Samuel Pierre

An Analytical Framework for Performance Evaluation of IPv6-Based mobility Management Protocols

Mobility management with provision of seamless handover is crucial for an efficient support of global roaming of mobile nodes (MNs) in next-generation wireless networks (NGWN). Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) and its extensions were proposed by IETF for IP layer mobility management. However, performance of IPv6-based mobility management schemes is highly dependent on traffic characteristics and user mobility models. Consequently, it is important to assess this performance in-depth through those two factors. The performance of IPv6-based mobility management schemes is usually evaluated through simulations. This paper proposes an analytical framework to evaluate the performance of IPv6-based mobility management protocols. This proposal does not aim to advocate which is better but rather to study the effects of various network parameters on the performance of these protocols to enlighten decision-making. The effect of system parameters, such as subnet residence time, packet arrival rate and wireless link delay, is investigated for performance evaluation with respect to various metrics like signaling overhead cost, handoff latency and packet loss. Numerical results show that there is a trade-off between performance metrics and network parameters.

A distributed energy-efficient clustering protocol for wireless sensor networks

Minimizing energy dissipation and maximizing network lifetime are among the central concerns when designing applications and protocols for sensor networks. Clustering has been proven to be energy-efficient in sensor networks since data routing and relaying are only operated by cluster heads. Besides, cluster heads can process, filter and aggregate data sent by cluster members, thus reducing network load and alleviating the bandwidth. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed clustering algorithm where cluster heads are elected following a three-way message exchange between each sensor and its neighbors. Sensors eligibility to be elected cluster head is based on its residual energy and its degree. Our protocol has a message exchange complexity of O(1) and a worst-case convergence time complexity of O(N). Simulations show that our algorithm outperforms EESH, one of the most recently published distributed clustering algorithms, in terms of network lifetime and ratio of elected cluster heads.

VANET security surveys

Abstract Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), a subset of Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANETs), refer to a set of smart vehicles used on the road. These vehicles provide communication services among one another or with Road Side Infrastructure (RSU) based on wireless Local Area Network (LAN) technologies. The main benefits of VANETs are that they enhance road safety and vehicle security while protecting drivers’ privacy from attacks perpetrated by adversaries. Security is one of the most critical issues related to VANETs since the information transmitted is distributed in an open access environment. VANETs face many challenges. This paper presents a survey of the security issues and the challenges they generate. The various categories of applications in VANETs are introduced, as well as some security requirements, threats and certain architectures are proposed to solve the security problem. Finally, global security architecture for VANETs is proposed.

A genetic algorithm for designing distributed computer network topologies

The topological design of distributed packet switched networks consists of finding a topology that minimizes the communication costs by taking into account a certain number of constraints such as the delay and the reliability. This paper proposes a genetic algorithm (GA) for generating low-cost feasible computer network topologies subject to these constraints. The implementation of this algorithm has been subjected to extensive tests in order to measure the quality of solutions. Computational results confirm the efficiency of the GA to provide good solutions for medium-sized computer networks, in comparison with well-tried conventional methods.

Ant-based routing for wireless multimedia sensor networks using multiple QoS metrics

In wireless sensor networks, most routing protocols consider energy savings as the main objective and assume data traffic with unconstrained delivery requirements to be a given. However, the introduction of video and imaging sensors unveils additional challenges. The transmission of video and imaging data requires both energy efficiency and QoS assurance (end-to-end delay and packet loss requirements), in order to ensure the efficient use of sensor resources as well as the integrity of the information collected. This paper presents a QoS routing model for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSN). Moreover, based on the traditional ant-based algorithm, an ant-based multi-QoS routing metric (AntSensNet) is proposed. The AntSensNet protocol builds a hierarchical structure on the network before choosing suitable paths to meet various QoS requirements from different kinds of traffic, thus maximizing network utilization, while improving its performance. In addition, AntSensNet is able to use a efficient multi-path video packet scheduling in order to get minimum video distortion transmission. Finally, extensive simulations are conducted to assess the effectiveness of this novel solution and a detailed discussion regarding the effects of different system parameters is provided. Compared to typical routing algorithms in sensor networks and the traditional ant-based algorithm, this new algorithm has better convergence and provides significantly better QoS for multiple types of services in wireless multimedia sensor networks.

Topological design of computer communication networks using simulated annealing

Abstract This paper presents an application of the simulated annealing heuristic to the problem of designing computer communication networks. This problem essentially consists in finding the least-cost network topologies that satisfies a given set of performance and reliability constraints. The results of the computational experiments show that simulated annealing is a suitable approach for solving this very difficult combinatorial optimization problem, in the sense that it provides feasible and low-cost solutions within reasonable CPU times.

Mobile agents and their use for information retrieval: a brief overview and an elaborate case study

Mobile agents emerged in the mid-1990s, and have raised considerable interest in the research community. The proponents associate several benefits with their use. However, there are still very few quantitative measurements to back the claimed benefits. This article is devoted to mobile agents and their use for information retrieval. We provide a brief overview and an elaborate case study. The overview introduces the concept of mobile agent, enumerates the claimed benefits, and reviews the hindrances to widescale deployment. It also discusses the state of the art of mobile-agent-based information retrieval, including the very few quantitative studies that exist. Our case study is on information retrieval from electronic calendars for multiparty event scheduling. Many events require the participation of several parties. Prior knowledge of the date when most (if not all) targeted participants are available is often a prerequisite for scheduling them. However, identifying this date can easily turn into a nightmare, especially when the number of targeted participants is large. Nowadays, electronic agendas (e.g., MS Outlook) are stored on servers. An application can access them, retrieve information on the availability of the targeted participants, and derive the date from the information. In the case study, a mobile agent is dispatched in the network, instead of retrieving the information using the client/server paradigm. The agent visits the servers, accesses the agendas, retrieves the information, and identifies the date. Finding a date suitable for several potential participants may require the rescheduling of some events that have been previously arranged by some participants. We propose the use of agents that act as the personal agents of the participants for the negotiation inherent to this rescheduling. The measurements we have made indicate clearly that the mobile-agent-based approach outperforms its client/server counterpart even when the latter is optimized. These results can easily be transposed to most information retrieval applications, and demonstrate, for this specific application domain, the performance benefit associated with mobile agents. We now dispatch a single agent in the network. In the future, we will dispatch several agents.

A tabu search approach for assigning cells to switches in cellular mobile networks

This paper proposes a tabu search approach for assigning cells to switches in wireless cellular networks. This problem is NP-hard and consequently cannot be practically solved by exact methods for real size networks. We first establish a new mathematical equivalence between the assignment problem and the well-known p-fixed hub location problem. From this equivalence as a basis for a heuristic method, initial solutions have been generated. Then, some flexible and powerful moves, a gain structure and its update procedures are defined and used to improve these initial solutions and generate near optimal final solutions. To evaluate the performance of this approach, we define two lower bounds for the global optimum, which are used as reference to assess the quality of the obtained solutions. Computational experiments show that our approach generally provides better results than those generated by other traditional heuristics found in the literature, especially for large-scale networks with more than 50 cells and 3 switches.

Assigning cells to switches in cellular mobile networks using taboo search

The design of wireless telecommunications networks is a complex process, which requires solving simultaneously many difficult combinatorial optimization problems. We propose a taboo-search approach dedicated to one of the aforementioned design optimization problems, namely the cell assignment problem. Our approach defines a series of moves applicable to an initial solution in order to improve the cost and establish the feasibility of the solution. For this purpose, we identify a gain structure with update procedures to efficiently choose the best solution in the current neighborhood. The results are generally good in comparison with those obtained through other heuristic methods.

Mobility Aware Technologies and Applications

Web Agent Supporting Transport Layer Mobility.- A Network-Aware Truncating Module for Scalable Streams Saving Bandwidth for Overused Networks.- APHIDS++: Evolution of A Programmable Hybrid Intrusion Detection System.- Challenges in Modeling and Disseminating Context Information in Ambient Networks.- A Co-designed Hardware/Software Architecture for Augmented Materials.- A Simulation Model for the Dynamic Allocation of Network Resources in a Competitive Wireless Scenario.- An Adaptive Call Admission Control to Support Mobility in Next Generation Wireless Network.- Protecting Mobile Agent Loops.- ContextWare Support for Network and Service Composition and Self-adaptation.- Fixed Mobile Convergence: 3 Words, Many Perspectives.- Analysis of Movement Detection Process for IPv6 Mobile Nodes.- A Dynamic Resource Allocation Scheme for Providing QoS in Packet-Switched Cellular Networks.- Distributed Authorization Framework for Mobile Agents.- Adaptive Content for the Mobile User: A Policy-Based Approach.- An Authorisation and Privacy Framework for Context-Aware Networks.- Widget Integration Framework for Context-Aware Middleware.- Service Deployment in Active Networks Based on a P2P System.- Mobile Agents for Testing Web Services in Next Generation Networks.- A Secure Protocol for Mobile Agents in Hostile Environment.- A Cross-Layer Approach for Publish/Subscribe in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks.- Towards Ambient Networks Management.- A Context-Aware Negotiation Model for M-Commerce.- Collection and Object Synchronization Based on Context Information.- Facilitating Context-Awareness Through Hardware Personalization Devices: The Simplicity Device.- Network Access Security Management (NASM) Model for Next Generation Mobile Telecommunication Networks.- Management of Aggregation Networks for Broadband Internet Access in Fast Moving Trains.- Design and Implementation of an Open IMS Core.- Mobility-Aware Coordination in a WLAN Hot-Spot Area.- Application-Independent Session Mobility Between User Terminals.- Using Multiple Communication Channels in a Mobile Agent Platform.- Challenges in Modelling and Using Quality of Context (QoC).- Secure and Scalable Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks.- RAPOSI: Rapidly Installable Positioning System for Indoor Environments.- Integrating a New Mobility Service into the Jade Agent Toolkit.- A New Protocol for Protecting a Mobile Agent Using a Reference Clone.- A Novel Approach Towards Autonomic Management in Context-Aware Communication Systems.- Abstraction for Privacy in Context-Aware Environments.- A Probabilistic Heuristic for Conflict Detection in Policy Based Management of Diffserv Networks.- LEA2C: Low Energy Adaptive Connectionist Clustering for Wireless Sensor Networks.