Showing papers by "Qi Xia published in 2018"

GridMonitoring: Secured Sovereign Blockchain Based Monitoring on Smart Grid

Abstract: Electricity is the commonest commodity for most businesses in our world today. The use of electricity has been a breakthrough for the discovery of new technologies and has become the main driving force behind several innovations. With the introduction of smart grid systems, there have been improvements in how utility companies interact with their customers with regards to electricity use. However, since the readings are done via the Internet, there is the tendency for the data to be compromised when it gets into the hands of the wrong people. Moreover, customers mostly do not know why they pay huge amounts and which appliances use more electricity, since they are not privy to the readings. The sovereign blockchain technology, which provides transparency and provenance, is utilized in this paper to mitigate these above mentioned problems. A smart contract, which executes laid down procedures to provide a trust-based system between participants on the network is also implemented. Our system proves very efficient as the user can monitor how the electricity is used, and it also provides a platform where there is no manipulation from either party.

A Blockchain-based Architecture Framework for Secure Sharing of Personal Health Data

Abstract: Health information exchanges have been popular for some time with their advantages known and widely researched. In spite of their utility in increasing provider efficiency and decreasing administrative costs, one challenge that has persisted is the data owners inability to control data after transmission. The lack of technical mechanisms to effectively control patients’ health data in the network significantly affects participation of health and medical institutions while perpetrating the silo-based data management that locks value and potential inherent in the data. This not only affects researchers due to the lack of data for research and analysis but the quality of life of patients.We present a blockchain-supported architectural framework for secure control of personal data in a health information exchange by pairing user-generated acceptable use policies with smart contracts. We highlight the merits of our system, its user-centric focus and also show experimental results along with directions for extending our work. The framework introduces minimal risk to data by architecting a mechanism for controlling data after sharing. In adopting our framework, health service providers can deliver a stronger assurance for data management than is possible with current systems.

Enabling Strong Privacy Preservation and Accurate Task Allocation for Mobile Crowdsensing

Abstract: Mobile crowdsensing engages a crowd of individuals to use their mobile devices to cooperatively collect data about social events and phenomena for special interest customers. It can reduce the cost on sensor deployment and improve data quality with human intelligence. To enhance data trustworthiness, it is critical for service provider to recruit mobile users based on their personal features, e.g., mobility pattern and reputation, but it leads to the privacy leakage of mobile users. Therefore, how to resolve the contradiction between user privacy and task allocation is challenging in mobile crowdsensing. In this paper, we propose SPOON, a strong privacy-preserving mobile crowdsensing scheme supporting accurate task allocation from geographic information and credit points of mobile users. In SPOON, the service provider enables to recruit mobile users based on their locations, and select proper sensing reports according to their trust levels without invading user privacy. By utilizing proxy re-encryption and BBS+ signature, sensing tasks are protected and reports are anonymized to prevent privacy leakage. In addition, a privacy-preserving credit management mechanism is introduced to achieve decentralized trust management and secure credit proof for mobile users. Finally, we show the security properties of SPOON and demonstrate its efficiency on computation and communication.

Chain-based big data access control infrastructure

Abstract: Technological advancements have brought about the rise of data and other digital assets in our world today. The major problems with data today are its security and management, more importantly access control. These factors when not tackled effectively can lead to many compromises. The blockchain is an effective technology that ensures utmost security, trust, and maximum access control in big data systems. However, almost all the transactions on a blockchain network are stored in the platform. This process reduces the data storage, as the storage of all transactions sometimes creates unnecessary overheads. In this paper, an off-chain-based sovereign blockchain is proposed, where a virtual container is created for parties to transact in. At the end of a transaction, and satisfying each party, the container is destroyed but the results are stored on the sovereign blockchain network. This effectively decreases the amount of data that would have been stored on the network. The effectiveness of our system is compared with other schemes, and we could infer that our proposed system outperforms the already-existing ones.

V-Chain: A Blockchain-Based Car Lease Platform

Abstract: Significant improvements have been made in the way several businesses are conducted due to the influx of blockchain technology, which is a paradigm shift in research these days. Because of the several benefits this technology brings, including scalability, immutability, and the ability to secure data exchange among parties, data transfer becomes easier and simpler between entities. Automobile renting is a major business nowadays. Renting an auto summons numerous frameworks over a chain of procedures - including confirming the lessee's financial status, driving qualifications, accessible vehicle stock and car features. Leasing companies and financiers, however, need to recognize what is happening to the vehicles after the rent is agreed upon. There is also the problem of time consumption, as the traditional car lease process passes through a lot of stages before completion. The blockchain innovation can keep things up to speed with smart contracts. In this paper, we develop a car lease platform that is solely based on blockchain technology. The underlying principle utilized in this system is the smart contract, which is a programmable script that enforces decisions on all transactions made on the system, and also applies penalties to perpetrators. We evaluate the efficiency of our system by measuring the latency and throughput, and make comparisons with other related systems. Results indicate our system outperforms the others.

Ambiguity Function Analysis of Frequency Diverse Array Radar Receivers

Abstract: Phased arrays provide a beampattern that is independent of the range of targets. Frequency diverse array (FDA), on the other hand, yields a beampattern that is range-dependent. Due to the fact that the ambiguity function is a useful tool in the analysis of range (time-delay) and Doppler resolution performance of radar systems, this paper addresses the ambiguity function of three FDA radar receivers, with the aim of focusing the energy transmitted to the desired range-angle direction while suppressing unwanted sidelobe levels. Numerical results ascertain why the full-band, coherent FDA radar is the most suitable receiver for radar communication.