The increasing use of wireless networks and the constant miniaturization of electrical devices has empowered the development of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). In these networks various sensors are attached on clothing or on the body or even implanted under the skin. The wireless nature of the network and the wide variety of sensors offer numerous new, practical and innovative applications to improve health care and the Quality of Life. The sensors of a WBAN measure for example the heartbeat, the body temperature or record a prolonged electrocardiogram. Using a WBAN, the patient experiences a greater physical mobility and is no longer compelled to stay in the hospital. This paper offers a survey of the concept of Wireless Body Area Networks. First, we focus on some applications with special interest in patient monitoring. Then the communication in a WBAN and its positioning between the different technologies is discussed. An overview of the current research on the physical layer, existing MAC and network protocols is given. Further, cross layer and quality of service is discussed. As WBANs are placed on the human body and often transport private data, security is also considered. An overview of current and past projects is given. Finally, the open research issues and challenges are pointed out.

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A survey on wireless body area networks

The Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as a paradigm in which objects equipped with sensors, actuators, and processors communicate with each other to serve a meaningful purpose. In this paper, we survey state-of-the-art methods, protocols, and applications in this new emerging area. This survey paper proposes a novel taxonomy for IoT technologies, highlights some of the most important technologies, and profiles some applications that have the potential to make a striking difference in human life, especially for the differently abled and the elderly. As compared to similar survey papers in the area, this paper is far more comprehensive in its coverage and exhaustively covers most major technologies spanning from sensors to applications.

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Internet of Things: Architectures, Protocols, and Applications

Appearing in 1st IEEE International Workshop on Sensor Net Protocols and Applications (SNPA). Anchorage, Alaska, USA. May 11, 2003. RMST: Reliable Data Transport in Sensor Networks Fred Stann, John Heidemann Abstract – Reliable data transport in wireless sensor networks is a multifaceted problem influenced by the physical, MAC, network, and transport layers. Because sensor networks are subject to strict resource constraints and are deployed by single organizations, they encourage revisiting traditional layering and are less bound by standardized placement of services such as reliability. This paper presents analysis and experiments resulting in specific recommendations for implementing reliable data transport in sensor nets. To explore reliability at the transport layer, we present RMST (Reliable Multi- Segment Transport), a new transport layer for Directed Diffusion. RMST provides guaranteed delivery and fragmentation/reassembly for applications that require them. RMST is a selective NACK-based protocol that can be configured for in-network caching and repair. Second, these energy constraints, plus relatively low wireless bandwidths, make in-network processing both feasible and desirable [3]. Third, because nodes in sensor networks are usually collaborating towards a common task, rather than representing independent users, optimization of the shared network focuses on throughput rather than fairness. Finally, because sensor networks are often deployed by a single organization with inexpensive hardware, there is less need for interoperability with existing standards. For all of these reasons, sensor networks provide an environment that encourages rethinking the structure of traditional communications protocols. The main contribution is an evaluation of the placement of reliability for data transport at different levels of the protocol stack. We consider implementing reliability in the MAC, transport layer, application, and combinations of these. We conclude that reliability is important at the MAC layer and the transport layer. MAC-level reliability is important not just to provide hop-by-hop error recovery for the transport layer, but also because it is needed for route discovery and maintenance. (This conclusion differs from previous studies in reliability for sensor nets that did not simulate routing. [4]) Second, we have developed RMST (Reliable Multi-Segment Transport), a new transport layer, in order to understand the role of in- network processing for reliable data transfer. RMST benefits from diffusion routing, adding minimal additional control traffic. RMST guarantees delivery, even when multiple hops exhibit very high error rates. 1 Introduction Wireless sensor networks provide an economical, fully distributed, sensing and computing solution for environments where conventional networks are impractical. This paper explores the design decisions related to providing reliable data transport in sensor nets. The reliable data transport problem in sensor nets is multi-faceted. The emphasis on energy conservation in sensor nets implies that poor paths should not be artificially bolstered via mechanisms such as MAC layer ARQ during route discovery and path selection [1]. Path maintenance, on the other hand, benefits from well- engineered recovery either at the MAC layer or the transport layer, or both. Recovery should not be costly however, since many applications in sensor nets are impervious to occasional packet loss, relying on the regular delivery of coarse-grained event descriptions. Other applications require loss detection and repair. These aspects of reliable data transport include the provision of guaranteed delivery and fragmentation/ reassembly of data entities larger than the network MTU. Sensor networks have different constraints than traditional wired nets. First, energy constraints are paramount in sensor networks since nodes can often not be recharged, so any wasted energy shortens their useful lifetime [2]. This work was supported by DARPA under grant DABT63-99-1-0011 as part of the SCAADS project, and was also made possible in part due to support from Intel Corporation and Xerox Corporation. Fred Stann and John Heidemann are with USC/Information Sciences Institute, 4676 Admiralty Way, Marina Del Rey, CA, USA E-mail: fstann@usc.edu, johnh@isi.edu. 2 Architectural Choices There are a number of key areas to consider when engineering reliability for sensor nets. Many current sensor networks exhibit high loss rates compared to wired networks (2% to 30% to immediate neighbors)[1,5,6]. While error detection and correction at the physical layer are important, approaches at the MAC layer and higher adapt well to the very wide range of loss rates seen in sensor networks and are the focus of this paper. MAC layer protocols can ameliorate PHY layer unreliability, and transport layers can guarantee delivery. An important question for this paper is the trade off between implementation of reliability at the MAC layer (i.e. hop to hop) vs. the Transport layer, which has traditionally been concerned with end-to-end reliability. Because sensor net applications are distributed, we also considered implementing reliability at the application layer. Our goal is to minimize the cost of repair in terms of transmission.

RMST: Reliable Data Transport in Sensor Networks

Interest in Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) has increased significantly in recent years thanks to the advances in microelectronics and wireless communications. Owing to the very stringent application requirements in terms of reliability, energy efficiency, and low device complexity, the design of these networks requires the definition of new protocols with respect to those used in general purpose wireless sensor networks. This motivates the effort in research activities and in standardisation process of the last years. This survey paper aims at reporting an overview of WBAN main applications, technologies and standards, issues in WBANs design, and evolutions. Some case studies are reported, based on both real implementation and experimentation on the field, and on simulations. These results have the aim of providing useful insights for WBAN designers and of highlighting the main issues affecting the performance of these kind of networks.

A Survey on Wireless Body Area Networks: Technologies and Design Challenges

Edge computing: A survey

In this age of electronic connectivity, where we all face viruses, hackers, eavesdropping and electronic fraud, there is indeed no time when security is not critical. Passwords provide security mechanism for authentication and protection services against unwanted access to resources. A graphical based password is one promising alternatives of textual passwords. According to human psychology, humans are able to remember pictures easily. In this paper, we have proposed a new hybrid graphical password based system, which is a combination of recognition and recall based techniques that offers many advantages over the existing systems and may be more convenient for the user. Our scheme is resistant to shoulder surfing attack and many other attacks on graphical passwords. This resistant scheme is proposed for small mobile devices (like smart phones i.e. ipod, iphone, PDAs etc) which are more handy and convenient to use than traditional desktop computer systems.

A hybrid graphical password based system

In sensor network applications, data gathering mechanisms, which are based on multi-hop forwarding can be expensive in terms of energy. This limitation reduces the lifetime of the network and challenges the use of sensor networks for applications that demand a predefined operational lifetime. To avoid this problem, the benefits of using mobile gateway to prolong sensor life-time have been explored in the literature. However, practical considerations such as the gateway speed and route planning, sensor buffer size and data frequency generation constraints impose limits on the mobile elements. In this work, we consider the natural hybrid solution that combines the two approaches of mobile gateways and multi-hop forwarding to address more constraints for sensor applications. We provide algorithmic solutions that attempt to balance the benefits of both approaches. Based on a given predetermined time deadline, a gateway tour will be established to involve a subset of the sensors. These selected sensors will work as gathering points and will aggregate the other sensors' data. The gathering points/nodes are selected with the aim of reducing the energy expenditures due to multi-hop forwarding. We also present a heuristic-based solution and validate its performance through an extensive set of experiments.

A data caching approach for sensor applications

In the matter of detecting clone attacks, we bring in a novel solution called Single Stage Memory Random Walk with Network Division (SSRAND) to circumvent the problems of simple random walk as exploited by both RAND and RAWL protocols. SSRAND combines the single stage memory random walk with network division for clone detection and simulation results verify that it not only reduces the communication and memory costs but also ensures high security of witness nodes with increased detection probability of clones.

Detecting clones in wireless sensor networks using Single Stage Memory Random Walk with Network Division

Recent advancement in technologies is reshaping our daily lives. The transformation has changed our traditional class rooms to virtual class rooms which enables millions of people to access knowledge at their fingertips. Recently, Thin Client is one of the mostly adopted technologies in higher education. Universities in Saudi Arabia are among the pioneer international universities who embraced Thin Client technology. In this paper, we focus on the challenges faced and lessons learned during the implementations phase of Thin Client Technology at Saudi Arabian Universities. In addition, we also performed a comparative analysis of Thin Client Technology implemented at various Saudi Arabian universities.

Thin Client Technology for Higher Education at Universities of Saudi Arabia: Implementation, Challenges and Lesson Learned

Trust is the key part of the security and challenges task in future life safety vehicular communication. Vehicular communication is based on peer to peer communication and each peer has embedded sensors inside and performs all computational tasks as well as security functions. The trusted Platform module (TPM) is used inside the vehicle and plays a key role to establish trust within the vehicle and also with other vehicles and network infrastructure. In this paper, a protocol is proposed which is based on a property based attestation (PBA) also known as Vehicular Property based attestation Protocol (VPP). In this proposed protocol, it is not based on the properties of the hardware and software of the vehicle; rather it depends on the static or dynamic properties of the system which has been pre configured. We would expect that the protocol will fulfil the need for a more secure and trusted mechanism for users using the safety and non-safety applications and services in the vehicular network Keywords : Security, Trust Safety and non Safety applications, Attacker, Trusted user, Behavior, Malicious User, Trust levels

Mohammed Y. Aalsalem

Papers

A hybrid graphical password based system

A data caching approach for sensor applications

Detecting clones in wireless sensor networks using Single Stage Memory Random Walk with Network Division

Thin Client Technology for Higher Education at Universities of Saudi Arabia: Implementation, Challenges and Lesson Learned

Trusted computing in vehicular ad hoc network (VANET)