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

Analytical approaches for short-range wireless technologies evaluation

Analytical evaluation approaches play a very important role, when the applicability of short-range wireless technology is assessed for emerging applications and scenarios, like machine-to-machine, device-to-device, heterogeneous networking, etc. Due to a set of limitations of measuring and simulation strategies, a closed-form equation describing the network characteristics as a function of parameters could be very suitable in the cases, that were not studied before: new application, traffic pattern or scenario. This paper presents an overview of existing approaches aiming to evaluate different types of short-range networking. Starting from simple cases: channel modeling and saturated system analysis, we finally come to the stability criteria and different traffic patterns affect on the network performance

Feasibility study of the THz band for communications between wearable electronics

Emerging wearable nano sensor networks enable a set of valuable applications in biomedical and environmental fields. At the same time, the current state of communication technologies significantly limits the processing capabilities of prospective nanomachines. Consequently, implying that all the analysis of collected data needs to be performed on a macro device. Therefore, to effectively enable long-awaited applications of nano networks their seamless integration into existing networking infrastructure is required, leading to the concept of Internet of Nano Things. In this paper, the interoperability between already deployed macro networks and emerging nano networks is preliminary investigated. The solution for this problem is nontrivial, as the existing macro wireless networks use primarily the carrier-based electromagnetic communications, while nanomachines must rely on ultra-low-power pulse-based EM radiation or inherently mobile objects as information carriers. Thus, the direct interaction between macro and nano networks is currently not feasible, forcing using special gateway nodes. Moreover, the modern solutions for nano communications have to be rapidly improved to enable construction of large-scale networks on top of existing link level techniques. Numerous theoretical questions are to be addressed to achieve this goal, ranging from the design of a proper modulation and coding technique to mitigation of noise and interference effects

Cross-link Interference Modeling in 6G Millimeter Wave and Terahertz LEO Satellite Communications

One of the important questions when discussing next-generation near-Earth mmWave and terahertz (THz) band satellite communications as an integral part of the 5G-Advanced and 6G landscape is the potential interference-related issues when deploying such systems. While the space-to-ground and ground-to-space interference has been explored in multiple works already, the interference at mmWave and THz cross-links, the links between the satellites themselves, have not been extensively studied yet. However, severe cross-link interference may both challenge the reliability of the data exchange within the constellation, as well as compromise the efficient co-existence of multiple satellite constellations (i.e., by different providers) covering the same or neighboring areas. In this paper, both relevant mathematical models and extensive simulation studies are presented for cross-link mmWave and THz satellite communications. Our results indicate that the cross-link interference in the considered setups is a non-negligible factor that must be further explored and accounted for in the design and deployment of next-general mmWave and THz satellite communication systems.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted to IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2023. The copyright may be transferred without further notice after which this version may not be longer availabl

Capacity and Outage of Terahertz Communications with User Micro-mobility and Beam Misalignment

User equipment mobility is one of the primary challenges for the design of reliable and efficient wireless links over millimeter-wave and terahertz bands. These high-rate communication systems use directional antennas and therefore have to constantly maintain alignment between transmitter and receiver beams. For terahertz links, envisioned to employ radiation patterns of no more than few degrees wide, not only the macro-scale user mobility (human walking, car driving, etc.) but also the micro-scale mobility - spontaneous shakes and rotations of the device - becomes a severe issue. In this paper, we propose a mathematical framework for the first-order analysis of the effects caused by micro-mobility on the capacity and outage in terahertz communications. The performance of terahertz communications is compared with and without micro-mobility illustrating the difference of up to 1 Tbit/s or 75%. In response to this gap, it is finally shown how the negative effects of the micro-mobility can be partially addressed by a proper adjustment of the terahertz antenna arrays and the period of beam realignment procedure.Comment: Accepted to IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology on April 9, 2020. Copyright may be transferred without further notice after which this version may become non-availabl

Analysis of Intelligent Vehicular Relaying in Urban 5G+ Millimeter-Wave Cellular Deployments

The capability of smarter networked devices to dynamically select appropriate radio connectivity options is especially important in the emerging millimeter-wave (mmWave) systems to mitigate abrupt link blockage in complex environments. To enrich the levels of diversity, mobile mmWave relays can be employed for improved connection reliability. These are considered by 3GPP for on-demand densification on top of the static mmWave infrastructure. However, performance dynamics of mobile mmWave relaying is not nearly well explored, especially in realistic conditions, such as urban vehicular scenarios. In this paper, we develop a mathematical framework for the performance evaluation of mmWave vehicular relaying in a typical street deployment. We analyze and compare alternative connectivity strategies by quantifying the performance gains made available to smart devices in the presence of mmWave relays. We identify situations where the use of mmWave vehicular relaying is particularly beneficial. Our methodology and results can support further standardization and deployment of mmWave relaying in more intelligent 5G+ "all-mmWave" cellular networks.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures. The paper has been accepted for IEEE GLOBECOM 2019. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Standardization of Extended Reality (XR) over 5G and 5G-Advanced 3GPP New Radio

Extended Reality (XR) is one of the major innovations to be introduced in 5G/5G-Advanced communication systems. A combination of augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality, supplemented by cloud gaming, revisits the way how humans interact with computers, networks, and each other. However, efficient support of XR services imposes new challenges for existing and future wireless networks. This article presents a tutorial on integrating support for the XR into the 3GPP New Radio (NR), summarizing a range of activities handled within various 3GPP Service and Systems Aspects (SA) and Radio Access Networks (RAN) groups. The article also delivers a case study evaluating the performance of different XR services in state-of-the-art NR Release 17. The paper concludes with a vision of further enhancements to better support XR in future NR releases and outlines open problems in this area.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Dense Moving Fog for Intelligent IoT: Key Challenges and Opportunities

As the ratification of 5G New Radio technology is being completed, enabling network architectures are expected to undertake a matching effort. Conventional cloud and edge computing paradigms may thus become insufficient in supporting the increasingly stringent operating requirements of \emph{intelligent~Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices} that can move unpredictably and at high speeds. Complementing these, the concept of fog emerges to deploy cooperative cloud-like functions in the immediate vicinity of various moving devices, such as connected and autonomous vehicles, on the road and in the air. Envisioning gradual evolution of these infrastructures toward the increasingly denser geographical distribution of fog functionality, we in this work put forward the vision of dense moving fog for intelligent IoT applications. To this aim, we review the recent powerful enablers, outline the main challenges and opportunities, and corroborate the performance benefits of collaborative dense fog operation in a characteristic use case featuring a connected fleet of autonomous vehicles.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. The work has been accepted for publication in IEEE Communications Magazine, 2019. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl