International Journal of Sensors Wireless Communications and Control - Volume 7, Issue 1, 2017

Background: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is becoming ubiquitous, more and more applications use this technique. Most of them are applied for access control, supply chain or animal tagging, however, there are some, which stores confidential data about its owner (e.g., passport, credit card). Therefore, serious considerations should be given to the security issues according to the RFID systems. Since these systems have low computational capacity and limited memory, the most obvious solution is the so-called lightweight authentication protocol family. Method: In this paper, we point out the weaknesses of the RFID systems and the typical attack methods are described. Some significant lightweight solutions, which were developed in the recent years, are presented, moreover, their brief security analysis is presented. Taking into account the results of the study, we designed a novel authentication protocol. Results: We introduce our novel hash-based mutual authentication protocol, which ensures secure and efficient communication between the tags and reader. Additionally, we give a detailed security analysis of our protocol and we show the effects of different parameters of the system on the authentication time. Finally, the proposed solution and some state-of-the-art protocols were implemented in OMNeT++ simulation environment in order to make a detailed comparison on performance and security. Conclusion: The trade-off between performance and security should be taken into account in order to ensure the best solution for a given application. Our proposed protocol provides the highest security features, it resists against the typical attacks that can be executed in RFID system, while its performance is slightly lower, compared to the other presented algorithms, so its performance satisfies most of the practical usages.

Background: In order to handle user demand the 4G mobile operators should install additional smaller cells to their traditional cellular structure for the sake of larger capacity, fewer call drops and for better network coverage. The result is a heterogeneous (two-tier) cellular network which contains smaller cells (like femtocells) under the macrocells. A femtocell usually provides coverage to a smaller area (e.g. flat or house) and transports the data to the femtocell gateway via wired technologies. Due to this wired background the handover between macro and femtocells might increases the number call drops. Method: The two-tier cellular structure includes open access femtocells. Femto base stations are deployed randomly and modeled with a two-dimensional homogeneous Poisson Point Process (PPP). The system model applies the fundaments of stochastic geometry and several parameters of the network are kept as random variable (such as slow fading, fast fading or the actual location of femtocells). Results: Relying on the forms presented in the paper we can discover the handover zones, where femtomacro or macro-femto handovers are expected. Since the femtocells are operating here in open access mode, so that the handover probability parameter becomes important concern. In this article, we declare the handover probability using the fundamentals of stochastic geometry. An analytical model has been proposed for handover modelling in two-tier femtocell environments based on stochastic geometrical tools. Conclusion: With this model the handover probability is easily calculable. The results show that the coverage area of the femtocells can be modelled with a circle and the radius of the circle extending while leaving the macro base station. Every femtocell has a concentric ring where the handover is probable.

Background: The rapid developments of sign language recognition systems guarantee the participation of inarticulate people in every field of society. This invention implemented by Electromyography (EMG) sensor to recognize different intramuscular signals for precise recognition of the subjects. In this regards, the Finger and Wrist position with different muscles activity signals are captured by EMG sensor by Fuzzy Logic to develop Matrix model to represent spinal segment and palm muscle activity. This novel approach would provide improvement in the research work for the inarticulate people to design interpreter for less communication system. Method: The proposed system detects the muscle signal pattern of a particular hand gestures using Electromyography (EMG) signal to developed sign language recognition system and analyzed with Fuzzy Logic. The gesture recognition systems work as following - gesture signal acquisition, processing of acquired gesture signal, descriptor extraction, and finally classification of descriptor to one of the probable gestures. Results: In order to recognize some simple sign language implement artificial neural network along with fuzzy detection technique. The different EMG signals are analyzed and recognized by Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), and fuzzy detection is involved to obtain more accurate recognition. We consider the uncertainties involved at various stages to have the perfect recognition system i.e., defining image regions, finding features, establishing relations among them, and matching, so that it retains as much as possible information of the original input image for making a conclusion at the highest level. The main objective of this area is to reveal the technical aspects in recognition of particular sign language. The neural network is a strong enough tool to detect the sign expression according to our hand and finger movements. As per our requirement we implement the Neuroph Studio tool, and then a matrix can be arranged with the appropriate data. Conclusion: This paper proposed a novel approach towards hand gesture recognition implementing data obtained from EMG sensors with promising recognition performance and high reliability. The role of Sign Language Recognition system is to ensure equality of opportunity and full participation of inarticulate people in the society.

Background: DSRC communication has been established exclusively for vehicular communication within a short distance. Hence it has a limitation considering present road taffic scenario. In this research work, authors have explored the scope of using WiMAX combined with DSRC as a hybrid platform after reviewing the recent advanced research towards this. Significantly the combined hybrid on-board system in the vehicle enables the short range and long range range communication as well for vehicular communication using a single communication platform. The concept is also proved through the simulation results. Method: We have explicitly reviewed the DSRC and WiMAX system architectured. We designed our hybrid system parameters to support both the technologies, simulated it and analysed the performance with simulated results. Results: Rigorous efferot has been made with various parameters to understand the performances during simulations. It has been observed that the system performs well with WiMAX communication to communnicate road side unit (RSU) over a reasonable distance than the DSRC technology with significantly low bit error rate (BER) than DSRC communication. Hence a hybrid DSRC- WiMAX car On Board Unit (OBU) gives the best performances through a single platform. Conclusion: Though the DSRC communication proves it’s efficiency in short distance communication like car to surrounding other cars for broadcasting the emergency alert informartion. In this context, a DSRC WiMAX based hybrid technlogy On Board(OBU) in the car will enable the all round performance of vehicular communication needs.

Background: Wireless sensor networks play very important role in the realization of Smart Grids having low cost and multi-functional sensor nodes to monitor the critical parameters of smart grid components. Its various applications are home automation, real time pricing, power outages, load control and security monitoring. It contains different harsh environments like 500 kV outdoor substation, main power control room and underground transformer vaults which are very difficult to access and monitor for a human being during an operational power grid. The communication in it constitutes of different type of traffic distinguished by exclusive attributes in terms of the data profile and latency requirement. Method: The MAC layer of IEEE 802.15.4 standard defines beacon and beaconless mode of operation to contain the three types of data traffic: periodic data, intermittent data, and repetitive low latency data. The beacon mode of operation is suitable for real time applications due to its ability to allocate Guaranteed Time Slot (GTS). On the other hand, beaconless mode of operation is appropriate for applications where sensor activates on a regular, yet random manner to report the occurrence of an event. Results: This paper analyzes and compares the network throughput, average end to end delay and successful data delivery ratio in beacon and beaconless mode of operations in different harsh environments of smart grids at different data rates. The objective of this paper is to envisage benefits and utilization of these two modes of operations in ZigBee for WSNs deployed in smart grids and to draw the attention of researchers in this area. Conclusion: In this paper, the performance of ZigBee in beacon enabled and beaconless mode of operations at different data rates for different smart electric grid environments is analyzed. The results propose that beacon enabled network has good results in terms of throughput. Also, beacon enabled network has a good delivery ratio as compared to beaconless network. However, it is observed that the end to end delay in the case of beacon enabled network is higher than that of non-beacon enabled networks.

Background: Recent technological advancement in the field of wireless communication, wireless sensor networks have emerged as an effective solution for many applications such as pollution monitoring, military applications, health applications, seismic studies, under water studies, etc. The sensor nodes are deployed in a distributed manner and the clock of these nodes represents different time. Therefore, time synchronization is very important aspect in wireless sensor networks. Time synchronization assures that all the sensor nodes in wireless sensor network have the same clock time. There are various applications where secure time synchronization in wireless sensor networks is required. Secure time synchronization in wireless sensor networks require time message confidentiality, integrity and authentication. Wireless sensor networks suffer from various attacks such as data integrity attack, man-inmiddle, replay attack, etc. Most of the existing time synchronization techniques are not designed with security provisions. This paper proposes security solution for time synchronization in wireless sensor networks with the objective to ensure message integrity and message authentication in an energy efficient manner. Simulation results exhibit that proposed scheme is suitable to ensure security for time synchronization in wireless sensor networks in an energy efficient manner. Results: The performance of proposed algorithms Secure Time Synchronization (STS) and Clustered Time Synchronization without security (CTS) have been evaluated, and then compared with Timing sync protocols for sensor networks (TPSN) and Two-hop time synchronization (TTS). The performance evaluation includes message complexity and energy consumption. Conclusion: It is mandatory to identify the security requirements of the applications. There are various applications where energy is mandatory requirement as compared to security. However, there are some applications such as health and military where security is crucial factor as compared to energy consumption. It is very important to consider the capacity of the nodes (processor, memory and energy) while developing the secure time synchronization protocols. In critical applications time synchronization is very important to know the exact time of the event. The proposed Secure Time Synchronization (STS) scheme uses two symmetric keys and hash function to ensure the synchronization of the nodes with security of the message travelling in wireless channel. The objective of STS is to avoid replay attack, integrity attack and man-in-middle attack and ensure synchronization with better precision. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm save the energy along with security features as compared to other non-secure synchronization protocols. This enhance the network lifetime.

Background: The convergence of wireless technologies, ad hoc networks and sensing devices has ushered to the concept of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) that has the potential to improve a wide range of applications relating to healthcare, environment, transportation, cities, military and disaster management. WSN allows a set of sensor nodes to measure, process and report specific parameters. More recently, some research interests have been focusing on detecting water leakage in a long pipeline using WSN. Furthermore, water leakage significantly affects the human lives and environment and designing a reliable leak detection technique is a crucial task. Method: Our design is mainly based on mobile sensor nodes that either use water velocity or localize themselves through range-based localization techniques. Our idea consists to schedule a set of mobile sensor nodes and allow them to switch their states from active to idle and vice versa such that we can achieve two objectives: localizing water leakage in a long-distance pipeline and minimizing energy consumption. We propose, simulate, evaluate and compare the energy consumption of three non-real time scheduling techniques. The first one investigates water velocity for predicting the movement of sensor nodes. The second technique localizes sensor nodes through a range-based method. However, the third technique merges the features of interrupt-driven and water velocity scheduling. Results: Our results demonstrate that interrupt-driven/water velocity-based scheduling outperforms all the other tested scheduling techniques and leads to an energy consumption which is an exponential function that depends on the number of nodes. In addition, the energy consumption of interruptdriven/ water velocity-based scheduling demonstrates a good performance according to the pipe length. Conclusion: Our simulation and analysis results demonstrate the energy-efficiency and scalability of interrupt-driven/water velocity-based scheduling according to the number of sensor nodes and the length of the pipe. This work may be improved by conducting in the future an experimental study to prove its performance.

Background: A new calibration method for Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) of Strapdown Inertial Navigation Systems was presented. IMU consists of inertial sensors like accelerometers, gyroscopes and a circuit of signal processing. Normally, a rate transfer test and multi-position tests are used for IMU calibration. In fact, it suggests turning over IMU around three axes simultaneously. In order to solve the equation of calibration, it is necessary to provide an equality of a rank of basic matrix into degree of basic matrix. For convenient or mechanical gyroscopes with g – and g2 – drifts, it is proposed as a way of problem solving. Method: The new calibration method is based on the whole angle rotation or finite rotation. Results: The results of simulated IMU data presented to demonstrate the performance of the new calibration method. Conclusion: In this paper, a new calibration method was suggested for IMU of strapdown inertial technology. The new calibration method is based on whole angle rotation. The proposed method can provide more real environment conditions when IMU turns around three axes simultaneously in comparison to traditional calibrations when IMU is rotated around one sensitive axis at each time. Besides, the new method has saved a testing time at three times at least.