Multi-objective flower pollination algorithm applied to 5G vehicular networks communication

The Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) technology, as a widest version of Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET), aims to interconnect vehicles and any other latest technological infrastructures. In this context, the fifth generation of mobile networks (5G) based on millimeter waves (mmWave) is an excellent alternative for the implementation of vehicular networks, mainly because it is capable of providing high data rates (Gbps) and ultra-low latency, requirements of C-V2X. On the other hand, mmWave signals are highly susceptible to blocking, causing low quality of service (QoS) in VANETs, compromising network functionality and the safety of drivers and pedestrians. Thus, in this work evolutionary computing techniques are applied in the simulation of a 5G vehicular network based on millimeter waves, exploring Media Access Control (MAC) sublayer parameters to optimize packet loss, latency and throughput, in order to optimize inter-vehicular communication. The Multi-objective Flower Pollination Algorithm (MOFPA) was used for this purpose. The results obtained show that the adopted approach can reach results close to the optimal pareto of non-dominated solutions, with a 75% reduction in exploration time in relation to the exhaustive search process. Finally, the performance of the metaheuristics adopted is compared with the non-dominated genetic classification algorithm (NSGA-II) and the multi-objective differential evolutionary algorithm (MODE).

Network and Data Transfer Security Management in Higher Educational Institutions

This chapter explored communications security through the use of an empirical survey to assess the extent of network and data transfer security management in Ghanaian higher educational institutions. Network security management controls consist of monitoring of networks, posture checking, network segmentation, and defense-in-depth. Data transfer security management includes encryption, media access control, and protection of data from public networks. Data were collected from information technology (IT) personnel. The ISO/IEC 21827 maturity model for assessing IT security posture was used to measure the controls. Overall, the result showed that the institutions were at the planned stage of communications security management. In particular, network monitoring, defense-in-depth, and the protection of data from public networks were the most applied controls. Conversely, posture checking was the least applied control. Higher educational institutions need to review their communications security plans and better manage network and data transfer security controls to mitigate data breaches.

Evaluation of Outlier Filtering Algorithms for Accurate Travel Time Measurement Incorporating Lane-Splitting Situations

Malaysia has a high percentage of motorcycles. Due to lane-splitting, travel times of motorcycles are less than passenger cars at congestion. Because of this, collecting travel times using the media access control (MAC) address is not straightforward. Many outlier filtering algorithms for travel time datasets have not been evaluated for their capability to filter lane-splitting observations. This study aims to identify the best travel time filtering algorithms for the data containing lane-splitting observations and how to use the best algorithm. Two stages were adopted to achieve the objective of the study. The first stage validates the performance of the previous algorithms, and the second stage checks the sensitivity of the algorithm parameters for different days. The analysis uses the travel time data for three routes in Kuala Lumpur collected by Wi-Fi detectors in May 2018. The results show that the Jang algorithm has the best performance for two of the three routes, and the TransGuide algorithm is the best algorithm for one route. However, the parameters of Jang and TransGuide algorithms are sensitive for different days, and the parameters require daily calibration to obtain acceptable results. Using proper calibration of the algorithm parameters, the Jang and TransGuide algorithms produced the most accurate filtered travel time datasets compared to other algorithms

A universal Wi-Fi fingerprint localization method based on machine learning and sample differences

Wi-Fi technology has become an important candidate for localization due to its low cost and no need of additional installation. The Wi-Fi fingerprint-based positioning is widely used because of its ready hardware and acceptable accuracy, especially with the current fingerprint localization algorithms based on Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL). However, there exists two challenges. Firstly, the traditional ML methods train a specific classification model for each scene; therefore, it is hard to deploy and manage it on the cloud. Secondly, it is difficult to train an effective multi-classification model by using a small number of fingerprint samples. To solve these two problems, a novel binary classification model based on the samples’ differences is proposed in this paper. We divide the raw fingerprint pairs into positive and negative samples based on each pair’s distance. New relative features (e.g., sort features) are introduced to replace the traditional pair features which use the Media Access Control (MAC) address and Received Signal Strength (RSS). Finally, the boosting algorithm is used to train the classification model. The UJIndoorLoc dataset including the data from three different buildings is used to evaluate our proposed method. The preliminary results show that the floor success detection rate of the proposed method can reach 99.54% (eXtreme Gradient Boosting, XGBoost) and 99.22% (Gradient Boosting Decision Tree, GBDT), and the positioning error can reach 3.460 m (XGBoost) and 4.022 m (GBDT). Another important advantage of the proposed algorithm is that the model trained by one building’s data can be well applied to another building, which shows strong generalizable ability.

Potential Security Vulnerabilities of the IEEE 802.15.4 Standard and a Proposed Solution Against the Dissociation Process

Many different networks that rely on short-distance wireless technology for their functions utilize the IEEE 802.15.4 Standard, especially in the case of systems that experience a low level of traffic. The networks using this standard are typically based on the Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network, herein called the LR-WPAN; this network is used for the provision of both the physical layer, herein referred to as the PHY, and the media access control, herein abbreviated as the MAC. There are four security features in the IEEE 802.15.4 Standard that are designed to ensure the safe and secure transmission of data through the network. Disconnection from the network is managed and controlled by the message authentication code, herein referred to as the MAC, while the coordinator personal area network, herein abbreviated as the PAN, is also able to trigger the disconnection. However, the process of disconnection from the network is one area of vulnerability to denial-of-service attacks, herein referred to as DoS; this highlights a major shortcoming of the IEEE 802.15.4 Standard’s security features. This paper is intended to contribute to the improvement of security for the IEEE network by conducting a specific and in-depth review of available literature as well as conducting an analysis of the disassociation process. In doing so, potential new threats will be highlighted, and this data can be used to improve the security of the IEEE 802.15.4 Standard. Overall, in this paper, the role of the Castalia tool in the OMNET++ environment is analysed and interpreted for these potential new threats. Also, this paper proposes a solution to such threats to improve the security IEEE 802.15.4 disassociation process. Keywords: Disassociation vulnerability of IEEE 802.15.4 Standard, DoS attack, IoT security.

Cross-Layer Media Access Control in Wireless Body Area Networks Using Fuzzy Logic and Evolutionary Computation

<p>Over the past decade, advances in electronics, computer science, and wireless technologies have facilitated the rapid development of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). WBANs consist of various sensors that are attached on or even implanted in the human body to improve health care and the quality of life. WBANs must provide high-quality communication in terms of both reliability and performance, in order to bring timely medical help to patients. Commonly used communication standard in WBANs is IEEE 802.15.4. However, due to poor channel quality in WBANs, this standard is limited in reliability and performance. To address this issue, cross-layer techniques for Media Access Control (MAC) have attracted substantial research attention in recent years. Aimed at developing cross-layer MAC technologies, Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLCs) have been widely utilised to effectively and efficiently process information from different layers in WBANs. However, existing FLCs have mostly focused on improving communication reliability while ignoring the importance of network performance. To improve both the reliability and performance of MAC protocols in WBANs, this thesis introduces a new design of cross-layer FLC, called Cross-Layer Fuzzy logic based Backoff system (CLFB), to improve reliability by reducing the collision rate and increasing the packet delivery ratio. CLFB can also enhance the network performance in terms of throughput in WBANs while maintaining packet delays at a reasonable level by considering both channel condition and application requirements. Through the proper use of FLCs as an extension of the standard exponential back-off algorithms, CLFB is experimentally shown to achieve a high level of adaptability. This thesis also proposes an evolutionary approach to automate the design of FLCs for CLFB in WBANs. With the goal of improving network reliability while keeping the communication delay at a low level, we have particularly studied the usefulness of three coding schemes with different levels of flexibility, which enables us to represent alternative design of FLCs as candidate solutions in evolutionary algorithms. The influence of fitness functions that measure the effectiveness of each possible FLC design has also been examined carefully in order to identify useful FLCs. Moreover, we have utilised surrogate models to improve the efficiency of the design process. In consideration of practical usefulness, we have further identified two main design targets. The first target is to design effective FLCs for a specific network configuration. The second target covers a wide range of network settings. In order to examine the usefulness of our design approach, we have utilised and experimentally evaluated two popularly used evolutionary algorithms, i.e. Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) and Differential Evolution (DE). This thesis finally proposes a two-level control scheme at both the sensor level and the coordinator level to further improve communication quality in WBANs. The sensor-level FLC controls contention based channel access and the coordinator-level FLC controls contention free channel access. This two-level FLC architecture can effectively enhance the cooperation between sensors and the coordinator such that both the reliability and performance of the network can be significantly improved. We also studied the use of cooperative coevolutionary approach to automate the design of our twolevel control scheme. With the goal of effectively designing useful FLCs, we have particularly investigated different collaborator selection methods for our cooperative coevolutionary approach, which enable us to effectively select collaborators while evaluating the candidate FLC design in each sub-population. Specifically, we show that network knowledge can help our evolutionary design approach to select collaborators more effectively.</p>

Cross-Layer Media Access Control in Wireless Body Area Networks Using Fuzzy Logic and Evolutionary Computation

<p>Over the past decade, advances in electronics, computer science, and wireless technologies have facilitated the rapid development of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). WBANs consist of various sensors that are attached on or even implanted in the human body to improve health care and the quality of life. WBANs must provide high-quality communication in terms of both reliability and performance, in order to bring timely medical help to patients. Commonly used communication standard in WBANs is IEEE 802.15.4. However, due to poor channel quality in WBANs, this standard is limited in reliability and performance. To address this issue, cross-layer techniques for Media Access Control (MAC) have attracted substantial research attention in recent years. Aimed at developing cross-layer MAC technologies, Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLCs) have been widely utilised to effectively and efficiently process information from different layers in WBANs. However, existing FLCs have mostly focused on improving communication reliability while ignoring the importance of network performance. To improve both the reliability and performance of MAC protocols in WBANs, this thesis introduces a new design of cross-layer FLC, called Cross-Layer Fuzzy logic based Backoff system (CLFB), to improve reliability by reducing the collision rate and increasing the packet delivery ratio. CLFB can also enhance the network performance in terms of throughput in WBANs while maintaining packet delays at a reasonable level by considering both channel condition and application requirements. Through the proper use of FLCs as an extension of the standard exponential back-off algorithms, CLFB is experimentally shown to achieve a high level of adaptability. This thesis also proposes an evolutionary approach to automate the design of FLCs for CLFB in WBANs. With the goal of improving network reliability while keeping the communication delay at a low level, we have particularly studied the usefulness of three coding schemes with different levels of flexibility, which enables us to represent alternative design of FLCs as candidate solutions in evolutionary algorithms. The influence of fitness functions that measure the effectiveness of each possible FLC design has also been examined carefully in order to identify useful FLCs. Moreover, we have utilised surrogate models to improve the efficiency of the design process. In consideration of practical usefulness, we have further identified two main design targets. The first target is to design effective FLCs for a specific network configuration. The second target covers a wide range of network settings. In order to examine the usefulness of our design approach, we have utilised and experimentally evaluated two popularly used evolutionary algorithms, i.e. Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) and Differential Evolution (DE). This thesis finally proposes a two-level control scheme at both the sensor level and the coordinator level to further improve communication quality in WBANs. The sensor-level FLC controls contention based channel access and the coordinator-level FLC controls contention free channel access. This two-level FLC architecture can effectively enhance the cooperation between sensors and the coordinator such that both the reliability and performance of the network can be significantly improved. We also studied the use of cooperative coevolutionary approach to automate the design of our twolevel control scheme. With the goal of effectively designing useful FLCs, we have particularly investigated different collaborator selection methods for our cooperative coevolutionary approach, which enable us to effectively select collaborators while evaluating the candidate FLC design in each sub-population. Specifically, we show that network knowledge can help our evolutionary design approach to select collaborators more effectively.</p>

An Analysis on Contemporary MAC Layer Protocols in Vehicular Networks: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions

Traffic density around the globe is increasing on a day-to-day basis, resulting in more accidents, congestion, and pollution. The dynamic vehicular environment induces challenges in designing an efficient and reliable protocol for communication. Timely delivery of safety and non-safety messages is necessary for traffic congestion control and for avoiding road mishaps. For efficient resource sharing and optimized channel utilization, the media access control (MAC) protocol plays a vital role. An efficient MAC protocol design can provide fair channel access and can delay constraint safety message dissemination, improving road safety. This paper reviews the applications, characteristics, and challenges faced in the design of MAC protocols. A classification of the MAC protocol is presented based on contention mechanisms and channel access. The classification based on contention is oriented as contention-based, contention-free, and hybrid, whereas the classification based on channel access is categorized as distributed, centralized, cluster-based, cooperative, token-based, and random access. These are further sub-classified as single-channel and multi-channel, based on the type of channel resources they utilize. This paper gives an analysis of the objectives, mechanisms, advantages/disadvantages, and simulators used in specified protocols. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion on the future scope and open challenges for improving the MAC protocol design.