Kostas E. Psannis

Secure integration of IoT and Cloud Computing

Abstract Mobile Cloud Computing is a new technology which refers to an infrastructure where both data storage and data processing operate outside of the mobile device. Another recent technology is Internet of Things. Internet of Things is a new technology which is growing rapidly in the field of telecommunications. More specifically, IoT related with wireless telecommunications. The main goal of the interaction and cooperation between things and objects which sent through the wireless networks is to fulfill the objective set to them as a combined entity. In addition, there is a rapid development of both technologies, Cloud Computing and Internet of Things, regard the field of wireless communications. In this paper, we present a survey of IoT and Cloud Computing with a focus on the security issues of both technologies. Specifically, we combine the two aforementioned technologies (i.e Cloud Computing and IoT) in order to examine the common features, and in order to discover the benefits of their integration. Concluding, we present the contribution of Cloud Computing to the IoT technology. Thus, it shows how the Cloud Computing technology improves the function of the IoT. Finally, we survey the security challenges of the integration of IoT and Cloud Computing.

Efficient Flexible Macroblock Ordering Technique

The H.264/AVC standard provides several new error-resilient features to enable the reliable transmission of compressed video signals over lossy packet networks. Flexible Macroblock Ordering (FMO) is one of the most interesting resilient features within the H.264/AVC standard. Unlike former standards, in which slices were constructed out of consecutive raster scan macroblocks, FMO suggests new slices composed of spatially distributed Macroblocks (MBs), and organized in a mixed-up fashion. H.264/AVC specifies seven types of FMO. The standard defines also an explicit FMO type (Type 6), which allows explicitly assignment of each MB within the frame to any available slice groups. Therefore new FMO types can be used and integrated into H264/AVC without violating the standard. In this paper we propose a new Explicit Chessboard-Wipe (ECW) Flexible Macroblocks Ordering (FMO) technique, which outperforms all other FMO types. The new ECW ordering results in effective error scattering which maximizes the number of correctly received macroblocks located around corrupted macroblocks, leading to better error concealment. Performance evaluations demonstrate that the proposed Explicit FMO approach outperforms all the FMO types. Both subjective and objective visual quality comparative study has been also carried out in order to validate the proposed approach.

MPEG-2 streaming of full interactive content

In this paper, we present an efficient method for supporting full interactive functions of MPEG-2 video streaming. The method is based on storing multiple differently encoded versions of the video stream at the server. A normal version is used for normal playback, while several other versions are used for fast/slow/jump forward (rewind)/rewind at variable speedups. Full interactive functions are produced by encoding every Nth frame of the original uncompressed movie as a sequence of I-P(M) frames. Mechanisms for controlling the interactive streams are also presented and their effectiveness is assessed through extensive simulations. Traditional interactive functions are supported with a minimum of additional resources on the server/network bandwidth and decoder complexity.

An Efficient Algorithm for Media-based Surveillance System (EAMSuS) in IoT Smart City Framework

Abstract Internet of Things (IoT) is the new technological revolution that aspires to connect all the everyday physical objects to the Internet, making a huge global network of uniquely things which can share information amongst each other and complete scheduled tasks, bringing significant benefits to users and companies of a Smart City (SC). A Smart City represents a new future framework, which integrates multiple information and communication technology (ICT) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, so as to improve the quality life of its citizens. However, there are many security and privacy issues which must be taken into account before the official launching of this new technological concept. Many methods which focus on media security of wireless sensor networks have been proposed and can be adopted in the new expandable network of IoT. In this paper, we describe the upcoming IoT network architecture and its security challenges and analyze the most important researches on media security and privacy in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Subsequently, we propose an Efficient Algorithm for Media-based Surveillance System (EAMSuS) in IoT network for Smart City Framework, which merges two algorithms introduced by other researchers for WSN packet routing and security, while it reclaims the new media compression standard, High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). Experimental analysis shows the efficacy of our proposed scheme in terms of users’ privacy, media security, and sensor node memory requirements. This scheme can be successfully integrated into the IoT network of the upcoming Smart City concept.

Efficient error resilient algorithm for H.264/AVC: mobility management in wireless video streaming

The H.264/AVC standard introduces enhanced error robustness capabilities enabling resilient and reliable transmission of compressed video signals over wireless lossy packet networks. Those robustness capabilities are achieved by integrating some new error resilience tools that are essential for a proper delivery of real-time video services. Those tools include the Intra Refreshing (IR), Arbitrary Slice Ordering (ASO), Sequence Picture Parameter Sets (PPS), Redundant Slices (RS) tools and Flexible Macroblock Ordering (FMO). This paper presents an error resilient algorithm in wireless H.264/AVC streaming. The proposed method merges Reference Frame Selection (RFS), Intra Redundancy Slice and Adaptive Intra Refreshment techniques in order to prevent temporal error propagation in error-phone wireless video streaming. The coding standards only specify the decoding process and the bitstream syntax to allow considerable flexibility for the designers to optimize the encoder for coding performance improvement and complexity reduction. Performance evaluations demonstrate that the proposed encoding algorithm outperforms the conventional H.264/AVC standard. Both subjective and objective visual quality comparative study has been also carried out in order to validate the proposed approach. The proposed method can be used and integrated into H264/AVC without violating the standard.

Real-time wireless multisensory smart surveillance with 3D-HEVC streams for internet-of-things (IoT)

This paper presents the design of a novel, real-time, wireless, multisensory, smart surveillance system with 3D-HEVC features. The proposed high-level system architecture of the surveillance system is analyzed. The advantages of HEVC encoding are presented. Methods for synchronization between multiple streams are presented. Available wireless standards are presented and compared. A network-adaptive transmission protocol for a reliable, real-time, multisensory surveillance system is proposed. Adaptive packet frame grouping (APFG) and adaptive quantization are deployed to maximize the quality-of-experience (QoE). Measurements of the proposed protocol have been shown to provide superior results compared to existing transport protocols.

Recent advances delivered by Mobile Cloud Computing and Internet of Things for Big Data applications: a survey

Summary The Internet of Things (IoT) is a new technology that is growing rapidly in the field of telecommunications and especially in the modern field of wireless telecommunications. The main goal of the interaction and cooperation between things and objects sent through the wireless networks is to fulfill the objective set to them as a combined entity. In addition, based on the technology of wireless networks, both the technologies of Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) and IoT develop rapidly. In this paper, we combine the two aforementioned technologies (i.e., MCC and IoT) with the technology of the Big Data in order to examine the common features and tο discover which of the MCC and IoT benefits improve the use of the Big Data applications. Finally, we present the contribution of MCC and IoT individually to the technology of Big Data. Copyright

Enhanced H.264/AVC stream switching over varying bandwidth networks

This paper proposes an efficient video stream switching scheme among compressed video streams coded at different quality levels and bit rates. The conventional stream switching scheme in H2.64/AVC is effective in switching, but degrades the compression efficiency of the transmitted stream even if the switching operation does not take place. In the proposed scheme, no modification is made to the original compressed streams so the compression efficiency is maintained at switching points. Consequently switching points can be assigned flexibly in our efficient scheme without noticeable bit rate overhead. It is shown by experimental results that the proposed scheme outperforms the conventional switching scheme.

Recent advances delivered by HTML 5 in mobile cloud computing applications: a survey

With the explosive growth of the mobile applications and emerging of Cloud Computing (CC) concept, Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) has been introduced to be a potential technology for mobile services. MCC refers to an infrastructure where both the data storage and the data processing happen outside of the mobile device. One of the technologies that will advance MCC is the latest version of the Webs markup language, HTML 5. In this paper, we present a survey of new HTML 5 features with a focus on the enhancement of the current MCC limitations. Specifically, we present the most important features of HTML 5 organized in different categories and their contribution in the deployment of MCC applications. Finally, the results of the research carried out on evaluating HTML 5 in terms of a wide range of applications and specifications are reviewed.

Efficient redundant frames encoding algorithm for streaming video over error prone wireless channels

The H.264/AVC coding standard only specifies the decoding process and the bitstream syntax to allow considerable flexibility for the designers to optimize the encoder for coding performance improvement and complexity reduction. This paper proposes the use of redundant Predicted (Marionette) frames to prevent temporal error propagation in H.264/AVC streaming over error prone wireless channels. Compared with the H.264/AVC conventional redundant slices technique, our proposed approach can effectively enhance the smoothness of the video. A visual quality comparative study has been also carried out in order to validate the proposed approach.