Security Framework for Mobile Agents-Based Applications

Mobile agents have been proposed for key applications such as forensics analysis, intrusion detection, e-commerce, and resource management. Yet, they are vulnerable to various security threats by malicious hosts or intruders. Conversely, genuine platforms may run malicious agents. It is essential to establish a truly secure framework for mobile agents to gain trust of clients in the system. Failure to accomplish a trustworthy secured framework for Mobile Agent System (MAS) will limit their deployment into the key applications. This chapter presents a comprehensive taxonomy of various security threats to Mobile Agent System and the existing implemented security mechanisms. Different mechanisms are discussed, and the related security deficiencies are highlighted. The various security properties of the agent and the agent platform are described. The chapter also introduces the properties, advantages, and roles of agents in various applications. It describes the infrastructure of the system and discusses several mobile agent frameworks and the accomplished security level.

Design and Implementation of Mobile-Based Technology in Strengthening Health Information System

In the context of developing countries, there is a mounting interest in the field of mHealth. This surge in interest can be traced to the evolution of several interrelated trends (VW Consulting, 2009). However, with numerous attempts to create mobile-based technology for health, too many experiments and projects have not been able to scale or sustain. How is it possible to design and implement scalable and sustainable mHealth applications in low resource settings and emerging markets?. This chapter provides lessons from case studies of two successful and large scale implementations of mHealth solutions and the choices that were made in the design and implementation of those solutions. The chapter uses Information Infrastructure Theory as a theoretical lens to discuss reasons why these projects have been able to successfully scale.

Experiences from Integrating Collaborative Filtering in a Mobile City Guide

This chapter presents an approach to extend a real world mobile tourist guide running on personal digital assistants (PDAs) with collaborative filtering. The system builds a model of item similarities based on explicit and implicit ratings. This model is then utilized to generate recommendations in several ways. The approach integrates the current user location as context. Experiences gained in two field studies are reported. In the first one, 30 participants – real tourists visiting Prague – used the recommender function and were asked to fill out a questionnaire with promising results. In a second field study analyzing usage log files, an improvement of recommendations based on the collaborative filter in comparison to the pure location-based filter used before was discovered. In addition, recommendations based on implicit ratings derived from audio playback duration outperformed the model based on explicit ratings.

Mobile Computing

With the advent of complex but user friendly mobile communications technologies and transformation of mobile devices being handy for usage, the applications and utilities of mobile devices have come into the palm of almost each and every human being of this modern world. Furthermore, with the unprecedented growth of the Internet and its outreach, the demand and requirement of users are growing fast, ranging from basic livelihood support, to infotainment, to social networking. Applications of mobile devices nowadays do not include only the facilities for calling another cell phone and text messaging, but also connecting to social networks, service providers networks, and servers of various organizations, like academic or business or health sector, thus providing appropriate services to users, meeting daily demands including emergencies . However, all these are dependent on technologies, social, cultural, and economic issues, which this study has explored. This chapter is based on a survey of concurrent literatures on mobile computing, its applications, and challenges. This study has put forwards three applications of mobile computing: learning, health, and GIS. In this aspect, by exploring the background on mobile computing, the chapter discusses a few constraints and challenges that have emerged in terms of design and application issues. Thereafter, before the conclusion, the chapter puts forward a few future research hints.

Mobile Agents Security Protocols

Mobile agents are expected to run in partially unknown and untrustworthy environments. They transport from one host to another host through insecure channels and may execute on non-trusted hosts. Thus, they are vulnerable to direct security attacks of intruders and non-trusted hosts. The security of information the agents collect is a fundamental requirement for a trusted implementation of electronic business applications and trade negotiations. This chapter discusses the security protocols presented in the literature that aim to secure the data mobile agents gather while searching the Internet, and identifies the security flaws revealed in the protocols. The protocols are analyzed with respect to the security properties, and the security flaws are identified. Two recent promising protocols that fulfill the various security properties are described. The chapter also introduces common notations used in describing security protocols and describes the security properties of the data that mobile agents gather.

Applications of Graph Theory Algorithms in Mobile Ad hoc Networks

Various simulators (e.g., ns-2 and GloMoSim) are available to implement and study the behavior of the routing protocols for Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). However, students and investigators who are new to this area often get perplexed in the complexity of these simulators and lose the focus in designing and analyzing the characteristics of the network and the protocol. Most of the time is spent in learning the existing code modules of the simulator and the logical flow between the different code modules. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the applications of Graph Theory algorithms to study, analyze, and simulate the behavior of routing protocols for MANETs. Specifically, the chapter focuses on the applications of Graph Theory algorithms to determine paths, trees, and connected dominating sets for simulating and analyzing respectively unicast (single-path and multi-path), multicast, and broadcast communication in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). The chapter discusses the (i) Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm and its modifications for finding stable paths and bottleneck paths; (ii) Prim’s minimum spanning tree algorithm and its modification for finding all pairs smallest and largest bottleneck paths; (iii) Minimum Steiner tree algorithm to connect a source node to all the receivers of a multicast group; (iv) A node-degree based algorithm to construct an approximate minimum Connected Dominating Set (CDS) for sending information from one node to all other nodes in the network; and (v) Algorithms to find a sequence of link-disjoint, node-disjoint, and zone-disjoint multi-path routes in MANETs.

GSM

The objective of this chapter is to provide an innovative system for tracking and monitoring objects using RF transmitters and receivers, and querying about these objects using mobile phones. The protocol for the system and a simulation to check the feasibility of this project before applying it to a real world scenario is presented below. In this simulation, capability of the transmitter and receiver is tested to communicate effectively and also display the data sent by the transmitter. As a result, a highly flexible wireless controlled system would enable bridging the distance between the user and the electronic device, and hence, provide easier access to real world entities, by just manoeuvring the mobile phones, without the need to be physically present near the object. Also, it is being enhanced to ensure an authenticated access to these resources, thereby taking care of the security aspect. The working of the system can be divided into two phases: phase one comprises a pair of RF transmitter and receiver coupled with a central database, and phase two is comprised of GSM modem with a unique SIM linked to the central data base via GSM network. In the first phase of the system, RF transmitters are tagged to the objects of everyday use and have the capability of transmitting signals, and the paired receiver detects the transmission of the tagged object and stores its corresponding location in the central database, which is created specifically for information maintenance of the tagged objects. In the second phase of the system, a mobile phone is used to query the location of any tagged objects based on its availability in the vicinity, by sending a message to the SIM connected to a GSM modem. If an object is present, the GSM modem fetches the location and other relevant information from the central database and encapsulates this information into a message, which is sent back to the mobile device or phone that has requested the information.

Semantic Web-Enhanced Context-Aware Computing in Mobile Systems

The goal of this chapter is to provide detailed insights into the field of Semantic Web-based context-aware computing for mobile systems. Readers will learn why context awareness will be a central aspect of future mobile information systems, and about the role semantic technologies can play in creating a context-aware infrastructure and the benefits they offer. The chapter introduces requirements, enabling technologies, and future directions of such systems. It presents a Semantic Web-based context-sensitive infrastructure that resembles concepts from graph theory and distributed transaction management. This infrastructure allows for an efficient acquisition, representation, management, and processing of contextual information while taking into account the peculiarities and operating environments of mobile information systems. Authors demonstrate how context-relevant data acquired from local and remote sensors can be represented using Semantic Web technologies, with the goal to replicate data related to the user’s current and future information needs to a mobile device in a proactive and transparent manner. In consequence, the user is equipped with contextually relevant information anytime and anywhere.

Weather Nowcasting Using Environmental Sensors Integrated to the Mobile

With the vagaries of nature being unpredictable, it’s now more important to have access to weather forecast for short periods of time. Many businesses, including those in agriculture and the fishing industry, depend on an hourly update of the weather. The access to such weather nowcasting data has, until now, been through traditional media like the television, radio, et cetera, while new media of communication such as mobile devices, have been largely unexplored. The advancement in MEMS (Micro Electrical Mechanical System) technology has now brought forth various sensors that are miniaturized and can be integrated or embedded into various other systems used presently. Environmental sensors that measure weather parameters are miniaturized to fit the size of a mobile. The system aims to integrate these sensors along with a mobile device so as to provide the capability of data measurement to the vast population that use mobile devices and thus create regional grid networks. The system aims to use the mobile for updating weather parameters as well to be the focal point of communication of the weather nowcasting information. As a result, the mobile device would provide targeted distribution of the weather information, which is more advantageous than the traditional means of mass distribution of information; also, as mobile technology acts as a focal point of gathering weather related parameters, it provides a twofold advantage for setting up a low cost, region specific weather monitoring system.

Network Mobility Management in the ITS Context

The proposals suggested so far can be can be classified in two different categories: on the one hand, NEMO solutions that consider MIPv6 as the base host mobility management protocol, and on the other hand, solutions that consider alternative base host mobility management protocols like SIP, LIN6, or HIP. Besides, a taxonomy on MIPv6 based NEMO protocols classifying them by considering which characteristics they aim to enhance is provided. It is important to point out that the selection of the base host mobility management protocol is fundamental to have as many demanded key features satisfied as possible by the NEMO protocol to be applied in the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) context.