Systems and Communications Commons^™

Computational Modeling For Transportation Network Security, Sherif A. Tolba

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Mapping Device With Wireless Communication, Xiangyu Liu

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Wireless communication is one of the most powerful communication methods that people use nowadays. The key advantage of wireless communications is that it can cover large distances without having to run any cables from one end to the other. Based on this advantage, wireless communication has many important applications, such as remote controls, cell phones, and global positioning system (GPS). This senior design project is developed to use wireless communication technology to map the geographic characteristics of an unknown place. It contains two wireless communication modules with Atmega1281 microprocessor, two robots with the 8051 microcontroller, six pairs of infrared transmitters …

Semantic Geotagging: A Location-Based Hypermedia Approach To Creating Situational Awareness, Ray Bareiss, Martin Griss, Steven Rosenberg, Yu Zhang

Ray Bareiss

As emergency first responders and commanders increasingly use mobile phones, tablets, and social media to communicate, coordinate, and manage information during disasters, we see a need and opportunity to provide a mobile device-appropriate semantic layer to a geographically-based common operating picture. The challenge is to provide a simple, usable structure for a rapidly growing body of information to simplify the development of situational awareness in an unfolding disaster. We use a hyperlinked structure based on the ASK model to organize information in a readily accessible form. In this paper we describe our initial design and experience with an Android-based prototype, …

Semantic Geotagging: A Location-Based Hypermedia Approach To Creating Situational Awareness, Ray Bareiss, Martin Griss, Steven Rosenberg, Yu Zhang

Martin L Griss

As emergency first responders and commanders increasingly use mobile phones, tablets, and social media to communicate, coordinate, and manage information during disasters, we see a need and opportunity to provide a mobile device-appropriate semantic layer to a geographically-based common operating picture. The challenge is to provide a simple, usable structure for a rapidly growing body of information to simplify the development of situational awareness in an unfolding disaster. We use a hyperlinked structure based on the ASK model to organize information in a readily accessible form. In this paper we describe our initial design and experience with an Android-based prototype, …

Networks - Ii: A High Bandwidth Covert Channel In Network Protocol, Mehdi Hussain

International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies

Covert channel is secret communication path, which existence is not expected in original system of design. It allows different users access to the same information, at the same time, but from different points-of-view. It is being more and more studying due to the grooming of internet. Always high-bandwidth network covert channel pose the significant risk of detection over network. Although the existing technique utilized the reserved bits of header, timestamp, initial sequence number, packet length etc for network covert channel, to some extend these have good temper resistance. But when increase their covert data capacity they becomes to fail to …

San Luis Obispo Transit Tracker System Back-End Server, Daryl Alan A. Dimalanta

Computer Engineering

This document gives the rationale, design process, technical implementation, testing procedures, and testing results of a back-end server used for the San Luis Obispo (SLO) Transit Tracker System. The SLO Transit Tracker System (SLOTTS) includes client software installed on mobile devices and a back-end server. The purpose of this system is to encourage SLO residents to utilize the transit system by having the client software present current bus location, navigation instructions, and bus schedule in a simple, fast, and easy to use mobile application.

Due to the limited central processing unit (CPU) and limited power supplied by the battery, route …

An Exploration Of Knowledge And Skills Transfer From A Formal Software Engineering Curriculum To A Capstone Practicum Project, Ray Bareiss, Ed Katz

Ray Bareiss

Students at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley complete a team-based practicum project for an industrial sponsor as the capstone of their master’s education in software engineering. Over time, the faculty member who typically serves as advisor for such projects has been disturbed by the failure of several student teams to transfer some relevant knowledge and skills from the formal curriculum to the relatively unstructured practicum project environment. We conducted a survey of all 2010 software engineering students to ascertain the most significant selfreported shortcomings. This paper presents the survey data and then discusses the results in terms of a theory of …

Worse-Than-Rayleigh Fading: Experimental Results And Theoretical Models, David W. Matolak, Jeff Frolik

Faculty Publications

This article is motivated by the recent recognition that channel fading for new wireless applications is not always well described by traditional models used for mobile communication systems. In particular, fading data collected for vehicleto- vehicle and wireless sensor network applications has motivated new models for conditions in which channel fading statistics can be worse than Rayleigh. We review the use of statistical channel models, describe our example applications, and provide both measured and modeling results for these severe fading conditions.

Imirok: Real-Time Imitative Robotic Arm Control For Home Robot Applications, Heng-Tze Cheng, Zheng Sun, Pei Zhang

Zheng Sun

Training home robots to behave like human can help people with their daily chores and repetitive tasks. In this paper, we present Imirok, a system to remotely control robotic arms by user motion using low-cost, off-the-shelf mobile devices and webcam. The motion tracking algorithm detects user motion in real-time, without classifier training or predefined action set. Experimental results show that the system achieves 90% precision and recall rate on motion detection with blank background, and is robust under the change of cluttered background and user-to-camera distance.

Leveraging Mobile Context For Effective Collaboration And Task Management In Disaster Response, Faisal Luqman, Martin L. Griss

Martin L Griss

Collaboration and task management is challenging in distributed, dynamically-formed teams, typical in large scale disaster response scenarios. Ineffective collaboration may result in poor performance and possible loss of life. In this paper, we present Overseer, an agent-based system that exploits context information from mobile devices to facilitate collaboration and task allocation. We describe our system architecture and show how mobile context can be used to create dynamic role-based assignments to support collaboration and effective task management.

Routing Uavs To Co-Optimize Mission Effectiveness And Network Performance With Dynamic Programming, Spenser D. Lee

Theses and Dissertations

In support of the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) vision of the layered sensing operations center, command and control intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (C2ISR) more focus must be placed on architectures that support information systems, rather than just the information systems themselves. By extending the role of UAVs beyond simply intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations and into a dual-role with networking operations we can better utilize our information assets. To achieve the goal of dual-role UAVs, a concrete approach to planning must be taken. This research defines a mathematical model and a non-trivial deterministic algorithmic approach to determining UAV …

Malicious And Malfunctioning Node Detection Via Observed Physical Layer Data, Tyler J. Hardy

Theses and Dissertations

There are many mechanisms that can cause inadequate or unreliable information in sensor networks. A user of the network might be interested in detecting and classifying specific sensors nodes causing these problems. Several network layer based trust methods have been developed in previous research to assess these issues; in contrast this work develops a trust protocol based on observations of physical layer data collected by the sensors. Observations of physical layer data are used for decisions and calculations, and are based on just the measurements collected by the sensors. Although this information is packaged and distributed on the network layer, …

Evaluating Information Assurance Control Effectiveness On An Air Force Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (Scada) System, Jason R. Nielsen

Theses and Dissertations

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are increasingly being connected to corporate networks which has dramatically expanded their attack surface to remote cyber attack. Adversaries are targeting these systems with increasing frequency and sophistication. This thesis seeks to answer the research question addressing which Information Assurance (IA) controls are most significant for network defenders and SCADA system managers/operators to focus on in order to increase the security of critical infrastructure systems against a Stuxnet-like cyber attack. This research applies the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) IA controls to an attack tree modeled on a remote Stuxnet-like cyber …

On Reducing Communication Energy Using Cross-Sensor Coding Technique, Kien Nguyen, Thinh Nguyen, Sen-Ching Cheung

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper addresses the uneven communication energy problem in data gathering sensor networks where the nodes closer to the sink tend to consume more energy than those of the farther nodes. Consequently, the lifetime of a network is significantly shortened. We propose a cross-sensor coding technique using On-Off keying which exploits (a) the tradeoff between delay and energy consumption and (b) the network topology in order to alleviate the problem of unequal energy consumption. We formulate our coding problem as an integer linear programming problem and show how to construct a number of codes based on different criteria. We show …

Anubis: An Attestation Protocol For Distributed Context-Aware Applications, Senaka Buthpitiya, Feng-Tso Sun, Heng-Tze Chen, Patrick Tague, Martin L. Griss, Anind K. Dey

Martin L Griss

Sharing sensitive context information among multiple distributed components in mobile environments introduces major security concerns. The distributed sensing, processing and actuating components of these applications can be compromised and modified or impersonated to extract private and confidential information or to inject false information. In this paper we present the Anubis protocol for remote code attestation and access control of distributed components using remote execution of trusted code. Our Anubis protocol leverages previous work in the fields of wireless sensor networks and secure web browsing. Anubis allows new components to be introduced to the environment without updating existing components. Our implementation …

Mobile Context-Aware Personal Messaging Assistant, Senaka Buthpitiya, Deepthi Madamanchi, Sumalatha Kommaraju, Martin L. Griss

Martin L Griss

A previous study shows that busy professionals receive in excess of 50 emails per day of which approximately 23% require immediate attention, 13% require attention later and 64% are unimportant and typically ignored. The flood of emails impact mobile users even more heavily. Flooded inboxes cause busy professionals to spend considerable amounts of time searching for important messages, and there has been much research into automating the process using email content for classification; but we find email priority depends also on user context. In this paper we describe the Personal Messaging Assistant (PMA), an advanced rule-based email management system which …

Sensorchestra: Collaborative Sensing For Symbolic Location Recognition, Heng-Tze Cheng, Feng-Tso Sun, Senaka Buthpitiya, Martin L. Griss

Martin L Griss

"Symbolic location of a user, like a store name in a mall, is essential for context-based mobile advertising. Existing fingerprint- based localization using only a single phone is susceptible to noise, and has a major limitation in that the phone has to be held in the hand at all times. In this paper, we present SensOrchestra, a col- laborative sensing framework for symbolic location recognition that groups nearby phones to recognize ambient sounds and images of a location collaboratively. We investigated audio and image features, and designed a classifier fusion model to integrate estimates from diff erent phones. We also …

Activity-Aware Mental Stress Detection Using Physiological Sensors, Feng-Tso Sun, Cynthia Kuo, Heng-Tze Cheng, Senaka Buthpitiya, Patricia Collins, Martin Griss

Martin L Griss

"Continuous stress monitoring may help users better understand their stress patterns and provide physicians with more reliable data for interventions. Previously, studies on mental stress detection were limited to a laboratory environment where participants generally rested in a sedentary position. However, it is impractical to exclude the effects of physical activity while developing a pervasive stress monitoring application for everyday use. The physiological responses caused by mental stress can be masked by variations due to physical activity. We present an activity-aware mental stress detection scheme. Electrocardiogram (ECG), galvanic skin response (GSR), and accelerometer data were gathered from 20 participants across …

Omnisense: A Collaborative Sensing Framework For User Context Recognition Using Mobile Phones, Heng-Tze Cheng, Senaka Buthpitiya, Feng-Tso Sun, Martin L. Griss

Martin L Griss

Context information, including a user’s locations and activities, is indispensable for context-aware applications such as targeted advertising and disaster response. Inferring user context from sensor data is intrinsically challenging due to the semantic gap between low-level signals and high-level human activities. When implemented on mobile phones, more challenges on resource limitations are present. While most existing work focuses on context recognition using a single mobile phone, collaboration among multiple phones has received little attention, and the recognition accuracy is susceptible to phone position and ambient changes. Simply putting a phone in one’s pocket can render the microphone muffled and the …

Room-Level Wi-Fi Location Tracking, Joshua Correa, Ed Katz, Patricia Collins, Martin Griss

Martin L Griss

Context-aware applications for indoor intelligent environments require an appropriately accurate and stable interior positioning system to adapt services to the location of a mobile user or mobile device in a building. Different technologies provide a varying mix of resolution, accuracy, stability and challenges. In this paper we report on our experience using an existing Wi-Fi infrastructure without specialized hardware added to support location tracking. There are several approaches to track the location of Wi-Fi enabled devices within a building such as signal propagation models and signature matching. We found signature matching most effective in our environment. Signature matching is accomplished …

Simulating A Universal Geocast Scheme For Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks, Benjamin L. Bovee

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Recently a number of communications schemes have been proposed for Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs). One of these, the Universal Geocast Scheme (UGS) proposed by Hossein Pishro-Nik and Mohammad Nekoui, provides for a diverse variety of VANET-specific characteristics such as time-varying topology, protocol variation based on road congestion, and support for non line-of-sight communication. In this research, the UGS protocol is extended to consider inter-vehicle multi-hop connections in intersections with surrounding obstructions along with single-hop communications in an open road scenario. Since UGS is a probabilistic, repetition-based scheme, it supports the capacity-delay tradeoffs crucial for periodic safety message exchange. The …

Addressing/Exploiting Transceiver Imperfections In Wireless Communication Systems, Lihao Wang

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

This thesis consists of two research projects on wireless communication systems. In the first project, we propose a fast inphase and quadrature (I/Q) imbalance compensation technique for the analog quadrature modulators in direct conversion transmitters. The method needs no training sequence, no extra background data gathering process and no prior perfect knowledge of the envelope detector characteristics. In contrast to previous approaches, it uses points from both the linear and predictable nonlinear regions of the envelope detector to hasten convergence. We provide a least mean square (LMS) version and demonstrate that the quadrature modulator compensator converges.

In the second project, …

Special Issue On Information Dissemination And New Services In P2p Systems, Min Song, Sachin Shetty, Wenbin Jiang, E. K. Park

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Information dissemination is an important P2P application that has received considerable research attention in recent years. P2P information dissemination systems range from simple file sharing applications to more complex systems that allows users to securely and efficiently publish, organize, index, search, update and retrieve data in a distributed storage medium. For complex P2P information dissemination systems, there is a need for features which include security, anonymity, fairness, scalability, resource management, and organization capabilities. For effective information dissemination, following features of P2P systems and infrastructure need to be updated: distributed object location and routing mechanisms, novel approaches to content replication, caching …

Contextualized Mobile Support For Learning By Doing In The Real World, Ray Bareiss, Natalie Linnell, Martin Griss

Ray Bareiss

This research addresses the use of mobile devices with both embedded and external sensors to provide contextualized help, advice, and remediation to learners engaged in real-world learn-by-doing tasks. This work is situated within the context of learning a complex procedure, in particular emergency responders learning to conduct urban search and rescue operations. Research issues include the design and delivery of contextualized performance support and the inferring of learner actions and intentions from sensor data to ensure that the right support is delivered just in time, as it is relevant to what the learner is doing.

Link Scheduling In Multi-Transmit-Receive Wireless Networks, Hong-Ning Dai, Soung Chang Liew, Liqun Fu

Hong-Ning Dai

This paper investigates the problem of link scheduling to meet traffic demands with minimum airtime in a multitransmit-receive (MTR) wireless network. MTR networks are a new class of networks, in which each node can simultaneously transmit to a number of other nodes, or simultaneously receive from a number of other nodes. The MTR capability can be enabled by the use of multiple directional antennas or multiple channels. Potentially, MTR can boost the network capacity significantly. However, link scheduling that makes full use of the MTR capability must be in place before this can happen. We show that optimal link scheduling …

Exploring Security Improvement Of Wireless Networks With Directional Antennas, Hong-Ning Dai, Dong Li, Raymond Chi-Wing Wong

Hong-Ning Dai

There are a number of studies on using directional antennas in wireless networks. Many of them concentrate on analyzing the theoretical capacity improvement by using directional antennas. Other studies focus on designing proper Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols to improve the practical network throughput. There are few works on the security improvement using directional antennas. In this paper, we explore the benefits of directional antennas in security improvements on both singlehop and multi-hop wireless networks. In particular, we found that using directional antennas in wireless networks can significantly reduce the eavesdropping probabilities of both single-hop transmissions as well as multi-hop …