Mobility increases the risk of malware propagations in wireless networks

In this paper, we study the malware propagation issue in wireless networks, considering the features of channel interference, access competition and possible mobility. We propose a basic spread model based on the uniform scanning strategy. Referring to the wireless transmission and network capacity theories, we provide the bound of infection rate in wireless networks with fixed nodes. Furthermore, we evaluate the impact of mobility on malware propagations. Detailed performance analysis shows that mobility will greatly increase the risk of malware attacks in wireless networks. The results in this paper provide insights on the malware propagation characteristics in wireless networks and fundamental guidelines on designing defence schemes.

Defense and traceback mechanisms in opportunistic wireless networks

 In this thesis, we have identified a novel attack in OppNets, a special type of packet dropping attack where the malicious node(s) drops one or more packets (not all the packets) and then injects new fake packets instead. We name this novel attack as the Catabolism attack and propose a novel attack detection and traceback approach against this attack referred to as the Anabolism defence. As part of the Anabolism defence approach we have proposed three techniques: time-based, Merkle tree based and Hash chain based techniques for attack detection and malicious node(s) traceback. We provide mathematical models that show our novel detection and traceback mechanisms to be very effective and detailed simulation results show our defence mechanisms to achieve a very high accuracy and detection rate.

Software-defined carrier wireless networks

The telecommunication industry is entering a new era. The increased traffic demands imposed by the huge number of always-on connections require a quantum leap in the field of enabling techniques. Furthermore, subscribers expect ever increasing quality of experience with its joys and wonders, while network operators and service providers aim for cost-efficient networks. These requirements require a revolutionary change in the telecommunications industry, as shown by the success of virtualization in the IT industry, which is now driving the deployment and expansion of cloud computing. Telecommunications providers are currently rethinking their network architecture from one consisting of a multitude of black boxes with specialized network hardware and software to a new architecture consisting of “white box” hardware running a multitude of specialized network software. This network software may be data plane software providing network functions virtualization (NVF) or control plane software providing centralized network management — software defined networking (SDN). It is expected that these architectural changes will permeate networks as wide ranging in size as the Internet core networks, to metro networks, to enterprise networks and as wide ranging in functionality as converged packet-optical networks, to wireless core networks, to wireless radio access networks.

Cooperative relaying in wireless sensor networks

Cooperative relaying has been shown to be an effective method to significantly improve the error-rate performance in wireless networks. This technique combats fading by exploiting the spatial diversity made available through cooperating nodes that relay signals for each other. In the context of wireless sensor networks, cooperative relaying can be applied to reduce the energy consumption in sensor nodes and thus extend the network lifetime. Realizing this benefit, however, requires a careful incorporation of this technique into the routing process to exploit diversity gains. In this chapter, we introduce the basic concepts required to understand cooperative relaying and review current state of the art energy-efficient routing protocols that realize cooperative relaying.

Bloom filter based secure and anonymous DSR protocol in wireless ad hoc networks

Wireless ad hoc networks, especially in the hostile environment, are vulnerable to traffic analysis which allows the adversary to trace the routing messages and the sensitive data packets. Anonymity mechanism in ad hoc networks is a critical securing measure method employed to mitigate these problems. In this paper, we propose a novel secure and anonymous source routing protocol, called SADSR, based on Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) for wireless ad hoc networks. In the proposed scheme, we use the pseudonym, pseudonym based cryptography and the bloom filter to establish secure and anonymous routing in wireless ad hoc networks. Compared to other anonymous routing protocol, SADSR is not only anonymous but also the secure in the routing discover process and data transmission process.

Sustainability analysis and resource management for wireless mesh networks with renewable energy supplies

 There is a growing interest in the use of renewable energy sources to power wireless networks in order to mitigate the detrimental effects of conventional energy production or to enable deployment in off-grid locations. However, renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, are by nature unstable in their availability and capacity. The dynamics of energy supply hence impose new challenges for network planning and resource management. In this paper, the sustainable performance of a wireless mesh network powered by renewable energy sources is studied. To address the intermittently available capacity of the energy supply, adaptive resource management and admission control schemes are proposed. Specifically, the goal is to maximize the energy sustainability of the network, or equivalently, to minimize the failure probability that the mesh access points (APs) deplete their energy and go out of service due to the unreliable energy supply. To this end, the energy buffer of a mesh AP is modeled as a G/G/1(/N) queue with arbitrary patterns of energy charging and discharging. Diffusion approximation is applied to analyze the transient evolution of the queue length and the energy depletion duration. Based on the analysis, an adaptive resource management scheme is proposed to balance traffic loads across the mesh network according to the energy adequacy at different mesh APs. A distributed admission control strategy to guarantee high resource utilization and to improve energy sustainability is presented. By considering the first and second order statistics of the energy charging and discharging processes at each mesh AP, it is demonstrated that the proposed schemes outperform some existing state-of-the-art solutions.

Robust extended Kalman filter based technique for location management in PCS networks

Provisioning of real-time multimedia sessions over wireless cellular network poses unique challenges due to frequent handoff and rerouting of a connection. For this reason, the wireless networks with cellular architecture require efficient user mobility estimation and prediction. This paper proposes using Robust Extended Kalman Filter as a location heading altitude estimator of mobile user for next cell prediction in order to improve the connection reliability and bandwidth efficiency of the underlying system. Through analysis we demonstrate that our algorithm reduces the system complexity (compared to existing approach using pattern matching and Kalman filter) as it requires only two base station measurements or only the measurement from the closest base station. Further, the technique is robust against system uncertainties due to inherent deterministic nature in the mobility model. Through simulation, we show the accuracy and simplicity in implementation of our prediction algorithm.