Hassan Artail

COACS: A Cooperative and Adaptive Caching System for MANETs

This paper introduces a cooperation-based database caching system for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). The heart of the system is the nodes that cache submitted queries. The queries are used as indices to data cached in nodes that previously requested them. We discuss how the system is formed and how requested data is found if cached, or retrieved from the external database and then cached. Analysis is performed and expressions are derived for the different parameters, including upper and lower bounds for the number of query caching nodes as well as the average load they experience, generated network traffic, node bandwidth consumption, and other performance-related measures. Simulations with the ns-2 software were used to study the performance of the system in terms of average delay and hit ratio, and to compare it with the performance of two other caching schemes for MANETs, namely CachePath and CacheData. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system in terms of achieved hit ratio and low delay.

A cluster-based trust-aware routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks

Routing protocols are the binding force in mobile ad hoc network (MANETs) since they facilitate communication beyond the wireless transmission range of the nodes. However, the infrastructure-less, pervasive, and distributed nature of MANETs renders them vulnerable to security threats. In this paper, we propose a novel cluster-based trust-aware routing protocol (CBTRP) for MANETs to protect forwarded packets from intermediary malicious nodes. The proposed protocol organizes the network into one-hop disjoint clusters then elects the most qualified and trustworthy nodes to play the role of cluster-heads that are responsible for handling all the routing activities. The proposed CBTRP continuously ensures the trustworthiness of cluster-heads by replacing them as soon as they become malicious and can dynamically update the packet path to avoid malicious routes. We have implemented and simulated the proposed protocol then evaluated its performance compared to the clustered based routing protocol (CBRP) as well as the 2ACK approach. Comparisons and analysis have shown the effectiveness of our proposed scheme.

Improving reliability of safety applications in vehicle ad hoc networks through the implementation of a cognitive network

Researchers have suggested Vehicular Ad hoc Networks as a way to enable car to car communications and to allow for the exchange of safety and other types of information among cars. The Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) protocol stack is standardized by the IEEE, and it allocates spectrum for vehicular communication. In our work we prove that it does not provide sufficient spectrum for reliable exchange of safety information. To alleviate this problem, we present a system that employs cognitive network principles to increase the spectrum allocated to the control channel (CCH) by the WAVE protocols, where all safety information is transmitted. To accomplish this objective, the proposed system relies on sensed data sent by the cars to road side units that in turn forward the aggregated data to a processing unit. The processing unit infers data contention locations and generates spectrum schedules to dispatch to the passing cars. Analysis and simulation results indicate the effectiveness of the system in improving data delivery in vehicular networks and thus increasing the reliability of safety applications.

ROAMER: Roadside Units as message routers in VANETs

Vehicular Ad hoc Networks, also known as VANETs, enable vehicles that are not necessarily within the same radio transmission range to communicate with each other. VANETs also allow vehicles to connect to Roadside Units (RSUs). The latter are connected to the Internet, forming a fixed infrastructure that offers them the capability of communicating with each other and with roaming vehicles. RSUs support cooperative and distributed applications in which vehicles and RSUs work together to coordinate actions and to share and process several types of information. RSUs have so far been used for different roles such as data disseminators, traffic directories, location servers, security managers, and service proxies. In this paper, we focus on routing; namely we exploit RSUs to route packets between any source and destination in the VANET. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to use the RSU backbone to efficiently route packets to very far locations in VANETs by using geographic forwarding. We evaluate the RSU backbone routing performance via the ns2 simulation platform. We compare our scheme to existing solutions and prove the feasibility and efficiency of our scheme in terms of query delay, packet success delivery ratio, and total generated traffic.

A dynamic honeypot design for intrusion detection

Modern technology in the area of intrusion detection is honeypot technology that, unlike common IDSs, tends to provide the attacker with all the necessary resources needed for a successful attack. Honeypots provide a platform for studying the methods and tools used by the intruders (blackhat community), thus deriving their value from the unauthorized use of their resources. This paper discusses the design of a dynamic honeypot, which is an autonomous honeypot capable of adapting in a dynamic and constantly changing network environment. The dynamic honeypot approach integrates passive or active probing and virtual honeypots. This approach addresses the challenge of deploying and configuring virtual honeypots.

A Framework for Secure and Efficient Data Acquisition in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Intervehicular communication lies at the core of a number of industry and academic research initiatives that aim at enhancing the safety and efficiency of transportation systems. Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) enable vehicles to communicate with each other and with roadside units (RSUs). Service-oriented vehicular networks are special types of VANETs that support diverse infrastructure-based commercial services, including Internet access, real-time traffic management, video streaming, and content distribution. Many forms of attacks against service-oriented VANETs that attempt to threaten their security have emerged. The success of data acquisition and delivery systems depends on their ability to defend against the different types of security and privacy attacks that exist in service-oriented VANETs. This paper introduces a system that takes advantage of the RSUs that are connected to the Internet and that provide various types of information to VANET users. We provide a suite of novel security and privacy mechanisms in our proposed system and evaluate its performance using the ns2 software. We show, by comparing its results to those of another system, its feasibility and efficiency.

Application of KM measures to the impact of a specialized groupware system on corporate productivity and operations

Here we describe an experiment to show the improvement in productivity resulting from use of a specialized groupware system, using quantitative data and observations of the knowledge management (KM) processes, styles, and critical success factors. Data describing the work process before and after the deployment of the system was applied to measure the impact on performance, operations, and knowledge sharing behavior. The attitude of the organization toward knowledge sharing and the deployed groupware system was then studied along several dimensions that represent KM styles, by assessing the KM orientation and motivation of the organization. Lessons learned were presented and used for directing the attention of management to the importance of supporting collaborative and KM technologies for corporate strategic competitiveness.

Finding a STAR in a Vehicular Cloud

The strong capabilities that exist in a Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET) has given birth to the concept of Vehicular Clouds, in which cloud computing services are hosted by vehicles that have sufficient resources to act as mobile cloud servers. In this paper, we design a system that enables vehicles in a VANET to search for mobile cloud servers that are moving nearby and discover their services and resources. The system depends on RSUs that act as cloud directories with which mobile cloud servers register. The RSUs share their registration data to enable vehicles to discover and consume the services of mobile cloud servers within a certain area. We evaluated the proposed system using the ns2 software and demonstrated through comparing the results to another mechanism the feasibility and efficiency of our system in terms of service discovery and service consuming delays and packet success ratio.

New Scheduling Architecture for IEEE 802.16 Wireless Metropolitan Area Network

IEEE 802.16 standard defines the specifications for emerging WiMAX networks. It did not however define the scheduling algorithms that determine the uplink and downlink bandwidth allocation. This paper proposes a preemptive deficit fair priority queue (PDFPQ) scheduling architecture for QoS management for the IEEE 802.16 standard. The proposed scheduling architecture is an extension of the DFPQ scheduling technique found in the literature. It enhances the QoS requirements of real time polling service (rtPS) flow class, and improves its delay and throughput. Compared to DFPQ, preliminary results show that a significant rtPS delay reduction and throughput increase can be realized with our new scheduling technique.

A hybrid honeypot framework for improving intrusion detection systems in protecting organizational networks

This paper proposes a hybrid and adaptable honeypot-based approach that improves the currently deployed IDSs for protecting networks from intruders. The main idea is to deploy low-interaction honeypots that act as emulators of services and operating systems and have them direct malicious traffic to high-interaction honeypots, where hackers engage with real services. The setup permits for recording and analyzing the intruders activities and using the results to take administrative actions toward protecting the network. The paper describes the basic components, design, operation, implementation and deployment of the proposed approach, and presents several performance and load testing scenarios. Implementation and performance plus load testing show the adaptability of the proposed approach and its effectiveness in reducing the probability of attacks on production computers.