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Air Force Institute of Technology

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Articles 271 - 300 of 413

Full-Text Articles in Computer Engineering

Forensics Image Background Matching Using Scale Invariant Feature (Sift)Transform And Speeded Up Robust Features (Surf), Paul N. Fogg Ii Dec 2007

Forensics Image Background Matching Using Scale Invariant Feature (Sift)Transform And Speeded Up Robust Features (Surf), Paul N. Fogg Ii

Theses and Dissertations

In criminal investigations, it is not uncommon for investigators to obtain a photograph or image that shows a crime being committed. Additionally, thousands of pictures may exist of a location, taken from the same or varying viewpoints. Some of these images may even include a criminal suspect or witness. One mechanism to identify criminals and witnesses is to group the images found on computers, cell phones, cameras, and other electronic devices into sets representing the same location. One or more images in the group may then prove the suspect was at the crime scene before, during, and/or after a crime. …


Radar System Characterization Extended To Hardware In The Loop Simulation For The Lab-Volt™ Training System, Oscar C. Mayhew Sep 2007

Radar System Characterization Extended To Hardware In The Loop Simulation For The Lab-Volt™ Training System, Oscar C. Mayhew

Theses and Dissertations

Modeling RADAR signals in software allows the testing of potential electronic counter measures and electronic counter counter measures without the associated RADAR hardware and test facilities. Performing a characterization process on a real world RADAR system reveals all imperfections within the system. The Lab-Volt™ RADAR system served as the characterized real world RADAR system. The characterization process consisted of measurements at selected front panel locations on the Lab-Volt™ transmitter module, antenna pedestal, receiver module, and dual channel sampler module. Due to the overwhelming influence of antenna parameters on a received signal, the characterization process also attempted to derive an antenna …


Real-Time Gps-Alternative Navigation Using Commodity Hardware, Jordon L. Fletcher Jun 2007

Real-Time Gps-Alternative Navigation Using Commodity Hardware, Jordon L. Fletcher

Theses and Dissertations

Modern navigation systems can use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to accurately determine position with precision in some cases bordering on millimeters. Unfortunately, GPS technology is susceptible to jamming, interception, and unavailability indoors or underground. There are several navigation techniques that can be used to navigate during times of GPS unavailability, but there are very few that result in GPS-level precision. One method of achieving high precision navigation without GPS is to fuse data obtained from multiple sensors. This thesis explores the fusion of imaging and inertial sensors and implements them in a real-time system that mimics human navigation. In …


Parallel Fast Multipole Method For Molecular Dynamics, Reid G. Ormseth Jun 2007

Parallel Fast Multipole Method For Molecular Dynamics, Reid G. Ormseth

Theses and Dissertations

We report on a parallel version of the Fast Multipole Method (FMM) implemented in the classical molecular dynamics code, NAMD (Not Another Molecular Dynamics program). This novel implementation of FMM aims to minimize interprocessor communication through the modification of the FMM grid to match the hybrid force and spatial decomposition scheme already present in NAMD. This new implementation has the benefit of replacing all-to-all communications broadcasts with direct communications between nearest neighbors. This results in a significant reduction in the amount of communication compared to earlier attempts to integrate FMM into common molecular dynamics programs. The early performance of FMM …


Voice And Video Capacity Of A Secure Wireless System, Jason R. Seyba Jun 2007

Voice And Video Capacity Of A Secure Wireless System, Jason R. Seyba

Theses and Dissertations

Improving the security and availability of secure wireless multimedia systems is the purpose of this thesis. Specifically, this thesis answered research questions about the capacity of wireless multimedia systems and how three variables relate to this capacity. The effects of securing the voice signal, real-time traffic originating foreign to a wireless local area network and use of an audio-only signal compared with a combined signal were all studied. The research questions were answered through a comprehensive literature review in addition to an experiment which had thirty-six subjects using a secure wireless multimedia system which was developed as part of this …


Performance Analysis And Comparison Of Multiple Routing Protocols In A Large-Area, High Speed Mobile Node Ad Hoc Network, Daniel K. Roberts Jun 2007

Performance Analysis And Comparison Of Multiple Routing Protocols In A Large-Area, High Speed Mobile Node Ad Hoc Network, Daniel K. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. Air Force is interested in developing a standard ad hoc framework using "heavy" aircraft to route data across large regions. The Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP) has the potential to provide seamless large-scale routing for DOD under the Joint Tactical Radio System program. The goal of this study is to determine if there is a difference between routing protocol performance when operating in a large-area MANET with high-speed mobile nodes. This study analyzes MANET performance when using reactive, proactive, and hybrid routing protocols, specifically AODV, DYMO, Fisheye, and ZRP. This analysis compares the performance of the four routing protocols …


Use Of Tabu Search In A Solver To Map Complex Networks Onto Emulab Testbeds, Jason E. Macdonald Mar 2007

Use Of Tabu Search In A Solver To Map Complex Networks Onto Emulab Testbeds, Jason E. Macdonald

Theses and Dissertations

The University of Utah's solver for the testbed mapping problem uses a simulated annealing metaheuristic algorithm to map a researcher's experimental network topology onto available testbed resources. This research uses tabu search to find near-optimal physical topology solutions to user experiments consisting of scale-free complex networks. While simulated annealing arrives at solutions almost exclusively by chance, tabu search incorporates the use of memory and other techniques to guide the search towards good solutions. Both search algorithms are compared to determine whether tabu search can produce equal or higher quality solutions than simulated annealing in a shorter amount of time. It …


Aphid: Anomaly Processor In Hardware For Intrusion Detection, Samuel A. Hart Mar 2007

Aphid: Anomaly Processor In Hardware For Intrusion Detection, Samuel A. Hart

Theses and Dissertations

The Anomaly Processor in Hardware for Intrusion Detection (APHID) is a step forward in the field of co-processing intrusion detection mechanism. By using small, fast hardware primitives APHID relieves the production CPU from the burden of security processing. These primitives are tightly coupled to the CPU giving them access to critical state information such as the current instruction(s) in execution, the next instruction, registers, and processor state information. By monitoring these hardware elements, APHID is able to determine when an anomalous action occurs within one clock cycle. Upon detection, APHID can force the processor into a corrective state, or a …


Parametric Reliability Of Space-Based Field Programmable Gate Arrays, Joseph C. Pomager Mar 2007

Parametric Reliability Of Space-Based Field Programmable Gate Arrays, Joseph C. Pomager

Theses and Dissertations

The high cost of failure for microelectronic devices operating in the space environment has led to a need for an accurate characterization of a device's reliability prior to being deployed. In addition, significant cost savings can be achieved by determining this reliability prior to fabrication. With the increased performance needs required for many missions, designers are seeking to utilize devices that have smaller and smaller feature sizes. Specifically, feature sizes as small as 130, 90, and 65 nm. A characterization of the space environment is constructed specifically to address the extreme conditions that can affect the performance and functionality of …


Using Concept Maps To More Efficiently Create Intelligence Information Models, Christopher E. Coryell Mar 2007

Using Concept Maps To More Efficiently Create Intelligence Information Models, Christopher E. Coryell

Theses and Dissertations

Information models are a critical tool that enables intelligence customers to quickly and accurately comprehend U.S. intelligence agency products. The Knowledge Pre-positioning System (KPS) is the standard repository for information models at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC). The current approach used by NASIC to build a KPS information model is laborious and costly. Intelligence analysts design an information model using a manual, butcher-paper-based process. The output of their work is then entered into KPS by either a single NASIC KPS "database modeler" or a contractor (at a cost of roughly $100K to the organization). This thesis proposes …


Implementation And Optimization Of The Advanced Encryption Standard Algorithm On An 8-Bit Field Programmable Gate Array Hardware Platform, Ryan J. Silva Mar 2007

Implementation And Optimization Of The Advanced Encryption Standard Algorithm On An 8-Bit Field Programmable Gate Array Hardware Platform, Ryan J. Silva

Theses and Dissertations

The contribution of this research is three-fold. The first is a method of converting the area occupied by a circuit implemented on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to an equivalent as a measure of total gate count. This allows direct comparison between two FPGA implementations independent of the manufacturer or chip family. The second contribution improves the performance of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) on an 8-bit computing platform. This research develops an AES design that occupies less than three quarters of the area reported by the smallest design in current literature as well as significantly increases area efficiency. …


Hardware Virtualization Applied To Rootkit Defense, Douglas P. Medley Mar 2007

Hardware Virtualization Applied To Rootkit Defense, Douglas P. Medley

Theses and Dissertations

This research effort examines the idea of applying virtualization hardware to enhance operating system security against rootkits. Rootkits are sets of tools used to hide code and/or functionality from the user and operating system. Rootkits can accomplish this feat through using access to one part of an operating system to change another part that resides at the same privilege level. Hardware assisted virtualization (HAV) provides an opportunity to defeat this tactic through the introduction of a new operating mode. Created to aid operating system virtualization, HAV provides hardware support for managing and saving multiple states of the processor. This hardware …


A Study Of Rootkit Stealth Techniques And Associated Detection Methods, Daniel D. Nerenberg Mar 2007

A Study Of Rootkit Stealth Techniques And Associated Detection Methods, Daniel D. Nerenberg

Theses and Dissertations

In today's world of advanced computing power at the fingertips of any user, we must constantly think of computer security. Information is power and this power is had within our computer systems. If we cannot trust the information within our computer systems then we cannot properly wield the power that comes from such information. Rootkits are software programs that are designed to develop and maintain an environment in which malware may hide on a computer system after successful compromise of that computer system. Rootkits cut at the very foundation of the trust that we put in our information and subsequent …


Exploring Hardware Based Primitives To Enhance Parallel Security Monitoring In A Novel Computing Architecture, Stephen D. Mott Mar 2007

Exploring Hardware Based Primitives To Enhance Parallel Security Monitoring In A Novel Computing Architecture, Stephen D. Mott

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores how hardware-based primitives can be implemented to perform security-related monitoring in real-time, offer better security, and increase performance compared to software-based approaches. In doing this, we propose a novel computing architecture, derived from a contemporary shared memory architecture, that facilitates efficient security-related monitoring in real-time, while keeping the monitoring hardware itself safe from attack. This architecture is flexible, allowing security to be tailored based on the needs of the system. We have developed a number of hardware-based primitives that fit into this architecture to provide a wide array of monitoring capabilities. A number of these primitives provide …


Effective Mobile Routing Through Dynamic Addressing, Heungsoon Park Mar 2007

Effective Mobile Routing Through Dynamic Addressing, Heungsoon Park

Theses and Dissertations

Military communications has always been an important factor in military victory and will surely play an important part in future combat. In modern warfare, military units are usually deployed without existing network infrastructure. The IP routing protocol, designed for hierarchical networks cannot easily be applied in military networks due to the dynamic topology expected in military environments. Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) represent an appropriate network for small military networks. But, most ad-hoc routing protocols suffer from the problem of scalability for large networks. Hierarchical routing schemes based on the IP address structure are more scalable than ad-hoc routing but are …


Distributed Fault-Tolerant Quality Of Service Routing In Hybrid Directional Wireless Networks, Larry C. Llewellyn Ii Mar 2007

Distributed Fault-Tolerant Quality Of Service Routing In Hybrid Directional Wireless Networks, Larry C. Llewellyn Ii

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a distributed fault-tolerant routing protocol (EFDCB) for QoS supporting hybrid mobile ad hoc networks with the aim of mitigating QoS disruption time when network failures occur. The experimental design presented in this thesis describes 22 experiments aimed at illustrating EFDCB's ability to handle fault-tolerance. The interpreted results show that EFDCB excels over a global rerouting protocol at this challenge which is the goal of this work.


Analysis Of Routing Worm Infection Rates On An Ipv4 Network, James Gorsuch Mar 2007

Analysis Of Routing Worm Infection Rates On An Ipv4 Network, James Gorsuch

Theses and Dissertations

Malicious logic, specifically worms, has caused monetary expenditure problems to network users in the past. Worms, like Slammer and Code Red, have infected thousands of systems and brought the Internet to a standstill. This research examines the ability of the original Slammer worm, the Slammer based routing worm proposed by Zou et al, and a new Single Slash Eight (SSE) routing worm proposed by this research to infect vulnerable systems within a given address space. This research investigates the Slammer worm's ability to generate a uniform random IP addresses in a given address space. Finally, a comparison of the speed …


Overcoming Tcp Degradation In The Presence Of Multiple Intermittent Link Failures Utilizing Intermediate Buffering, Duane F. Harmon Mar 2007

Overcoming Tcp Degradation In The Presence Of Multiple Intermittent Link Failures Utilizing Intermediate Buffering, Duane F. Harmon

Theses and Dissertations

It is well documented that assumptions made in the popular Transmission Control Protocol's (TCP) development, while essential in the highly reliable wired environment, are incompatible with today's wireless network realities in what we refer to as a challenged environment. Challenged environments severely degrade the capability of TCP to establish and maintain a communication connection with reasonable throughput. This thesis proposes and implements an intermediate buffering scheme, implemented at the transport layer, which serves as a TCP helper protocol for use in network routing equipment to overcome short and bursty, but regular, link failures. Moreover, the implementation requires no modifications to …


On-Demand Key Distribution For Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks, Daniel F. Graham Mar 2007

On-Demand Key Distribution For Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks, Daniel F. Graham

Theses and Dissertations

Mobile ad-hoc networks offer dynamic portable communication with little or no infrastructure. While this has many benefits, there are additional shortcomings specific to wireless communication that must be addressed. This research proposes gossip-based on-demand key distribution as a means to provide data encryption for mobile ad-hoc networks. This technique uses message keys to avoid encrypting and decrypting a message at every node. Other optimizations used include secure channel caching and joint rekey messages. The use of gossip makes the scheme robust to node failure. Experimental results show only a 15% increase in end-to-end delay with a node failure rate of …


Performance Evaluation Of Ad Hoc Routing In A Swarm Of Autonomous Aerial Vehicles, Matthew T. Hyland Mar 2007

Performance Evaluation Of Ad Hoc Routing In A Swarm Of Autonomous Aerial Vehicles, Matthew T. Hyland

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the performance of three mobile ad hoc routing protocols in the context of a swarm of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It is proposed that a wireless network of nodes having an average of 5.1774 log n neighbors, where n is the total number of nodes in the network, has a high probability of having no partitions. By decreasing transmission range while ensuring network connectivity, and implementing multi-hop routing between nodes, spatial multiplexing is exploited whereby multiple pairs of nodes simultaneously transmit on the same channel. The proposal is evaluated using the Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing (GPSR), …


Hardware Realization Of A Transform Domain Communication System, Marshall E. Haker Mar 2007

Hardware Realization Of A Transform Domain Communication System, Marshall E. Haker

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to implement a Transform Domain Communication System (TDCS) in hardware and compare experimental bit error performance with results published in literature. The intent is to demonstrate the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of a TDCS in communicating binary data across a real channel. In this case, an acoustic channel that is laden with narrowband interference was considered. A TDCS user pair was constructed to validate the proposed design using Matlab™ to control a PC sound card. The proposed TDCS design used the Bartlett method of spectrum estimation, the spectral notching algorithm found in TDCS literature, quadrature …


Fault And Defect Tolerant Computer Architectures: Reliable Computing With Unreliable Devices, George R. Roelke Iv Sep 2006

Fault And Defect Tolerant Computer Architectures: Reliable Computing With Unreliable Devices, George R. Roelke Iv

Theses and Dissertations

This research addresses design of a reliable computer from unreliable device technologies. A system architecture is developed for a "fault and defect tolerant" (FDT) computer. Trade-offs between different techniques are studied and yield and hardware cost models are developed. Fault and defect tolerant designs are created for the processor and the cache memory. Simulation results for the content-addressable memory (CAM)-based cache show 90% yield with device failure probabilities of 3 x 10(-6), three orders of magnitude better than non fault tolerant caches of the same size. The entire processor achieves 70% yield with device failure probabilities exceeding 10(-6). The required …


Evaluation Of Energy Costs And Error Performance Of Range-Aware Anchor-Free Localization Algorithms For Wireless Sensor Networks, Gustav Julio Jordt Mar 2006

Evaluation Of Energy Costs And Error Performance Of Range-Aware Anchor-Free Localization Algorithms For Wireless Sensor Networks, Gustav Julio Jordt

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines energy and error tradeoffs in Anchor-Free Range-Aware Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) Localization algorithms. A concurrent and an incremental algorithm (Anchor Free Localization (AFL) and Map Growing) are examined under varying network sizes, densities, deployments, and range errors. Despite current expectations, even the most expensive configurations do not expend significant battery life (at most 0.4%), implying little energy can be conserved during localization. Due to refinement, AFL is twice as accurate, using 6 times the communication. For both, node degree affects communication most. As degree increases, Map Growing communication increases, while AFL transmissions drop. Nodes with more neighbors …


Evaluation Of A Field Programmable Gate Array Circuit Reconfiguration System, Jason L. Ives Mar 2006

Evaluation Of A Field Programmable Gate Array Circuit Reconfiguration System, Jason L. Ives

Theses and Dissertations

This research implements a circuit reconfiguration system (CRS) to reconfigure a field programmable gate array (FPGA) in response to a faulty configurable logic block (CLB). It is assumed that the location of the fault is known and the CLB is moved according to one of four replacement methods: column left, column right, row up, and row down. Partial reconfiguration of the FPGA is done through the Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) port to produce the desired logic block movement. The time required to accomplish the reconfiguration is measured for each method in both clear and congested areas of the FPGA. …


Supplementing An Ad-Hoc Wireless Network Routing Protocol With Radio Frequency Identification (Rfid) Tags, Leroy S. Willemsen Mar 2006

Supplementing An Ad-Hoc Wireless Network Routing Protocol With Radio Frequency Identification (Rfid) Tags, Leroy S. Willemsen

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have a broad and varied range of applications, yet all of these are limited by the resources available to the sensor nodes that make up the WSN. The most significant resource is energy. A WSN may be deployed to an inhospitable or unreachable area, leaving it with a non-replenishable power source. This research examines a way of reducing energy consumption by augmenting the nodes with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that contain routing information. It was expected that RFID tags would reduce the network throughput, the ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) routing traffic sent, and …


An Adaptable Energy-Efficient Medium Access Control Protocol For Wireless Sensor Networks, Justin T. Kautz Mar 2006

An Adaptable Energy-Efficient Medium Access Control Protocol For Wireless Sensor Networks, Justin T. Kautz

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless networks have become ubiquitous recently and therefore their usefulness has also become more extensive. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) detect environmental information with sensors in remote settings. One problem facing WSNs is the inability to resupply power to these energy-constrained devices due to their remoteness. Therefore to extend a WSN's effectiveness, the lifetime of the network must be increased by making them as energy efficient as possible. An energy efficient medium access control (MAC) can boost a WSN's lifetime. This research creates a MAC protocol called Adaptive sensor Medium Access Control (AMAC) which is based on Sensor Medium Access Control …


Power-Scavenging Mems Robots, Daniel J. Denninghoff Mar 2006

Power-Scavenging Mems Robots, Daniel J. Denninghoff

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis includes the design, modeling, and testing of novel, power-scavenging, biologically inspired MEMS microrobots. Over one hundred 500-μm and 990-μm microrobots with two, four, and eight wings were designed, fabricated, characterized. These microrobots constitute the smallest documented attempt at powered flight. Each microrobot wing is comprised of downward-deflecting, laser-powered thermal actuators made of gold and polysilicon; the microrobots were fabricated in PolyMUMPs® (Polysilicon Multi-User MEMS Processes). Characterization results of the microrobots illustrate how wing-tip deflection can be maximized by optimizing the gold-topolysilicon ratio as well as the dimensions of the actuator-wings. From these results, an optimum actuator-wing configuration was …


Characterization And Design Of High-Level Vhdl I/Q Frequency Downconverter Via Special Sampling Scheme, Jesse P. Somann Mar 2006

Characterization And Design Of High-Level Vhdl I/Q Frequency Downconverter Via Special Sampling Scheme, Jesse P. Somann

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the characterization and implementation of a Special Sampling Scheme (SSS) for In-Phase and Quad-Phase (I/Q) down conversion utilizing top-level, portable design strategies. The SSS is an under-developed signal sampling methodology that can be used with military and industry receiver systems, specifically, United States Air Force (USAF) video receiver systems. The SSS processes a digital input signal-stream sampled at a specified sampling frequency, and down converts it into In-Phase (I) and Quad-Phase (Q) output signal-streams. Using the theory and application of the SSS, there are three main objectives that will be accomplished: characterization of the effects of input, …


Optimal Coverage Of Theater Targets With Small Satellite Constellations, Axel Rendon Mar 2006

Optimal Coverage Of Theater Targets With Small Satellite Constellations, Axel Rendon

Theses and Dissertations

The daylight passes of a low-Earth orbit satellite over a targeted latitude and longitude are optimized by varying the inclination and eccentricity of an orbit at different altitudes. This investigation extends the work by Emery et al, in which the optimal Right Ascension of the Ascending Node was determined for a circular, matched inclination orbit. The optimal values were determined by a numerical research method based on Emery et al's Matlab program. Results indicate that small increases in inclination raise the number of daylight passes up to 33%. These optimal inclinations depend on the satellite semi-major axis. Eccentricity increases also …


Modeling Adaptive Middleware And Its Applications To Military Tactical Datalinks, Jason T. Lawson Sep 2005

Modeling Adaptive Middleware And Its Applications To Military Tactical Datalinks, Jason T. Lawson

Theses and Dissertations

Open systems solutions and techniques have become the de facto standard for achieving interoperability between disparate, large-scale, legacy software systems. A key technology among open systems solutions and techniques is middleware. Middleware, in general, is used to isolate applications from dependencies introduced by hardware, operating systems, and other low-level aspects of system architectures. While middleware approaches are or will be integrated into operational military systems, many open questions exist about the appropriate areas to applying middleware. Adaptive middleware is middleware that provides an application with a run-time adaptation strategy, based upon system-level interfaces and properties. Adaptive middleware is an example …