Investigating Security for Ubiquitous Sensor Networks

The availability of powerful and sensor-enabled mobile and Internet-connected devices have enabled the advent of the ubiquitous sensor network paradigm which is providing various types of solutions to the community and the individual user in various sectors including environmental monitoring, entertainment, transportation, security, and healthcare. We explore and compare the features of wireless sensor networks and ubiquitous sensor networks and based on the differences between these two types of systems, we classify the security-related challenges of ubiquitous sensor networks. We identify and discuss solutions available to address these challenges. Finally, we briefly discuss open challenges that need to be addressed to design more secure ubiquitous sensor networks in the future

A Framework For Self-Inspection Buildings Based On Augmented Reality Agents

Emergent technologies are being adopted at all the stages of smart building lifecycles. More specifically, mobile, pervasive, and communication technologies are being deployed to achieve a wide range of functions that improve the building performance (including ventilation, air conditioning, heating, lighting, and security) and reduce their related costs. Augmented Reality (AR) has arisen as a promising tool to achieve these goals. However, in spite of the multiple solutions that have integrated AR within smart buildings, several shortcomings are yet to be solved. In addition to the limited user experience and the lack of AR content, current solutions do not provide effective collaborations between construction stakeholders as well as do not include intelligent mechanisms for the management of inspection activities. In order to address some of the smart building challenges, we are proposing in this paper a new framework for intelligent collaborative self-inspection buildings based on the concept of awareness wheel as well as the multi-agent system paradigm

A Framework for Self-Inspection Buildings Based on Augmented Reality Agents

Emergent technologies are being adopted at all the stages of smart building lifecycles. More specifically, mobile, pervasive, and communication technologies are being deployed to achieve a wide range of functions that improve the building performance (including ventilation, air conditioning, heating, lighting, and security) and reduce their related costs. Augmented Reality (AR) has arisen as a promising tool to achieve these goals. However, in spite of the multiple solutions that have integrated AR within smart buildings, several shortcomings are yet to be solved. In addition to the limited user experience and the lack of AR content, current solutions do not provide effective collaborations between construction stakeholders as well as do not include intelligent mechanisms for the management of inspection activities. In order to address some of the smart building challenges, we are proposing in this paper a new framework for intelligent collaborative self-inspection buildings based on the concept of awareness wheel as well as the multi-agent system paradigm

Empowering Communications in Vehicular Networkswith an Intelligent Blockchain-Based Solution

Blockchains have emerged over time as a reliable and secure way to record transactions in an immutable manner in a wide range of application domains. However, current related solutions are not yet capable of appropriately checking the authenticity of data when their volumes are huge. They are not also capable of updating Blockchain data blocks and synchronizing them within reasonable timeframes. This is the case within the specific context of Blockchain vehicular networks, where these solutions are commonly cumbersome when attempting to add new vehicles to the network. In order to address these problems, we propose in this paper a new Blockchain-based solution that intelligently implement selective communication and collaborative endorsement approaches to reduce communications between vehicles. Our solution represents the vehicles of the Blockchain as intelligent software agents with a Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) architecture. Furthermore, we propose an approach based on multi-endorsement levels to exchange data of varying sensitive categories. This approach, which is based on endorsing scores, is also used to shorten the admission of new vehicles into the Blockchain. We run simulations using the Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain tool. Results show the efficiency of our solution in reducing the processing times of transactions within two different scenarios

Reputation evaluation of georeferenced data for crowd-sensed applications

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is a process where individuals, supported by enabling technologies, behave like physicalsensorstoharvestgeoreferencedcontentintheirsurroundings. Thevalueofthis, typicallyheterogeneous, contenthasbeen recognized by both researchers and organizations. However, in order to be fruitfully used in various VGI-based types of application reliability and quality of particular VGI content (i.e., Points of Interest) have to be assessed. This evaluation can be based on reputation scores that summarize users’ experiences with the specific content. Following this direction, our contribution provides, primarily, a new comprehensive model and a multi-layer architecture for reputation evaluation aimed to assess quality of VGI content. Secondly, we demonstrate the relevance of adopting such a framework through an applicative scenario for recommending touristic itineraries

A WAVE based and Collaboration driven Framework for Reduced Traffic Congestion in Smart Cities

Abstract—The fast emergence of autonomous vehicles promises a drastic change on how road traffic congestion is detected, controlled, and mitigated. To this end, we believe that it is beneficial to explore different ways of collaboration between autonomous vehicles, with the aid of modern road infrastructure, to optimize the commuters’ travel time. We, therefore, propose in this paper a novel solution based on a multi-parties collaboration framework and built upon the WAVE standard to optimize the usage of the road network and lower commuters’ travel time. Our solution, which is based on a Belief-Desire-Intention architecture, enables autonomous vehicles to opt for selfish or collaborative behaviors depending on their goals and current situations. The results obtained from our preliminary prototype under three representative road maps demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in dealing with traffic congestion

Smart Water Management Using Intelligent Digital Twins

Providing and distributing fresh water to large communities is a major global concern. In addition to its scarcity as well as to its wastage, this vital resource is being affected by challenging environmental conditions. New approaches are, therefore, urgently needed for an optimized, fair, and efficient use of fresh water. The adoption of emergent technologies is giving high hopes to reach this objective. Among these technologies, digital twin is attracting increasing attention from the academic and industrial committees. This attention is particularly motivated by its expected values to any sector, including process optimization, cost reduction, and time to market shortening. In the specific field of water management, several solutions are being proposed, especially to detect leak detection and test water assets under a variety of working constraints. These solutions are still lacking intelligence and autonomy throughout the loop of data acquisition and processing as well as asset control and service generation and delivery. To this end, we are proposing in this paper a new framework based on multi-agent systems and DT paradigm to close gaps within this loop. Our multi-agent system is responsible of running data analytics mechanisms in order to assess water consumption and generate relevant feedbacks to users using, among others, a rewarding system to select the appropriate pricing policies. It is also responsible of simulating asset operations under specific working constraints for the purpose of failure and/or defect detection

Agent-Based Approach for Connected Vehicles and Smart Road Signs Collaboration

Road traffic is drastically increasing in big cities around the world. In order to enable a flexible management of this traffic, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) solutions are relying on emergent ubiquitous, mobile, and communication technologies, particularly to intelligently deal with the limited capacities of the existing road infrastructures. While intelligence is left to the autonomous and connected vehicles as well as to the ITS, the road infrastructure has been mostly playing a passive role (as a source of data). Road signage, in particular, are in best cases dynamic but do not play an active role in monitoring traffic and incidents. We propose in this paper to build Smart Road Signs (SRS) that can collaborate with Connected Vehicles in order to monitor traffic and warn drivers about any incident or danger. Our SRSs are meant to operate autonomously in order to detect road traffic problems, share appropriate information with vehicles in the vicinity, and display relevant messages based on the ongoing contextual situation. To meet our goals, we rely on Multi-Agent Systems to design SRSs as proactive components in the ITS landscape. We also rely on agent mobility in order to strengthen the collaboration with the connected vehicles