Ghassan Kbar

Mobile station location based on hybrid of signal strength and time of arrival

Positioning of users or mobile station (MS) in cellular systems becomes an interesting topic since the related number of applications for the location information is growing rapidly. The decision to make the locating of mobile phones under the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandatory is one of the driving forces to research and provide solutions to it. Deploying such applications would require a proper method for positioning the MS that are simple and accurate especially in urban area. There are many research papers addressing this issue based on timing method that calculate the timing delay for signal sent from MS to base station (BS) or vise versa, and other method based on signal strength. In this paper, we present a new calculation method to locate the mobile phone in urban district. This technique is based on hybrid method that uses signal strength to estimate the timing delay and comparing it with the measured time of arrival of the signal. The minimum timing value of the two results would be accepted and averaged for n samples. This will improve the accuracy and reduce the effect of multi-path signaling that both timing signaling and signal strength methods suffer from. In addition, a new calculation method has been presented to find the location of MS based on the BSs coordinates.

Voice over IP Mobile Telephony Using WIFI P2P

Voice telephony over mobile is currently supported at a cost using service provider such as GSM, or using IP service provider at cheaper cost. The purpose of this research is to design and implement a telephony program that uses WIFI in p2p (Peer-to-Peer) or WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) as a means of communication between mobile phones at no cost. The system will allow users to search for other individuals within WIFI range and to establish free p2p voice connections, or to establish virtual connection through Access Points (AP), as well as giving the option to user to use GSM in the case of no WIFI connectivity is available. The system will use a novel algorithm to convert mobile number into IP address and use it as a mean for contacting other mobile over p2p or AP using WIFI technology. The software will use a correlation between current address books available in mobile phones to convert phone numbers into IP addresses. The system will allow user to make voice conversation, sending SMS (Short Message Service) as well as MMS. Inbox and outbox services, message delivery reports, and message drafts will be used for SMS and MMS management. The current system will only allow for one call per connection, and no call waiting, or conference calls. The first step of this research and development is to resolve the technical issue regarding mapping of the mobile user’s phone number to a unique IP address in order to avoid IP collision, centralized control, and user configuration. In addition, voice call will be supported using WIFI to allow mobile phones to communicate free of cost to each other through p2p or through AP

Testing the Performance of Wireless LAN

WLANs based on 802.11 standards are rapidly becoming popular in computer networks. Despite the advantages that have been obtained from this technology, its performance in terms of throughput, response time and security affected by many environmental factors such as distance, blockage, authentication mechanism and type of encryption used during the authentication and the data transmission. There are other security issues such as vulnerability to attack by the man-in-the-middle (MiM) attack which becomes a great concern for users and owners. However, the focus of this paper is for testing the WLAN performance under different conditions. The test results and recommendation can be used by designer and networks users to understand the limitation and how to improve the use of WLAN to optimize its capability. It is clear from the results obtained during the test, that WLAN response time is more affected by network load and very little effect by the size of encryption of WEP used in WLAN. The signal strength is very well affected by distance and blockage, which also affects the throughput. However, the throughput would be affected more with network load

Security risk analysis for asset in relation to vulnerability, probability of threats and attacks

Network security management plays a crucial role in protecting organization assets and its computer infrastructure by identifying an effective control that reduces the risk of attacks and failures. Network risk assessment is a subjective process that is affected by multiple distinctive variables. These variables are associated with the organization assets and their impact on the health of the organization. To preserve the value of these assets, they must be protected from failure or attacks. In addition vulnerability assessment must be undertaken to assess the value of these assets for possible deficiency that would cause successful attacks. The main factors affecting failure are threats which can include threat of attack, environmental threat, and process related threats. On the other hand, preventing attacks on these assets would reduce the risk of failure and consequently maintain the health of the organization. A risk assessment methodology is described in this paper to assist managers in evaluating the security risk of their organization which is based on the identified variables related to vulnerabilities, threats, and possible attacks.

Security risk analysis based on probability of system failure, attacks and vulnerabilities

Network security management plays a crucial role in protecting organization assets and its computer infrastructure. This can be done by identifying the vulnerabilities and developing effective control that reduces the risk of attacks and failures. Network risk assessment is a subjective process that is linked to multiple variables. These variables are associated with the organization assets and their impact on the health of the organization. To preserve the value of these assets, they must be protected from failure or attacks. In addition vulnerability assessment must be undertaken to assess the value of these assets for possible deficiency that would cause successful attacks. The main factors affecting failure are possible of system failure, threats which can be related to internal and external attacks, environmental threat, and process related threats. A risk management methodology is described in this paper to assist managers in evaluating the security risk of their organization. This risk is based on multiple variables that are related to vulnerabilities, probability of failure, and possible attacks caused by threats.

Securing the wireless LANs against internal attacks

Deploying wireless LANs (WLAN) at large scale is mainly affected by reliability, availability, performance, and security. These parameters will be a concern for most of managers who want to deploy WLANs. Most importantly, the security issue became the predominant factor in WLAN design. Different Intrusion detection mechanisms have been addressed in research papers, but with little being focused on internal intrusion and prevention. In this paper an efficient security method has been proposed. It is based on detecting rogue access points as well as rogue bridge access points and denying their access to the WLAN. In addition a new method of mutual authentication between DHCP server at the AP and wireless client has been introduced. This would allow client to detect rogue DHCP server and stop the association with it. It also allows registered DHCP server to detect unauthorized client and deny its request. Moreover the DHCP server would synchronize with the AP or intelligent LAN switch to drop packets from unauthorized client who might use static IP to get access to the network.

A University-Based Smart and Context Aware Solution for People with Disabilities (USCAS-PWD)

(1) Background: A disabled student or employee in a certain university faces a large number of obstacles in achieving his/her ordinary duties. An interactive smart search and communication application can support the people at the university campus and Science Park in a number of ways. Primarily, it can strengthen their professional network and establish a responsive eco-system. Therefore, the objective of this research work is to design and implement a unified flexible and adaptable interface. This interface supports an intensive search and communication tool across the university. It would benefit everybody on campus, especially the People with Disabilities (PWDs). (2) Methods: In this project, three main contributions are presented: (A) Assistive Technology (AT) software design and implementation (based on user- and technology-centered design); (B) A wireless sensor network employed to track and determine user’s location; and (C) A novel event behavior algorithm and movement direction algorithm used to monitor and predict users’ behavior and intervene with them and their caregivers when required. (3) Results: This work has developed a comprehensive and universal application with a unified, flexible, and adaptable interface to support the different conditions of PWDs. It has employed an interactive smart based-location service for establishing a smart university Geographic Information System (GIS) solution. This GIS solution has been based on tracking location service, mobility, and wireless sensor network technologies. (4) Conclusion: The proposed system empowered inter-disciplinary interaction between management, staff, researchers, and students, including the PWDs. Identifying the needs of the PWDs has led to the determination of the relevant requirements for designing and implementing a unified flexible and adaptable interface suitable for PWDs on the university campus.

Implementation of Efficient seamless non-broadcast Routing algorithm for Wireless Mesh Network

Wireless Mesh Networks become popular and are used everywhere as an alternative to broadband connections. The ease of configuration of wireless mesh LAN, the mobility of clients, and the large coverage make it attractive choice for supporting wireless technology in LAN and MAN. However, there are some concerns in assigning the multiple channels for different node and having efficient routing algorithm to route packet seamlessly without affecting the network performance. Multiple channel usage has been addressed in previous research paper, but efficient routing algorithm still to be researched. In this paper an efficient seamless non-broadcast routing algorithm has been developed and implemented in C++ to support the wireless mesh network. This algorithm is based on mapping the mesh wireless routing nodes geographically according to 2 coordinates. Each node will apply this algorithm to find the closet neighboring node that leads to destination based on the mapped network without the need for broadcast such as the one used in traditional routing protocol in RIP, and OSPF.

Efficient Seamless Non-Broadcast Routing Algorithm for Wireless Mesh Network

Wireless mesh networks become popular and are used everywhere as an alternative to broadband connections. The ease of configuration of wireless mesh LAN, the mobility of clients, and the large coverage make it attractive choice for supporting wireless technology in LAN and MAN. However, there are some concerns in assigning the multiple channels for different node and having efficient routing algorithm to route packet seamlessly without affecting the network performance. Multiple channel usage has been addressed in previous research paper, but efficient routing algorithm still to be researched. In this paper an efficient seamless non-broadcast routing algorithm has been developed to support the wireless mesh network. This algorithm is based on mapping the mesh wireless routing nodes geographically according to 2 coordinates. Each node will apply this algorithm to find the closet neighboring mode that lead to destination based on the mapped network without the need for broadcast such as the one used in traditional routing protocol in RIP, and OSPF.

Securing the Wireless LANs that is based on Distributed Resource Management against internal attacks

Deploying wireless LANs (WLAN) at large scale is mainly affected by reliability, availability, performance, and security. These parameters will be a concern for most of managers who want to deploy WLANs. Most importantly, the security issue became the predominant factor in WLAN design. Different Intrusion detection mechanisms have been addressed in research papers, but with little being focused on internal intrusion and prevention. In this paper an efficient security method has been proposed. It is based on detecting rogue access points as well as rogue bridge access points and denying their access to the WLAN. It also uses Intrusion detection mechanism to detect internal attacks at the mobile terminals (MT) and then discards packets belong to unauthorized process, while encrypt the rest and pass them to access point (AP). All packets arrived at the AP will be verified against police encryption key and successful one will be sent to destination while unsuccessful one will be dropped by the AP. The police encryption key will be uploaded for authenticated MT from AP with corporation of the RADIUS server.