Papers by Dhafer Ben Arbia
A novel cloudlet-based communication framework for resource-constrained devices
Proceedings of the First International Conference on Data Science, E-learning and Information Systems, 2018
In this paper, we present a new emerging technology for building mobility-enhanced and small-scal... more In this paper, we present a new emerging technology for building mobility-enhanced and small-scaled mobile to cloud applications called Cloudlet. We address the reliability challenges in affording a powerful computing resources to the mobile applications. The proposed system connects to different end points (mobile, sensors, computer) in order to collect information and send it to the cloud server. In addition, the integrated system allows users to make autonomic applications and send intelligent commands to the cloud in both on-line and off-line mode. The system integrates heterogeneous wireless devices (embadded system, sensors, integrators) and various communicating technologies (WiFi IEEE802.11n, GSM/GPRS, 3G, etc) to enable connectivity which is monitored by a cloud Internet-of-Things platform. The performance of GPRS/GSM based framework is evaluated under realistic conditions to ensure data synchronization between Cloudlet and Cloud. The results showed that the proposed approa...
Data Communication Algorithms for Emerging Wearable and Urban Sensing Networks. (Algorithmes de communications de données pour les réseaux sans fils mobiles et les réseaux de capteurs en zone urbaines)
Emerging wearable wireless networks (WWNs) are evolving along with the ubiquitous technologies an... more Emerging wearable wireless networks (WWNs) are evolving along with the ubiquitous technologies and standards. WWNs are not only used for health-care monitoring, but also in smart home and energy technologies, personal and public security, traffic and transport, environment sensing and industrial controlling. With the recent advances in Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) and Big Data, WWNs have become a key enabling technology to complete the automation chain through which data is collected, transmitted, recorded and analyzed. Moreover, WWNs have been seen as an efficient candidate to substitute wireless networks when networking infrastructures are missing. Obviously, during a disaster, the wireless infrastructure networks are either damaged or over-saturated, however, rescue operations communications must rely on a reliable tactical deployable networks to cover the operations area. To that end, the WWNs could play a key role in establishing a tactical disaster relief wireless netw...
2018 9th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS), 2018
Cooperative Intelligent Transportation System (C-ITS) enables inter-networking of vehicles for al... more Cooperative Intelligent Transportation System (C-ITS) enables inter-networking of vehicles for alerts exchanging in order to improve road safety. While this technology is about to enter the market in the upcoming years, critical questions related to the communication security continue to be challenging research concerns. Current solutions to secure inter-vehicle communication depend mainly on the use of digital certificates for authentication. However, such an approach imposes significant overhead on vehicles since it is computationally demanding and requires validation of the certificate within a limited period. In addition, relying on a central node for deciding on issuing and revoking certificates introduces a single point of failure and could even risk the safety of motorists. In this paper, we propose the use of Blockchain to keep track of the certificate of each vehicle (valid or revoked) in distributed and immutable records. In essence we replace certificate verification with a lightweight blockchain-based authentication approach. In addition, we propose a fully distributed vehicle admission/revocation scheme. We show that our scheme could alleviate the computation overhead and enhance the response time while improving the overall system security.
2017 14th IEEE Annual Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC), 2017
During a disaster incident, existing network infrastructures might either be damaged or overloade... more During a disaster incident, existing network infrastructures might either be damaged or overloaded. However, disaster operations require real-time and low latency data communication, especially live video and audio streaming, as well as in integration with social networks. Thus, deployed tactical networks face several challenges to connect intervening teams. To date, there is still a lack of routing standards for such networks. Indeed, in such harsh environment, medical rescue teams, firefighters, military, police and even victims need to be steadily connected to a distant command center (CC) which conducts the rescue operations. In our recent works, a new routing protocol called ORACE-Net was proposed, evaluated and compared to the existing approaches. ORACE-Net aims to create a tactical Internet of Humans (IoH) emergency network. ORACE-Net is implemented on mobile devices and evaluated within realistic conditions. The complete proposed solution consists of the CROW 2 , an Internet of Humans-based platform for disaster relief and emergency communication. In this paper we describe the setup and the demonstration of the CROW 2 platform based on the our conducted experimentation.
Dynamic Scheduled Access Medium Access Control for Emerging Wearable Applications
Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference Proceedings Volume 2016 Issue 1, 2016
Context and Motivation Wearable technology is emerging as one of the key enablers for the interne... more Context and Motivation Wearable technology is emerging as one of the key enablers for the internet of everything (IoE). The technology is getting mature by every day with more applications than ever before consequently making a significant impact in consumer electronic industry. In recent years, with the continuous exponential rise, it is anticipated that by 2019 there will be more than 150 million wearable devices worldwide [1]. Whilst fitness and health-care remain the dominant wearable applications, other applications include fashion and entertainment, augmented reality, rescue and emergency management are emerging as well [2]. In this context, Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) is implicit and well-known research discipline which foster and contribute towards the rapid growth of wearable technology. IEEE 802.15.6 standard targeted for WBAN provides a great flexibility and provisions both at the physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layers [3]. The wearable devices are constraint by limited battery, miniaturized, low processing and storage capabilities. While energy efficiency remains one of the most important challenges, low duty cycle and dynamic MAC layer design is critical for the longer life of these devices. In this regard, scheduled access mechanism is considered as one of the effective MAC approaches in WBAN in which every sensor node can have a dedicated time slot to transfer its data to the BAN coordinator. However, for a given application, as every node (i.e., connected sensors) has different data transmission rates [4], therefore, the scheduled access mechanism has to adapt the slot allocation accordingly to meet the design constraints (i.e., energy efficiency, packet delivery and delay requirements). Problem Description The scheduled access MAC with 2.4 GHz of operating frequency, highest data rate (i.e., 971 Kbps), and highest payload (i.e., 256 bytes) provides the maximum throughput in IEEE 802.15.6 standard. However, the performance of both packet delivery ratio (PDR) and delay in this configuration is very poor starting from -10dBm and lower transmission power [5]. The presented study is focused on this particular PHY-MAC configuration and to understand what is the maximum realistic achievable throughput while operating at the lowest transmission power for future IEEE 802.15.6 compliant transceivers. In addition the objective is to enhance the performance under realistic mobility patterns i.e., space and time varying channel conditions. Contribution In this paper we address the reliability concern of the above mentioned wearable applications while using IEEE 802.15.6 (high data rate supported) PHY-MAC configuration. The objective is to enhance the system performance while exploiting m-periodic scheduled access mechanism. We proposed a throughput and channel aware dynamic scheduling algorithm which provides a realistic throughput under dynamic mobility and space and time varying links. First, various mobility patterns are generated with special emphasis on space and time varying links because their performance is most vulnerable under the dynamic environment. A deterministic pathloss values (as an estimate of the channel) are obtained from a motion capture system and bio-mechanical modeling. Consequently, signal to noise (SNR), bit error rate (BER) and packet error rate (PER) are calculated. The proposed algorithm during the first phase uses this estimated PER to select the potential nodes for a time slot. Whereas in the second phase, based on the nodes priority and the data packets availability among the potential candidates, finally a slot is assigned to one node. This process is iterated by the coordinating node until the end of a super frame. Results The proposed scheduling scheme has a significant gain over a reference scheme (i.e., without dynamic adaptation). On average, 20-to-55 percent extra packets are received, along with 1-to-5 joules of energy savings though at the cost of higher delay ranging from 20-to-200 ms while operating at low power levels (i.e., 0 dBm, -5 dBm, -10 dBm). It is recommended that the future wearable IEEE 802.15.6 compliant transceivers can successfully operate at -5 dBm to -8 dBm of transmission power; further reducing the power levels under dynamic environment can degrade the performance. It is also observed that the achievable throughput of different time varying links is good under realistic conditions until the data packet generation rate is higher than 100 ms. Acknowledgment: The work was supported by NPRP grant #[6-1508-2-616] from the Qatar National Research Fund which is a member of Qatar Foundation. The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors. References [1] “Facts and statistics on Wearable Technology,” 2015. [Online]. Available: http://www.statista.com/topics/1556/wearable-technology/. [2] M. M. Alam and E. B. Hamida, “Surveying Wearable Human Assistive Technology for Life and Safety Critical Applications:…
Wearable D2D Routing Strategies for Urban Disaster Management – A Case Study
Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference Proceedings Volume 2016 Issue 1, 2016
Critical and public safety operations require real-time communication from the incident area(s) t... more Critical and public safety operations require real-time communication from the incident area(s) to the distant operations command center going through the evacuation and medical support areas. Data transmitted throughout such type of network is extremely useful for decisions makers and operations' conducting. Therefore, any delay in communication may cause lives' loss. Above all, the existing infrastructure communication systems (PSTN, WiFi, 4/5 G, etc.) can be damaged and is often not available solution. An alternate option is to deploy autonomous tactical network at unpredictable location and time. However, in this context there are many challenge especially how to effectively rout or disseminate the information. In this paper, we present behavior of varied multi-hops routing protocols evaluated in a disaster-simulated scenario with different communication technologies (i.e. WiFi IEEE 802.11; WSN IEEE 802.15.4; WBAN IEEE 802.15.6). Studied routing strategies are classified...
Technologies, 2017
Wearable wireless networks (WWNs) offer innovative ways to connect humans and/or objects anywhere... more Wearable wireless networks (WWNs) offer innovative ways to connect humans and/or objects anywhere, anytime, within an infinite variety of applications. WWNs include three levels of communications: on-body, body-to-body and off-body communication. Successful communication in on-body and body-to-body networks is often challenging due to ultra-low power consumption, processing and storage capabilities, which have a significant impact on the achievable throughput and packet reception ratio as well as latency. Consequently, all these factors make it difficult to opt for an appropriate technology to optimize communication performance, which predominantly depends on the given application. In particular, this work emphasizes the impact of coarse-grain factors (such as dynamic and diverse mobility, radio-link and signal propagation, interference management, data dissemination schemes, and routing approaches) directly affecting the communication performance in WWNs. Experiments have been performed on a real testbed to investigate the connectivity behavior on two wireless communication levels: on-body and body-to-body. It is concluded that by considering the impact of above-mentioned factors, the general perception of using specific technologies may not be correct. Indeed, for on-body communication, by using the IEEE 802.15.6 standard (which is specifically designed for on-body communication), it is observed that while operating at low transmission power under realistic conditions, the connectivity can be significantly low, thus, the transmission power has to be tuned carefully. Similarly, for body-to-body communication in an indoor environment, WiFi IEEE 802.11n also has a high threshold of end-to-end disconnections beyond two hops (approximatively 25 m). Therefore, these facts promote the use of novel technologies such as 802.11ac, NarrowBand-IoT (NB-IoT) etc. as possible candidates for body-to-body communications as a part of the Internet of humans concept.
Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks, 2017
In this paper, we present a new enhancement for an emergency and disaster relief system called Cr... more In this paper, we present a new enhancement for an emergency and disaster relief system called Critical and Rescue Operations using Wearable Wireless sensors networks (CROW 2). We address the reliability challenges in setting up a wireless autonomous communication system in order to offload data from the disaster area (rescuers, trapped victims, civilians, media, etc.) back to a command center. The proposed system connects deployed rescuers to extended networks and the Internet. CROW 2 is an end-to-end system that runs the recently-proposed Optimized Routing Approach for Critical and Emergency Networks (ORACE-Net) routing protocol. The system integrates heterogeneous wireless devices (Raspberry Pi, smart phones, sensors) and various communicating technologies (WiFi IEEE 802.11n, Bluetooth IEEE 802.15.1) to enable end-to-end network connectivity, which is monitored by a cloud Internet-of-Things platform. First, we present the CROW 2 generic system architecture, which is adaptable to various technologies integration at different levels (i.e., on-body, body-to-body, off-body). Second, we implement the ORACE-Net protocol on heterogeneous devices including Android-based smart phones and Linux-based Raspberry Pi devices. These devices act as on-body coordinators to collect information from on-body sensors. The collected data is then pushed to the command center thanks to multi-hop device-to-device communication. Third, the overall CROW 2 system performance is evaluated according to relevant metrics including end-to-end link quality estimation, throughput and end-to-end delay. As a proof-of-concept, we validate the system architecture through deployment and extracted experimental results. Finally, we highlight motion detection and links' unavailability prevention based on the recorded data where the main factors (i.e., interference and noise) that affect the performance are analyzed.
2016 IEEE 12th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob), 2016
Providing efficient routing service over tactical multi-hop ad-hoc networks is a crucial building... more Providing efficient routing service over tactical multi-hop ad-hoc networks is a crucial building block in wireless communication networks especially during a disaster relief. To date, there is still a lack of routing standards for such networks. Indeed, in such harsh environment, medical rescue teams, firefighters, military, police and even victims need to be steadily connected to a distant command center (CC) which conducts the rescue operations. In this paper, we propose a new multi-hop routing approach called ORACE-Net. The proposed protocol uses advertisement packets to establish routes from deployed nodes towards the CC (i.e. Direct Route Establishment). Then, it utilizes the data packets to establish reverse routes (from the CC to all nodes in the network). We implemented and evaluated our approach in realistic scenario using tactical and onbody mobile nodes. Our experiments include also an Internet of Thing (IoT) platform and a real-time dynamic topology website which are used for analyzing the behavior of the protocol. The experimental results show that our protocol increases the mobile nodes connectivity and packet delivery rate. Also, it reduces the average round trip time delay for the on-body nodes compared to the tactical deployed base stations.
Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications, 2016
With the growing increase of disasters worldwide, in terms of frequencies, intensities and unpred... more With the growing increase of disasters worldwide, in terms of frequencies, intensities and unpredictability, there is currently a growing need for novel ubiquitous communication systems enabling public safety networks (PSN). Disaster operations require real-time and low latency data communication, in live video and audio streaming, as well as in integration with social networks. In this context, existing network infrastructures might be either damaged or overloaded. Thus, it is expected that wireless Body-to-Body Networks (B2Bs) could play a key role in setting-up tactical PSN deployments enabling effective and reliable disaster response and management. In addition to the challenges with radio technologies and their inter-operability, coexistence and energy consumption issues, routing is also an important and critical challenge for the PSN. In this paper we propose a novel wireless B2B routing protocol, called "Optimized Routing Approach for Critical and Emergency Networks (ORACE-Net)" to enhance routing performance
2016 International Conference on Wireless Networks and Mobile Communications (WINCOM), 2016
In this paper, a new multi-hop routing protocol (called ORACE-Net) for disaster and emergency net... more In this paper, a new multi-hop routing protocol (called ORACE-Net) for disaster and emergency networks is proposed. The proposed hierarchical protocol creates an ad-hoc network through body-to-body (B2B) communication between rescue members and the command center. The on-body coordinators establish forward routes towards a command center, whereas, the command center builds reverse routes towards these nodes. The Routing tables are optimized based on real-time endto-end Link Quality Estimation (LQE) metrics (i.e., end-to-end signal strength level and end-to-end hop count). We evaluate our proposed protocol with other widely used protocols in the disaster context which are covered by the routing classes (i.e., Reactive, Proactive and Geographic-based). The evaluation is based on a realistic disaster mobility trace. The results show that the proposed protocol outperforms the other studied protocols in terms of packet reception rate and energy consumption. The proposed ORACE-Net protocol increases the body-to-body network lifetime and reliability.
Joint throughput and channel aware (TCA) dynamic scheduling algorithm for emerging wearable applications
2016 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, 2016
This paper addresses a reliability concern of the emerging wearable applications under dynamic an... more This paper addresses a reliability concern of the emerging wearable applications under dynamic and realistic conditions. We propose a new joint throughput and channel aware (TCA) dynamic scheduling algorithm for IEEE 802.15.6 standard to enhance the system performance while exploiting m-periodic scheduled access mechanism. First, various mobility patterns are generated with special emphasis on space and time varying links and their performance which are most vulnerable under dynamic environment. A deterministic pathloss values (as an estimate of the channel) are obtained from a set of training sequence which is generated using motion capture system and bio-mechanical modeling. Consequently, signal to noise (SNR), bit error rate (BER) and packet error rate (PER) are calculated. The TCA algorithm during the first phase uses this estimated PER to select the potential nodes for a time slot. Whereas in the second phase, based on the nodes priority and the data packets availability among the potential candidates, finally a slot is assigned to one node. This process is repeated by the coordinating node until the end of the super frame. This scheme has a significant gain over a reference scheme (i.e., without above adaptation). On average, 20-to-55 percent extra packets are received, along with 1-to-5 joules of energy savings though at the cost of higher delay ranging from 20-to-200 ms while operating at low power levels (i.e., 0 dBm, -5 dBm, -10 dBm).
Wireless Public Safety Networks 2, 2016
Public safety communication networks have evolved over the past decade from land mobile systems t... more Public safety communication networks have evolved over the past decade from land mobile systems to broadband and beyond. However, the emphasis remains on infrastructure-based communication systems. There is a potential risk that during a disaster, existing infrastructure could be completely damaged or oversaturated. In addition, historically very limited attention has been given to the health monitoring of the first responders during a rescue mission. To bridge this gap, it is envisioned that Wearable Wireless Sensor Networks (W-WSNs) could play an important role to enhance existing Public Safety Networks (PSN). In this chapter, we will introduce the W-WSN architectural framework based on on-body, body-to-body and off-body communication networks which can be considered as an add-on to existing PSN infrastructures. Subsequently in the context of PSN, significant details of this new system and associated problems and challenges in emerging heterogeneous networks are presented.
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), Jan 20, 2016
In this paper, we present an accurate and realistic simulation for body area networks (BAN) and b... more In this paper, we present an accurate and realistic simulation for body area networks (BAN) and body-to-body networks (BBN) using deterministic and semi-deterministic approaches. First, in the semi-deterministic approach, a real-time measurement campaign is performed, which is further characterized through statistical analysis. It is able to generate link-correlated and time-varying realistic traces (i.e., with consistent mobility patterns) for on-body and body-to-body shadowing and fading, including body orientations and rotations, by means of stochastic channel models. The full deterministic approach is particularly targeted to enhance IEEE 802.15.6 proposed channel models by introducing space and time variations (i.e., dynamic distances) through biomechanical modeling. In addition, it helps to accurately model the radio link by identifying the link types and corresponding path loss factors for line of sight (LOS) and non-line of sight (NLOS). This approach is particularly importa...
2015 IEEE 11th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob), 2015
Critical and public safety operations require realtime data transfer from the incident area(s) to... more Critical and public safety operations require realtime data transfer from the incident area(s) to the distant operations command center going through the evacuation and medical support areas. Any delay in communication may cause significant loss. In some cases, it is anticipated that the existing communication infrastructures can be damaged or out-ofservice. It is thus required to deploy tactical ad-hoc networks to cover the operation zones. Routing data over the deployed network is a significant challenge with consideration to the operations conditions. In this paper we evaluate the performance of mutli-hop routing protocols while using different wireless technologies in an urban critical and emergency scenario. Using a realistic mobility model, Mobile Ad hoc, geographic based and data-centric routing protocols are evaluated with different communication technologies (i.e. WiFi IEEE 802.11; WSN IEEE 802.15.4; WBAN IEEE 802.15.6). It is concluded that, WiFi IEEE 802.11 is the best wireless technology with consideration to the packet reception rate and the energy consumption. Whereas, in terms of delay, WBAN IEEE 802.15.6 is the most efficient. With regards to the routing protocols, assuming that the location information is available, geographical based routing protocol with WiFi IEEE 802.11 performed much better compared to the others routing protocols. In case where the location information is unavailable, gradient based routing protocol with WBAN IEEE 802.15.6 seems the best combination.
2015 IEEE 11th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob), 2015
With the recent advent of Internet of Humans (IoH), wireless body-to-body networks (WBBNs) are em... more With the recent advent of Internet of Humans (IoH), wireless body-to-body networks (WBBNs) are emerging as the fundamental part of this new paradigm. In particular with reference to newly emerging applications, the research trends on data routing and dissemination strategies have gained a great interest in WBBN. In this paper, we present the performance evaluation of the clustered and distributed data dissemination approaches in tactical WBBN. We used a realistic radio-link and biomechanical mobility model for on-body motions, and group mobility model for WBBN to effectively realize rescue and emergency management application scenario. In this regard, we are using the newly proposed IEEE 802.15.6 standard targeted for body area networks. Extensive (IEEE 802.15.6 standard compliance) network level, packet oriented simulations are conducted in WSNet simulator. During the simulations, various payloads, frequencies (narrow-band) and modulation techniques are exploited. We based our performance evaluation on relevant metrics according to the operational requirements for tactical networks such as packet reception ratio, latency, energy consumption and hop count. The results showed a trade-offs between clustered-based and distributed-based dissemination approaches. With regards to packet delay, distributed approach provided the best performance. However, in terms of average packet reception ratio (PRR), clustered-based approach achieves up to 97% reception and remained the best strategy. Whereas, the results of the hop count and energy consumption are almost comparable in both schemes.
Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 2015
Wearable Wireless Networks (WWN) aim to provide attractive alternate for conventional medical car... more Wearable Wireless Networks (WWN) aim to provide attractive alternate for conventional medical care system. It is an effective way of monitoring patients within clinics, hospitals and remotely from home, offices etc. In this paper we extend the classical envisioned applications from medical health-care to rescue and critical applications for disaster and emergency management using WWN. There are number of challenges to effectively realize this application and several of those are presented in this paper along with various opportunities. We review multi-standard and multiple technologies based wearable wireless cognitive system for Device-to-Device (D2D) communication. Coexistence and inter-operability is one of the important challenges which are discussed along with utilization of possible technologies for on-body, body-to-body and off-body communications.
Simulation Systems for armed forces training Simulation system NATO's Standards and proposal of Environment model
The nations' Responsibility in maintaining peace, the unequal balance of power, and the globa... more The nations' Responsibility in maintaining peace, the unequal balance of power, and the global media pressure do not allow any error in military interventions. The professional armed forces cannot provide the guarantee of effectiveness unless skills are at the highest level. Training is fundamental for armed forces. Along these needs, simulation proved its efficiency in training forces in different situations, because of the diversity of scenarios offered by its techniques. These techniques were standardized by international organization concerned with the military doctrine in the world, such as NATO 1 , ETSA 2 and even US DoD 3 . This paper outlines the standards of simulation for military training, and details the simulation architecture proposed for a new 'Operations Simulation System', based on the international standards and starting from our own experience using a worldwide known simulation system. Finally we propose new technique to produce digital maps that will ...
Approach for RFid and WSNs integration in Military Live Simulation Context
Military involvement in various troubles, conventional, anti terrorism and order maintaining, pus... more Military involvement in various troubles, conventional, anti terrorism and order maintaining, pushes armies to maintain a high operational level for their troops. However, training in real war conditions is highly expensive and risky. Hence, it became necessary to adopt simulation for military training in different operations: commanding, arms using, physical preparation, etc. This has led to developing different techniques of simulation namely: Virtual, Constructive and Live simulations. Due to its benefits, setting up live simulation domain is an interesting concern which may involve two key technologies: RFID (Radio Frequency Identification technology) and WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks). This paper explains an approach of integration of RFID and WSN technology in live simulation context for military training.
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Papers by Dhafer Ben Arbia