System design and resource management in the next-generation integrated WLAN and 3G cellular networks

Next-generation integrated wireless local area network (WLAN) and 3G cellular networks aim to take advantage of the roaming ability in a cellular network and the high data rate services of a WLAN. To ensure successful implementation of an integrated network, many issues must be carefully addressed, including network architecture design, resource management, quality-of-service (QoS), call admission control (CAC) and mobility management. ^ This dissertation focuses on QoS provisioning, CAC, and the network architecture design in the integration of WLANs and cellular networks. First, a new scheduling algorithm and a call admission control mechanism in IEEE 802.11 WLAN are presented to support multimedia services with QoS provisioning. The proposed scheduling algorithms make use of the idle system time to reduce the average packet loss of realtime (RT) services. The admission control mechanism provides long-term transmission quality for both RT and NRT services by ensuring the packet loss ratio for RT services and the throughput for non-real-time (NRT) services. ^ A joint CAC scheme is proposed to efficiently balance traffic load in the integrated environment. A channel searching and replacement algorithm (CSR) is developed to relieve traffic congestion in the cellular network by using idle channels in the WLAN. The CSR is optimized to minimize the system cost in terms of the blocking probability in the interworking environment. Specifically, it is proved that there exists an optimal admission probability for passive handoffs that minimizes the total system cost. Also, a method of searching the probability is designed based on linear-programming techniques. ^ Finally, a new integration architecture, Hybrid Coupling with Radio Access System (HCRAS), is proposed for lowering the average cost of intersystem communication (IC) and the vertical handoff latency. An analytical model is presented to evaluate the system performance of the HCRAS in terms of the intersystem communication cost function and the handoff cost function. Based on this model, an algorithm is designed to determine the optimal route for each intersystem communication. Additionally, a fast handoff algorithm is developed to reduce the vertical handoff latency.^

Space division multiple access for wireless sensor networks

This dissertation proposed a self-organizing medium access control protocol (MAC) for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The proposed MAC protocol, space division multiple access (SDMA), relies on sensor node position information and provides sensor nodes access to the wireless channel based on their spatial locations. SDMA divides a geographical area into space divisions, where there is one-to-one map between the space divisions and the time slots. Therefore, the MAC protocol requirement is the sensor node information of its position and a prior knowledge of the one-to-one mapping function. The scheme is scalable, self-maintaining, and self-starting. It provides collision-free access to the wireless channel for the sensor nodes thereby, guarantees delay-bounded communication in real time for delay sensitive applications. This work was divided into two parts: the first part involved the design of the mapping function to map the space divisions to the time slots. The mapping function is based on a uniform Latin square. A Uniform Latin square of order k = m 2 is an k x k square matrix that consists of k symbols from 0 to k-1 such that no symbol appears more than once in any row, in any column, or in any m x in area of main subsquares. The uniqueness of each symbol in the main subsquares presents very attractive characteristic in applying a uniform Latin square to time slot allocation problem in WSNs. The second part of this research involved designing a GPS free positioning system for position information. The system is called time and power based localization scheme (TPLS). TPLS is based on time difference of arrival (TDoA) and received signal strength (RSS) using radio frequency and ultrasonic signals to measure and detect the range differences from a sensor node to three anchor nodes. TPLS requires low computation overhead and no time synchronization, as the location estimation algorithm involved only a simple algebraic operation.

Trajectory privacy preservation in mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

In recent years, there has been an enormous growth of location-aware devices, such as GPS embedded cell phones, mobile sensors and radio-frequency identification tags. The age of combining sensing, processing and communication in one device, gives rise to a vast number of applications leading to endless possibilities and a realization of mobile Wireless Sensor Network (mWSN) applications. As computing, sensing and communication become more ubiquitous, trajectory privacy becomes a critical piece of information and an important factor for commercial success. While on the move, sensor nodes continuously transmit data streams of sensed values and spatiotemporal information, known as ``trajectory information". If adversaries can intercept this information, they can monitor the trajectory path and capture the location of the source node. ^ This research stems from the recognition that the wide applicability of mWSNs will remain elusive unless a trajectory privacy preservation mechanism is developed. The outcome seeks to lay a firm foundation in the field of trajectory privacy preservation in mWSNs against external and internal trajectory privacy attacks. First, to prevent external attacks, we particularly investigated a context-based trajectory privacy-aware routing protocol to prevent the eavesdropping attack. Traditional shortest-path oriented routing algorithms give adversaries the possibility to locate the target node in a certain area. We designed the novel privacy-aware routing phase and utilized the trajectory dissimilarity between mobile nodes to mislead adversaries about the location where the message started its journey. Second, to detect internal attacks, we developed a software-based attestation solution to detect compromised nodes. We created the dynamic attestation node chain among neighboring nodes to examine the memory checksum of suspicious nodes. The computation time for memory traversal had been improved compared to the previous work. Finally, we revisited the trust issue in trajectory privacy preservation mechanism designs. We used Bayesian game theory to model and analyze cooperative, selfish and malicious nodes' behaviors in trajectory privacy preservation activities.^

Trajectory Privacy Preservation in Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

In recent years, there has been an enormous growth of location-aware devices, such as GPS embedded cell phones, mobile sensors and radio-frequency identification tags. The age of combining sensing, processing and communication in one device, gives rise to a vast number of applications leading to endless possibilities and a realization of mobile Wireless Sensor Network (mWSN) applications. As computing, sensing and communication become more ubiquitous, trajectory privacy becomes a critical piece of information and an important factor for commercial success. While on the move, sensor nodes continuously transmit data streams of sensed values and spatiotemporal information, known as ``trajectory information". If adversaries can intercept this information, they can monitor the trajectory path and capture the location of the source node. This research stems from the recognition that the wide applicability of mWSNs will remain elusive unless a trajectory privacy preservation mechanism is developed. The outcome seeks to lay a firm foundation in the field of trajectory privacy preservation in mWSNs against external and internal trajectory privacy attacks. First, to prevent external attacks, we particularly investigated a context-based trajectory privacy-aware routing protocol to prevent the eavesdropping attack. Traditional shortest-path oriented routing algorithms give adversaries the possibility to locate the target node in a certain area. We designed the novel privacy-aware routing phase and utilized the trajectory dissimilarity between mobile nodes to mislead adversaries about the location where the message started its journey. Second, to detect internal attacks, we developed a software-based attestation solution to detect compromised nodes. We created the dynamic attestation node chain among neighboring nodes to examine the memory checksum of suspicious nodes. The computation time for memory traversal had been improved compared to the previous work. Finally, we revisited the trust issue in trajectory privacy preservation mechanism designs. We used Bayesian game theory to model and analyze cooperative, selfish and malicious nodes' behaviors in trajectory privacy preservation activities.