemet genomföras, vilket tas upp i denna rapport. Vi undersöker möjligheterna att använda befintliga mobila och trådlösa system (framför allt GPRS, UMTS och WLAN) till både streaming och bulköverföring av positioneringsdata och vi fastställer förnuftiga kombinationer av samplings- och rapporteringsintervall med tanke på effektiv och ekonomisk rapportering. Det valda tillvägagångssättet med erforderlig kapacitet öppnar upp för tolkningar av resursbehoven för de olika kommunikationsteknologierna. Vi framhåller även ett par fällor angående dimensioneringen, framför allt gällande de mönster enligt vilka data skickas, som kan förorsaka överbelastning på serversidan i systemet. Det blir tydligt att mobila nätverk på ett bra sätt kan hantera den belastningen som tillkommer vid rapportering av lastbilar, medan bulköverföring via trådlösa hot-spots kan användas som en komplimenterande lösning. Vägavgiftssystem, dimensionering, GPRS, UMTS, WLANhttp://www.arena-ruc.co

Dimensioneringsstudie för ett vägavgiftssystem

Road User Charging (RUC) solutions based on the concept of thin clients rely upon timely delivery of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) positions towards a RUC provider, which then performs the map matching and the calculation of the road user charges. In order to avoid data loss and late delivery, a proper dimensioning of the system is required. For the Swedish case, we investigate the feasibility of legacy mobile and wireless systems (in particular GPRS, UMTS and WLAN) for both streaming and bulk transfer of positioning data, and we determine sensible combinations of sampling and reporting intervals in terms of efficient and economic reporting. We also highlight a couple of traps regarding the dimensioning, in particular of sending patterns that might cause overload at the server side of the system. It becomes obvious that mobile networks can well cope with the extra load caused by reporting HGVs, while bulk transfer in wireless hot-spots can be used as a complementary solution.Vägavgiftslösningar baserade på konceptet med tunna klienter är beroende av tidskorrekta leveranser av positioner för lastbilar till leverantören av vägavgiftssystemet, som sedan utför kartjämförelsen samt uträkningen av vägavgifter. För att undvika dataförluster och sena leveranser måste en ordentlig dimensionering av systemet genomföras, vilket tas upp i denna rapport. Vi undersöker möjligheterna att använda befintliga mobila och trådlösa system (framför allt GPRS, UMTS och WLAN) till både streaming och bulköverföring av positioneringsdata och vi fastställer förnuftiga kombinationer av samplings- och rapporteringsintervall med tanke på effektiv och ekonomisk rapportering. Det valda tillvägagångssättet med erforderlig kapacitet öppnar upp för tolkningar av resursbehoven för de olika kommunikationsteknologierna. Vi framhåller även ett par fällor angående dimensioneringen, framför allt gällande de mönster enligt vilka data skickas, som kan förorsaka överbelastning på serversidan i systemet. Det blir tydligt att mobila nätverk på ett bra sätt kan hantera den belastningen som tillkommer vid rapportering av lastbilar, medan bulköverföring via trådlösa hot-spots kan användas som en komplimenterande lösning. Vägavgiftssystem, dimensionering, GPRS, UMTS, WLANhttp://www.arena-ruc.co

Dimensioning study for road user charging

Road User Charging (RUC) solutions based on the concept of thin clients rely upon timely delivery of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) positions towards a RUC provider, which then performs the map matching and the calculation of the road user charges. In order to avoid data loss and late delivery, a proper dimensioning of the system is required. For the Swedish case, we investigate the feasibility of legacy mobile and wireless systems (in particular GPRS, UMTS and WLAN) for both streaming and bulk transfer of positioning data, and we determine sensible combinations of sampling and reporting intervals in terms of efficient and economic reporting. We also highlight a couple of traps regarding the dimensioning, in particular of sending patterns that might cause overload at the server side of the system. It becomes obvious that mobile networks can well cope with the extra load caused by reporting HGVs, while bulk transfer in wireless hot-spots can be used as a complementary solution

Evaluering av autentiseringsmetoder baserad på säkerhet, användarvänlighet och komplexitet

In this work we are going to study and evaluate several SIMbased and non SIM-based authentication schemes for use in an IMS platform. The work will be done as part of the EUREKA!-funded Mobicome project. In this project eleven partners are participating in order to get a working prototype of the new generation network IMS to run. The major idea of the extended IMS functionality is seamlessness, both regarding network and device switching. Seamlessly working security solutions are a self-evident must in this context. In order to satisfy the customer while meeting technical boundary conditions, solutions must work in a satisfactory manner in many respects. On this background, this paper is a position paper, stating started and planned work on the evaluation of candidate security solutions for seamless IMS-based communications. First, the primary criteria of evaluation, namely security, user-friendliness and simplicity, are discussed. Then, the secondary criteria, which include awareness, usability and algorithms, are described. Along with the criteria, both sub-criteria and corresponding parameters are outlined. After this, the methodology for the evaluation is described. Finally, an outlook is presented at the end of the chapter.Ett första ansats för klassificering av sömlösa säkerhetslösningar med tanke på säkerhetsnivå, användarvänlighet och enkelhet som förstahands kriterier samt medvetenhet, användbarhet och algoritmer som andrahands kriterier. Dessutom beskrivs evalueringsmetoder. IMS, säkerhet, sömlös autentifiering, evalueringskriteri

An electronic voting system supporting vote weights

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a solution for allowing an arbitrary number of weights and weight values to be used in an electronic voting system. Design/methodology/approach – Robust Electronic Voting System (REVS) was chosen, a voting system designed to support internet voting processes, as the start point for studying the introduction of vote weights. Findings – The work resulted in an internet voting system supporting vote weights, based on REVS. Research limitations/implications – In the solution presented, there is still a problem regarding anonymity, for the case of a single voter with a particular weighted vote. This is a fundamental problem, since it also exists in paper-based elections. Practical implications – This version of REVS has the same properties as the original REVS, apart from the anonymity issue above. Apart from this the process of registering voters got more complicated, since now it includes an extra action for binding a weight. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this modified version of REVS is the first electronic voting system supporting vote weights. Another novelty of this work is the modulus sharing optimization used for the RSA key pairs of each entity

Evaluation of Authentication Schemes Based on Security, User-Friendliness and Complexity

In this work we are going to study and evaluate several SIMbased and non SIM-based authentication schemes for use in an IMS platform. The work will be done as part of the EUREKA!-funded Mobicome project. In this project eleven partners are participating in order to get a working prototype of the new generation network IMS to run. The major idea of the extended IMS functionality is seamlessness, both regarding network and device switching. Seamlessly working security solutions are a self-evident must in this context. In order to satisfy the customer while meeting technical boundary conditions, solutions must work in a satisfactory manner in many respects. On this background, this paper is a position paper, stating started and planned work on the evaluation of candidate security solutions for seamless IMS-based communications. First, the primary criteria of evaluation, namely security, user-friendliness and simplicity, are discussed. Then, the secondary criteria, which include awareness, usability and algorithms, are described. Along with the criteria, both sub-criteria and corresponding parameters are outlined. After this, the methodology for the evaluation is described. Finally, an outlook is presented at the end of the chapter

Mapping service quality - measuring and comparing quality of experience and quality of service for Internet-based map services

In this paper, we present an on-going research project in which we are focusing on examining how users of map-based services on-line experience the quality of these services when the traffic load is high, and how the users' experiences of acceptable or not acceptable quality can be related to measurable parameters which can be used to manage network traffic and improve technical solutions. The project is a multi- and interdisciplinary project in cooperation between researchers within human work science and informatics, and researchers within telecommunication systems. Additionally, there are two external partners in the project: a provider of Internet-based map services, and a municipality which uses this provider's map services regularly. One of the main methodological issues addressed in the project is how laboratory based, quantitative research methods from research on Quality of Service in the telecommunication systems area can be related to qualitative research methods focusing on workplace- or other live-world based use situations and Quality of Expereince as defined by users of the services. How can experiments and studies be designed, and results shared, such that both network traffic measuring and evaluation of user experiences retain their own paradigmatic validity and relevance, while fruitfully informing service design

An Examination of the Possibility of Lowering the Glycemic Index of Oat and Barley Flakes by Minimal Processing

Differences in glycemic responses to various starchy foods are related to differences in the rate of starch digestion and absorption. In this study, the importance of the degree of gelatinization and the product thickness for postprandial glycemic and insulinemic responses to rolled oats and barley were studied in healthy subjects (5 men and 5 women). Thick (1.0 mm) rolled oats were made from raw or preheated (roasted or steamed) kernels. In addition, thin (0.5 mm) rolled oats were made from roasted or roasted and steamed (processed under conditions simulating commercial production) oat kernels. Finally, steamed rolled barley kernels (0.5 or 1.0 mm) were prepared. All thin flakes elicited high glucose and insulin responses [glycemic index (GI), 88–118; insulinemic index (II), 84–102], not significantly different from white wheat bread (P . 0.05). In contrast, all varieties of thick oat flakes gave significantly lower metabolic responses (GI, 70–78; II, 58–77) than the reference bread (P , 0.05). Thick barley flakes, however, gave high glucose and insulin responses (GI, 94; II, 84), probably because the botanical structure underwent more destruction than the corresponding oat flakes. We conclude that minimal processing of oat and barley flakes had a relatively minor effect on GI features compared with the more extensive commercial processing. One exception was thick oat flakes, which in contrast to the corresponding barley flakes, had a low GI