Adnan M. Abu-Mahfouz

Distance Bounding: A Practical Security Solution for Real-Time Location Systems

The need for implementing adequate security services in industrial applications is increasing. Verifying the physical proximity or location of a device has become an important security service in ad-hoc wireless environments. Distance-bounding is a prominent secure neighbor detection method that cryptographically determines an upper bound for the physical distance between two communicating parties based on the round-trip time of cryptographic challenge-response pairs. This paper gives a brief overview of distance-bounding protocols and discusses the possibility of implementing such protocols within industrial RFID and real-time location applications, which requires an emphasis on aspects such as reliability and real-time communication. The practical resource requirements and performance tradeoffs involved are illustrated using a sample of distance-bounding proposals, and some remaining research challenges with regards to practical implementation are discussed.

A Survey on Software-Defined Wireless Sensor Networks: Challenges and Design Requirements

Software defined networking (SDN) brings about innovation, simplicity in network management, and configuration in network computing. Traditional networks often lack the flexibility to bring into effect instant changes because of the rigidity of the network and also the over dependence on proprietary services. SDN decouples the control plane from the data plane, thus moving the control logic from the node to a central controller. A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a great platform for low-rate wireless personal area networks with little resources and short communication ranges. However, as the scale of WSN expands, it faces several challenges, such as network management and heterogeneous-node networks. The SDN approach to WSNs seeks to alleviate most of the challenges and ultimately foster efficiency and sustainability in WSNs. The fusion of these two models gives rise to a new paradigm: Software defined wireless sensor networks (SDWSN). The SDWSN model is also envisioned to play a critical role in the looming Internet of Things paradigm. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the SDWSN literature. Moreover, it delves into some of the challenges facing this paradigm, as well as the major SDWSN design requirements that need to be considered to address these challenges.

Smart water meter system for user-centric consumption measurement

Water scarcity and water stress issues pose a serious threat to the global population. The traditional way of manual meter reading is furthermore inconvenient and time consuming, and it wastes resources. This method is also unable to manage the sustainable water resources effectively since it requires efficient, accurate and reliable monitoring techniques that enable the utilities sector and consumers to know the level of water consumption in real-time. Real-time smart water meters that can be monitored by the user are essential and constitute a key component of the water management system. A smart water-monitoring system will make users mindful of their water consumption and help them to reduce their water usage. At the same time, users will be alerted to abnormal water usage to reduce water loss. This paper introduces the water management system based on wireless sensor networks (WSN). The system uses the IEEE 802.15.4 standard embedded in ContikiOS LibCoAP as an open-source application to create a robust and intelligent system. Visualisation and monitoring of the system is achieved following the development of a web-based system and through Pandora FMS.

ns-2 extension to simulate localization system in wireless sensor networks

The ns-2 network simulator is one of the most widely used tools by researchers to investigate the characteristics of wireless sensor networks. Academic papers focus on results and rarely include details of how ns-2 simulations are implemented, and if published the modules tend to be scheme specific. The availability of generic and reusable modules for ns-2, which supports specific research areas while allowing great scope for customization, are limited. Researchers new to ns-2 are therefore often required to build simulations largely from first principles. This paper presents an extension to the current version of ns-2, which enables a normal user, who has basic knowledge of ns-2, to implement and simulate any custom localization system within a wireless network. The technical content of this paper would be beneficial to researchers who want to implement new or existing localization algorithms and anyone new to ns-2 who wish to know more about how a simulation project is built and structured.

Software Defined Networking for Improved Wireless Sensor Network Management: A Survey

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are becoming increasingly popular with the advent of the Internet of things (IoT). Various real-world applications of WSNs such as in smart grids, smart farming and smart health would require a potential deployment of thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of sensor nodes/actuators. To ensure proper working order and network efficiency of such a network of sensor nodes, an effective WSN management system has to be integrated. However, the inherent challenges of WSNs such as sensor/actuator heterogeneity, application dependency and resource constraints have led to challenges in implementing effective traditional WSN management. This difficulty in management increases as the WSN becomes larger. Software Defined Networking (SDN) provides a promising solution in flexible management WSNs by allowing the separation of the control logic from the sensor nodes/actuators. The advantage with this SDN-based management in WSNs is that it enables centralized control of the entire WSN making it simpler to deploy network-wide management protocols and applications on demand. This paper highlights some of the recent work on traditional WSN management in brief and reviews SDN-based management techniques for WSNs in greater detail while drawing attention to the advantages that SDN brings to traditional WSN management. This paper also investigates open research challenges in coming up with mechanisms for flexible and easier SDN-based WSN configuration and management.

Rapid prototyping of a wireless sensor network gateway for the internet of things using off-the-shelf components

More than 50 billion devices are estimated to be connected to the Internet by 2020. Incompatibility of devices and protocols (usually proprietary devices and protocols) are one of the major hurdles to be overcome to realise the Internet of Things (IoT) vision. IoT devices are typically constrained devices and this creates dependencies between the hardware, software and protocols used in the device. Open hardware and software platforms to support emerging IoT trends are required. A wireless sensor network gateway was developed in a three-month period using off-the-shelf components. The gateway was based on the Raspberry PI single-board computer; it implemented 6LoWPAN mesh and wireless access point functionality for mobile and low power sensing and actuation devices. The gateway was tested in the following use-case: integrate a battery-operated 6LoWPAN-enabled smart water meter to an IPv6 building network. Several factors that influence the gateways performance and reliability were identified and should be considered when deploying gateway devices for future endeavours.

Software defined wireless sensor networks application opportunities for efficient network management: A survey

Abstract Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are commonly used information technologies of modern networking and computing platforms. Todays network computing applications are faced with a high demand of powerful network functionalities. Functional network reach is central to customer satisfaction such as in mobile networks and cloud computing environments. However, efficient management of WSNs remains a challenge, due to problems supplemental to them. Recent technology shift proposes Software Defined Networking (SDN) for improving computing networks. This review paper highlights application challenges faced by WSNs for monitored environments and those faced by the proposed approaches, as well as opportunities that can be realized on applications of WSNs using SDN. We also highlight Implementation considerations by focusing on critical aspects that should not be disregarded when attempting to improve network functionalities. We then propose a strategy for Software Defined Wireless Sensor Network (SDWSN) as an effort for application improvement in monitored environments.

A Survey on 5G Networks for the Internet of Things: Communication Technologies and Challenges

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a promising technology which tends to revolutionize and connect the global world via heterogeneous smart devices through seamless connectivity. The current demand for machine-type communications (MTC) has resulted in a variety of communication technologies with diverse service requirements to achieve the modern IoT vision. More recent cellular standards like long-term evolution (LTE) have been introduced for mobile devices but are not well suited for low-power and low data rate devices such as the IoT devices. To address this, there is a number of emerging IoT standards. Fifth generation (5G) mobile network, in particular, aims to address the limitations of previous cellular standards and be a potential key enabler for future IoT. In this paper, the state-of-the-art of the IoT application requirements along with their associated communication technologies are surveyed. In addition, the third generation partnership project cellular-based low-power wide area solutions to support and enable the new service requirements for Massive to Critical IoT use cases are discussed in detail, including extended coverage global system for mobile communications for the Internet of Things, enhanced machine-type communications, and narrowband-Internet of Things. Furthermore, 5G new radio enhancements for new service requirements and enabling technologies for the IoT are introduced. This paper presents a comprehensive review related to emerging and enabling technologies with main focus on 5G mobile networks that is envisaged to support the exponential traffic growth for enabling the IoT. The challenges and open research directions pertinent to the deployment of massive to critical IoT applications are also presented in coming up with an efficient context-aware congestion control mechanism.

A Simple Security Architecture for Smart Water Management System

Abstract Water scarcity and water stress issues have become clear threat to the global population. This makes water management a critical aspect to ensure sustainable water. An efficient water management system requires thousands of constraint devices (sensors and/or actuators) to be deployed across the water distribution network to enable near-real time monitoring and control of the water grid components. Security at both the device and network level is critical to the operation of such a system. Although several IT security controls have developed over the past few decades, they cannot be used directly with such constraint devices. This is due to their limited resources and unique requirements. However, some of these techniques can be adapted and used with these constraint devices. In this paper, we propose security architecture for smart water management systems, the architecture leverages existing security solutions and design patterns

ALWadHA Localization Algorithm: Yet More Energy Efficient

Many wireless sensor networks (WSNs) applications, techniques, and algorithms require the position of the sensor nodes. Sensor nodes mainly rely on localization algorithms to determine their own physical location. Usually, these sensor nodes are equipped with a limited power source. Therefore, a localization algorithm used by a WSN should be an energy-aware algorithm. One of the energy efficient localization algorithms that has been proposed recently is an efficient localization algorithm for wireless ad hoc sensor networks with high accuracy (ALWadHA). In this paper, we investigate the impact of using three techniques by ALWadHA in improving the energy efficiency of ALWadHA: first, a single-estimation approach whereby a node estimates its position only once; second, dynamic power control whereby reference nodes reduce their transmission power based on their distance to the node that broadcasts the location request; and third an incremental and exponential requesting rate approach, which controls the frequency rate of sending the location request. Simulation results show that the final approach reduces the energy consumption of ALWadHA by 51.5%, without compromising the accuracy of the position estimation.