Anas Abu Taleb

A Technique to Identify and Substitute Faulty Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we propose a technique to identify and substitute faulty nodes to achieve fault tolerance in wireless sensor networks. The proposed technique divides the network into disjoint zones while having a master for each zone. The zone masters are used to identify faulty nodes by virtually dividing the zone into quadrants until a suspect node is found. Our fault model assumes both communication and sensing faults which are caused by a hardware failure in anode. To detect communication faults, the division process is based on calculating the throughput for each zone and comparing it to a predefined threshold. However, for sensing faults it is based on comparing the data a node senses to a predefined status and data ranges. In addition, we make use of a new technique, which was inspired by the Roll Forward Checkpointing Scheme, to activate sleeping nodes in order to validate the correctness of the suspected nodes. This is used to reconfigure the network using fault free nodes only.

A Study on Threads Detection and Tracking Systems for Military Applications using WSNs

In Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications it is critical to accurately determine the location of the distributed sensor nodes in order to report the data that is geographically meaningful. Since localization and tracking algorithms have been attracting research and development attention recently, a wide range of existing approaches regarding this topic have emerged. Tracking and localization algorithms have been proposed for different WSN applications including civilian, industrial and safety applications. A few research studies focused on tracking Threats through military applications, such as detecting and tracking Threats through border security area. Therefore this paper studies and investigates the existing WSN based tracking and localization algorithms and summarizes the potential requirements for localizing and tracking Threats through military applications. The existing systems are categorized and discussed. A critical analysis is found in this paper, in order to guide the developer to design and implement a WSN-based tracking system for military applications.

An imporved decentralized approach for tracking multiple mobile targets through ZigBee WSNs.

Target localization and tracking problems in WSNs have received considerable attention recently, driven by the requirement to achieve high localization accuracy, with the minimum cost possible. In WSN based tracking applications, it is critical to know the current location of any sensor node with the minimum energy consumed. This paper focuses on the energy consumption issue in terms of communication between nodes whenever the localization information is transmitted to a sink node. Tracking through WSNs can be categorized into centralized and decentralized systems. Decentralized systems offer low power consumption when deployed to track a small number of mobile targets compared to the centralized tracking systems. However, in several applications, it is essential to position a large number of mobile targets. In such applications, decentralized systems offer high power consumption, since the location of each mobile target is required to be transmitted to a sink node, and this increases the power consumption for the whole WSN. In this paper, we propose a power efficient decentralized approach for tracking a large number of mobile targets while offering reasonable localization accuracy through ZigBee network.

Fault diagnosis in multi layered De Bruijn based architectures for sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks are expected to operate in an unattended manner for long periods of time. As a result, they should be able to tolerate faults and maintain a reasonable performance level. Therefore, we propose two fault-tolerant clustered De Bruijn based multi layered architectures, a fault-tolerant routing scheme and a distributed fault diagnosis algorithm. The performance of the proposed work was analyzed according to the end-to-end delay and the data success rate. Also, the performance was compared to that of mesh networks. Our simulation results show that De Bruijn based networks perform better in both fault free and faulty situations.

Fault Tolerant Reversible Finite Field Arithmetic Circuits

In this paper, we present a systematic method for the designing fault tolerant reversible arithmetic circuits for finite field or Galois fields of the form GF(2m). To tackle the problem of errors in computation, we propose error detection and correction using multiple parity prediction technique based on low density parity check (LDPC) code. For error detection and correction, we need additional garbage outputs. Our technique, when compared with traditional fault tolerant approach gives better implementation cost.

A Secure Authentication System for ePassport Detection and Verification

The use of smart border entry systems significantly increases the reliability and efficiency of borders control measures. To deal with the increasing numbers of passengers and tighter security controls, pro-active automatic decision-making support to border control authorities is needed. Modern biometric passports, also known as ePassports, integrates an electronic RFID chip into the paper document, which contains information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travelers. In this paper, an RFID-based Location Authentication Protocol, (RFIDLAP), for ePassport detection and verification is proposed. RFIDLAP is designed to detect and track ePassports in a confined area by autonomously initializing an ultra-secure access control routine between RFID tags and readers. The purpose of this protocol is to reduce the lead time for passengers at borders control areas and allow governments to process e-passports effectively without the need to increase their human resources capacity. Using C#, a simulator was developed to test the proposed protocol and the results were within 0.2% error in accuracy when processing ePassports.

An efficient and scalable ranking technique for mashups involving RSS data sources

Mashups are key category of Web 2.0 personalized applications. Due to personalization property of Web 2.0 applications, number of mashups hosted by a mashup platform is increasing. End-users are overwhelmed by the increasing number of mashups. Therefore, they cannot easily find mashups of their interest. In this paper, we propose a novel mashup ranking technique based on the popular Vector Space Model (VSM) for mashups that use RSS feeds as data sources. Mashups that are ranked higher would be more interesting to end-users. In order to evaluate our mashup ranking technique, we implement it in a prototype where end-users select mashups that they consider interesting. We implicitly collect the end-user mashup selections and record the outcome of our ranking technique, and then we analyze them. Recorded R-Precision value in our technique is on an average 30% higher than R-Precision value in binary ranking technique which shows an improvement in capturing mashups that resemble end-user interest. In our design, we make sure our mashup ranking technique scales well to increasing number of mashups.

An Efficient De Bruijn Graph Based Fault Tolerant Sensor Networks Design

Wireless sensor network reliability is a growing concern as most of the sensors are expected to operate in an unattended manner for long periods of time. Therefore it is important that they should be able to tolerate faults and maintain a reasonable level of performance. To this end, in this paper we explore two De Bruijn and mesh based topologies and its fault tolerant routing scheme and a distributed fault detection algorithm. The performance of the proposed topologies and algorithms was analyzed considering end-to-end-delay, data success rate and energy consumption. Our simulation results show that the proposed topologies and algorithms give a good performance under different conditions and scenarios.

A hybrid tracking system for ZigBee WSNs

Target localization and tracking problems in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have received considerable attention recently, driven by the need to achieve high localization accuracy, with the minimum cost possible. A wide range of proposed approaches regarding the localization area have emerged, however most of them suffer from either requiring an extra sensor, high power consumption, inaccessible indoors, or offer high localization error. This paper presents a research and development of a hybrid WSN tracking system using the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and the inertial system. The proposed system is an efficient indoors, where it offers reasonable localization accuracy (0.1 - 0.7) meters, and achieves low power consumption. A number of real experiments have been conducted to test the efficiency of the proposed system using XBee modules.

Cooperative distributed architecture for mashups

Since the advent of Web 2.0, personalised applications such as mashups have become widely popular. Mashups enable end-users to fetch data from distributed data sources, and refine it based on their personal needs. This high degree of personalisation that mashups offer comes at the expense of performance and scalability. These scalability challenges are exacerbated by the centralised architectures of current mashup platforms. In this paper, we address the performance and scalability issues by designing CoMaP – a distributed mashup platform. CoMaP’s architecture comprises of several cooperative mashup processing nodes distributed over the Internet upon which mashups can, fully or partially, be executed. CoMaP incorporates a dynamic and efficient scheme for deploying mashups on the processing nodes. Our scheme considers a number of parameters such as variations in link delays and bandwidths, and loads on mashup processing nodes. CoMaP includes effective and low-cost mechanisms for balancing loads on the processing nodes as well for handling node failures. Furthermore, we propose novel techniques that leverage keyword synonyms, ontologies and caching to enhance end-user experience. This paper reports several experiments to comprehensively study CoMaP’s performance. The results demonstrate CoMaP’s benefits as a scalable distributed mashup platform.