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1.
Front Public Health ; 11: 1199234, 2023.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38045974

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used for commercial, medical, public safety, and scientific research purposes in various countries. Methods: This study aimed to explore the acceptance of medical delivery drones among medical practitioners as well as the public community in Malaysia using a knowledge, attitude, and perception (KAP) model and statistical analysis to decrease uncertainty. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of the results were performed in SPSS. Results: A total of 639 respondents took part in the survey, of which 557 complete responses were finally analyzed. The results showed that the overall acceptance rate for medical delivery drones was positive. The acceptance rate was significantly correlated with knowledge, attitude, and perception scores but not with sociodemographic factors. Discussion: Raising awareness and educating the medical as well as public communities regarding the potential role and benefits of drones are therefore important in garnering support for drone usage for medical purposes.


Subject(s)
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Unmanned Aerial Devices , Perception , Technology , Malaysia
2.
Sensors (Basel) ; 23(9)2023 Apr 28.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37177560

ABSTRACT

Fifth Generation (5G) signals using the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrums are highly vulnerable to blockage due to rapid variations in channel link quality. This can cause the devices or User Equipment (UE) to suffer from connection failure. In a dual connectivity (DC) network, the channel's intermittency issues were partially solved by maintaining the UE's connectivity to primary (LTE advanced stations) and secondary (5G mmWave stations) simultaneously. Even though the dual-connected network performs excellently in maintaining connectivity, its performance drops significantly due to the inefficient handover from one 5G mmWave station to another. The situation worsens when UE travels a long distance in a highly dense obstacle environment, which requires multiple ineffective handovers that eventually lead to performance degradation. This research aimed to propose an Adaptive TTT Handover (ATH) mechanism that deals with unpredictable 5G mmWave wireless channel behaviors that are highly intermittent. An adaptive algorithm was developed to automatically adjust the handover control parameters, such as Time-to-Trigger (TTT), based on the current state of channel condition measured by the Signal-to-Interference-Noise Ratio (SINR). The developed algorithm was tested under a 5G mmWave statistical channel model to represent a time-varying channel matrix that includes fading and the Doppler effect. The performance of the proposed handover mechanism was analyzed and evaluated in terms of handover probability, latency, and throughput by using the Network Simulator 3 tool. The comparative simulation result shows that the proposed adaptive handover mechanism performs excellently compared to conventional handovers and other enhancement techniques.

3.
Sensors (Basel) ; 23(4)2023 Feb 13.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36850701

ABSTRACT

Blockchain introduces challenges related to the reliability of user identity and identity management systems; this includes detecting unfalsified identities linked to IoT applications. This study focuses on optimizing user identity verification time by employing an efficient encryption algorithm for the user signature in a peer-to-peer decentralized IoT blockchain network. To achieve this, a user signature-based identity management framework is examined by using various encryption techniques and contrasting various hash functions built on top of the Modified Merkle Hash Tree (MMHT) data structure algorithm. The paper presents the execution of varying dataset sizes based on transactions between nodes to test the scalability of the proposed design for secure blockchain communication. The results show that the MMHT data structure algorithm using SHA3 and AES-128 encryption algorithm gives the lowest execution time, offering a minimum of 36% gain in time optimization compared to other algorithms. This work shows that using the AES-128 encryption algorithm with the MMHT algorithm and SHA3 hash function not only identifies malicious codes but also improves user integrity check performance in a blockchain network, while ensuring network scalability. Therefore, this study presents the performance evaluation of a blockchain network considering its distinct types, properties, components, and algorithms' taxonomy.

4.
Sensors (Basel) ; 22(22)2022 Nov 19.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36433554

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes an effective global path planning technique for cellular-connected UAVs to enhance the reliability of unmanned aerial vehicles' (UAVs) flights operating beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS). Cellular networks are considered one of the leading enabler technologies to provide a ubiquitous and reliable communication link for UAVs. First, this paper investigates a reliable aerial zone based on an extensive aerial drive test in a 4G network within a suburban environment. Then, the path planning problem for the cellular-connected UAVs is formulated under communication link reliability and power consumption constraints. To provide a realistic optimization solution, all constraints of the optimization problem are defined based on real-world scenarios; in addition, the presence of static obstacles and no-fly zones is considered in the path planning problem. Two powerful intelligent optimization algorithms, the genetic algorithm (GA) and the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, are used to solve the defined optimization problem. Moreover, a combination of both algorithms, referred to as PSO-GA, is used to overcome the inherent shortcomings of the algorithms. The performances of the algorithms are compared under different scenarios in simulation environments. According to the statistical analysis of the aerial drive test, existing 4G base stations are able to provide reliable aerial coverage up to a radius of 500 m and a height of 85 m. The statistical analysis of the optimization results shows that PSO-GA is a more stable and effective algorithm to rapidly converge to a feasible solution for UAV path planning problems, with a far faster execution time compared with PSO and GA, about two times. To validate the performance of the proposed solution, the simulation results are compared with the real-world aerial drive test results. The results comparison proves the effectiveness of the proposed path planning method in suburban environments with 4G coverage. The proposed method can be extended by identifying the aerial link reliability of 5G networks to solve the UAV global path planning problem in the current 5G deployment.

5.
Sensors (Basel) ; 22(16)2022 Aug 18.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36015959

ABSTRACT

Mobility management is an essential process in mobile networks to ensure a high quality of service (QoS) for mobile user equipment (UE) during their movements. In fifth generation (5G) and beyond (B5G) mobile networks, mobility management becomes more critical due to several key factors, such as the use of Millimeter Wave (mmWave) and Terahertz, a higher number of deployed small cells, massive growth of connected devices, the requirements of a higher data rate, and the necessities for ultra-low latency with high reliability. Therefore, providing robust mobility techniques that enable seamless connections through the UE's mobility has become critical and challenging. One of the crucial handover (HO) techniques is known as mobility robustness optimization (MRO), which mainly aims to adjust HO control parameters (HCPs) (time-to-trigger (TTT) and handover margin (HOM)). Although this function has been introduced in 4G and developed further in 5G, it must be more efficient with future mobile networks due to several key challenges, as previously illustrated. This paper proposes a Robust Handover Optimization Technique with a Fuzzy Logic Controller (RHOT-FLC). The proposed technique aims to automatically configure HCPs by exploiting the information on Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), and UE velocity as input parameters for the proposed technique. The technique is validated through various mobility scenarios in B5G networks. Additionally, it is evaluated using a number of major HO performance metrics, such as HO probability (HOP), HO failure (HOF), HO ping-pong (HOPP), HO latency (HOL), and HO interruption time (HIT). The obtained results have also been compared with other competitive algorithms from the literature. The results show that RHOT-FLC has achieved considerably better performance than other techniques. Furthermore, the RHOT-FLC technique obtains up to 95% HOP reduction, 95.8% in HOF, 97% in HOPP, 94.7% in HOL, and 95% in HIT compared to the competitive algorithms. Overall, RHOT-FLC obtained a substantial improvement of up to 95.5% using the considered HO performance metrics.


Subject(s)
Computer Communication Networks , Fuzzy Logic , Algorithms , Reproducibility of Results , Wireless Technology
6.
Sensors (Basel) ; 22(15)2022 Jul 24.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35898026

ABSTRACT

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry is moving toward beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations to unlock future internet of drones applications, including unmanned environmental monitoring and long-range delivery services. A reliable and ubiquitous mobile communication link plays a vital role in ensuring flight safety. Cellular networks are considered one of the main enablers of BVLOS operations. However, the existing cellular networks are designed and optimized for terrestrial use cases. To investigate the reliability of provided aerial coverage by the terrestrial cellular base stations (BSs), this article proposes six machine learning-based models to predict reference signal received power (RSRP) and reference signal received quality (RSRQ) based on the multiple linear regression, polynomial, and logarithmic methods. In this regard, first, a UAV-to-BS measurement campaign was conducted in a 4G LTE network within a suburban environment. Then, the aerial coverage was statistically analyzed and the prediction methods were developed as a function of distance and elevation angle. The results reveal the capability of terrestrial BSs in providing aerial coverage under some circumstances, which mainly depends on the distance between the UAV and BS and flight height. The performance evaluation shows that the proposed RSRP and RSRQ models achieved RMSE of 4.37 dBm and 2.71 dB for testing samples, respectively.


Subject(s)
Aircraft , Unmanned Aerial Devices , Communication , Internet , Machine Learning , Reproducibility of Results
7.
Sensors (Basel) ; 22(3)2022 Jan 20.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35161509

ABSTRACT

Ever since the introduction of fifth generation (5G) mobile communications, the mobile telecommunications industry has been debating whether 5G is an "evolution" or "revolution" from the previous legacy mobile networks, but now that 5G has been commercially available for the past few years, the research direction has recently shifted towards the upcoming generation of mobile communication system, known as the sixth generation (6G), which is expected to drastically provide significant and evolutionary, if not revolutionary, improvements in mobile networks. The promise of extremely high data rates (in terabits), artificial intelligence (AI), ultra-low latency, near-zero/low energy, and immense connected devices is expected to enhance the connectivity, sustainability, and trustworthiness and provide some new services, such as truly immersive "extended reality" (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram, and a new generation of entertainment. Sixth generation and its vision are still under research and open for developers and researchers to establish and develop their directions to realize future 6G technology, which is expected to be ready as early as 2028. This paper reviews 6G mobile technology, including its vision, requirements, enabling technologies, and challenges. Meanwhile, a total of 11 communication technologies, including terahertz (THz) communication, visible light communication (VLC), multiple access, coding, cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CF-mMIMO) zero-energy interface, intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), and infusion of AI/machine learning (ML) in wireless transmission techniques, are presented. Moreover, this paper compares 5G and 6G in terms of services, key technologies, and enabling communications techniques. Finally, it discusses the crucial future directions and technology developments in 6G.


Subject(s)
Artificial Intelligence , Communication , Machine Learning , Technology , Wireless Technology
8.
Sensors (Basel) ; 21(22)2021 Nov 17.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34833705

ABSTRACT

As nuclear technology evolves, and continues to be used in various fields since its discovery less than a century ago, radiation safety has become a major concern to humans and the environment. Radiation monitoring plays a significant role in preventive radiological nuclear detection in nuclear facilities, hospitals, or in any activities associated with radioactive materials by acting as a tool to measure the risk of being exposed to radiation while reaping its benefit. Apart from in occupational settings, radiation monitoring is required in emergency responses to radiation incidents as well as outdoor radiation zones. Several radiation sensors have been developed, ranging from as simple as a Geiger-Muller counter to bulkier radiation systems such as the High Purity Germanium detector, with different functionality for use in different settings, but the inability to provide real-time data makes radiation monitoring activities less effective. The deployment of manned vehicles equipped with these radiation sensors reduces the scope of radiation monitoring operations significantly, but the safety of radiation monitoring operators is still compromised. Recently, the Internet of Things (IoT) technology has been introduced to the world and offered solutions to these limitations. This review elucidates a systematic understanding of the fundamental usage of the Internet of Drones for radiation monitoring purposes. The extension of essential functional blocks in IoT can be expanded across radiation monitoring industries, presenting several emerging research opportunities and challenges. This article offers a comprehensive review of the evolutionary application of IoT technology in nuclear and radiation monitoring. Finally, the security of the nuclear industry is discussed.


Subject(s)
Internet of Things , Radiation Monitoring , Humans , Remote Sensing Technology , Technology , Wireless Technology
9.
Sensors (Basel) ; 21(15)2021 Jul 26.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34372281

ABSTRACT

Currently, smart farming is considered an effective solution to enhance the productivity of farms; thereby, it has recently received broad interest from service providers to offer a wide range of applications, from pest identification to asset monitoring. Although the emergence of digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), has led to significant advances in the smart farming industry, farming operations still need more efficient solutions. On the other hand, the utilization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, is growing rapidly across many civil application domains. This paper aims to develop a farm monitoring system that incorporates UAV, LPWAN, and IoT technologies to transform the current farm management approach and aid farmers in obtaining actionable data from their farm operations. In this regard, an IoT-based water quality monitoring system was developed because water is an essential aspect in livestock development. Then, based on the Long-Range Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN®) technology, a multi-channel LoRaWAN® gateway was developed and integrated into a vertical takeoff and landing drone to convey collected data from the sensors to the cloud for further analysis. In addition, to develop LoRaWAN®-based aerial communication, a series of measurements and simulations were performed under different configurations and scenarios. Finally, to enhance the efficiency of aerial-based data collection, the UAV path planning was optimized. Measurement results showed that the maximum achievable LoRa coverage when operating on-air via the drone is about 10 km, and the Longley-Rice irregular terrain model provides the most suitable path loss model for the scenario of large-scale farms, and a multi-channel gateway with a spreading factor of 12 provides the most reliable communication link at a high drone speed (up to 95 km/h). Simulation results showed that the developed system can overcome the coverage limitation of LoRaWAN® and it can establish a reliable communication link over large-scale wireless sensor networks. In addition, it was shown that by optimizing flight paths, aerial data collection could be performed in a much shorter time than industrial mission planning (up to four times in our case).


Subject(s)
Internet of Things , Wireless Technology , Animals , Communication , Farms , Livestock
10.
Sensors (Basel) ; 21(8)2021 Apr 18.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33919486

ABSTRACT

Conventional and license-free radio-controlled drone activities are limited to a line-of-sight (LoS) operational range. One of the alternatives to operate the drones beyond the visual line-of-sight (BVLoS) range is replacing the drone wireless communications system from the conventional industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) radio band to a licensed cellular-connected system. The Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology that has been established for the terrestrial area allows command-and-control and payload communications between drone and ground station in real-time. However, with increasing height above the ground, the radio environment changes, and utilizing terrestrial cellular networks for drone communications may face new challenges. In this regard, this paper aims to develop an LTE-based control system prototype for low altitude small drones and investigate the feasibility and performance of drone cellular connectivity at different altitudes with measuring parameters such as latency, handover, and signal strength. The measurement results have shown that by increasing flight height from ground to 170 m the received signal power and the signal quality levels were reduced by 20 dBm and 10 dB respectively, the downlink data rate decreased to 70%, and latency increased up to 94 ms. It is concluded that although the existing LTE network can provide a minimum requirement for drone cellular connectivity, further improvements are still needed to enhance aerial coverage, eliminate interference, and reduce network latency.

11.
Sensors (Basel) ; 22(1)2021 Dec 30.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35009820

ABSTRACT

The most effective methods of preventing COVID-19 infection include maintaining physical distancing and wearing a face mask while in close contact with people in public places. However, densely populated areas have a greater incidence of COVID-19 dissemination, which is caused by people who do not comply with standard operating procedures (SOPs). This paper presents a prototype called PADDIE-C19 (Physical Distancing Device with Edge Computing for COVID-19) to implement the physical distancing monitoring based on a low-cost edge computing device. The PADDIE-C19 provides real-time results and responses, as well as notifications and warnings to anyone who violates the 1-m physical distance rule. In addition, PADDIE-C19 includes temperature screening using an MLX90614 thermometer and ultrasonic sensors to restrict the number of people on specified premises. The Neural Network Processor (KPU) in Grove Artificial Intelligence Hardware Attached on Top (AI HAT), an edge computing unit, is used to accelerate the neural network model on person detection and achieve up to 18 frames per second (FPS). The results show that the accuracy of person detection with Grove AI HAT could achieve 74.65% and the average absolute error between measured and actual physical distance is 8.95 cm. Furthermore, the accuracy of the MLX90614 thermometer is guaranteed to have less than 0.5 °C value difference from the more common Fluke 59 thermometer. Experimental results also proved that when cloud computing is compared to edge computing, the Grove AI HAT achieves the average performance of 18 FPS for a person detector (kmodel) with an average 56 ms execution time in different networks, regardless of the network connection type or speed.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Physical Distancing , Artificial Intelligence , Humans , Masks , SARS-CoV-2
12.
Sensors (Basel) ; 19(14)2019 Jul 12.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31336834

ABSTRACT

Wake-up radio is a promising approach to mitigate the problem of idle listening, which incurs additional power consumption for the Internet of Things (IoT) wireless transmission. Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting technique allows the wake-up radio to remain in a deep sleep and only become active after receiving an external RF signal to 'wake-up' the radio, thus eliminating necessary hardware and signal processing to perform idle listening, resulting in higher energy efficiency. This review paper focuses on cross-layer; physical and media access control (PHY and MAC) approaches on passive wake-up radio based on the previous works from the literature. First, an explanation of the circuit design and system architecture of the passive wake-up radios is presented. Afterward, the previous works on RF energy harvesting techniques and the existing passive wake-up radio hardware architectures available in the literature are surveyed and classified. An evaluation of the various MAC protocols utilized for the novel passive wake-up radio technologies is presented. Finally, the paper highlights the potential research opportunities and practical challenges related to the practical implementation of wake-up technology for future IoT applications.

13.
Sensors (Basel) ; 18(12)2018 Dec 10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30544655

ABSTRACT

This paper investigated the throughput performance of a secondary user (SU) for a random primary user (PU) activity in a realistic experimental model. This paper proposed a sensing and frame duration of the SU to maximize the SU throughput under the collision probability constraint. The throughput of the SU and the probability of collisions depend on the pattern of PU activities. The pattern of PU activity was obtained and modelled from the experimental data that measure the wireless local area network (WLAN) environment. The WLAN signal has detected the transmission opportunity length (TOL) which was analyzed and clustered into large and small durations in the CTOL model. The performance of the SU is then analyzed and compared with static and dynamic PU models. The results showed that the SU throughput in the CTOL model was higher than the static and dynamic models by almost 45% and 12.2% respectively. Furthermore, the probability of collisions in the network and the SU throughput were influenced by the value of the minimum contention window and the maximum back-off stage. The simulation results revealed that the higher contention window had worsened the SU throughput even though the channel has a higher number of TOLs.

14.
Sensors (Basel) ; 18(12)2018 Dec 10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30544684

ABSTRACT

Channel rendezvous is an initial and important process for establishing communications between secondary users (SUs) in distributed cognitive radio networks. Due to the drawbacks of the common control channel (CCC) based rendezvous approach, channel hopping (CH) has attracted a lot of research interests for achieving blind rendezvous. To ensure rendezvous within a finite time, most of the existing CH-based rendezvous schemes generate their CH sequences based on the whole global channel set in the network. However, due to the spatial and temporal variations in channel availabilities as well as the limitation of SUs sensing capabilities, the local available channel set (ACS) for each SU is usually a small subset of the global set. Therefore, following these global-based generated CH sequences can result in extensively long time-to-rendezvous (TTR) especially when the number of unavailable channels is large. In this paper, we propose two matrix-based CH rendezvous schemes in which the CH sequences are generated based on the ACSs only. We prove the guaranteed and full diversity rendezvous of the proposed schemes by deriving the theoretical upper bounds of their maximum TTRs. Furthermore, extensive simulation comparisons with other existing works are conducted which illustrate the superior performance of our schemes in terms of the TTR metrics.

15.
Sensors (Basel) ; 18(10)2018 Oct 13.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30322176

ABSTRACT

The use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in modern precision agriculture to monitor climate conditions and to provide agriculturalists with a considerable amount of useful information is currently being widely considered. However, WSNs exhibit several limitations when deployed in real-world applications. One of the challenges faced by WSNs is prolonging the life of sensor nodes. This challenge is the primary motivation for this work, in which we aim to further minimize the energy consumption of a wireless agriculture system (WAS), which includes air temperature, air humidity, and soil moisture. Two power reduction schemes are proposed to decrease the power consumption of the sensor and router nodes. First, a sleep/wake scheme based on duty cycling is presented. Second, the sleep/wake scheme is merged with redundant data about soil moisture, thereby resulting in a new algorithm called sleep/wake on redundant data (SWORD). SWORD can minimize the power consumption and data communication of the sensor node. A 12 V/5 W solar cell is embedded into the WAS to sustain its operation. Results show that the power consumption of the sensor and router nodes is minimized and power savings are improved by the sleep/wake scheme. The power consumption of the sensor and router nodes is improved by 99.48% relative to that in traditional operation when the SWORD algorithm is applied. In addition, data communication in the SWORD algorithm is minimized by 86.45% relative to that in the sleep/wake scheme. The comparison results indicate that the proposed algorithms outperform power reduction techniques proposed in other studies. The average current consumptions of the sensor nodes in the sleep/wake scheme and the SWORD algorithm are 0.731 mA and 0.1 mA, respectively.

16.
Sensors (Basel) ; 17(8)2017 Aug 03.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28771214

ABSTRACT

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be used in agriculture to provide farmers with a large amount of information. Precision agriculture (PA) is a management strategy that employs information technology to improve quality and production. Utilizing wireless sensor technologies and management tools can lead to a highly effective, green agriculture. Based on PA management, the same routine to a crop regardless of site environments can be avoided. From several perspectives, field management can improve PA, including the provision of adequate nutrients for crops and the wastage of pesticides for the effective control of weeds, pests, and diseases. This review outlines the recent applications of WSNs in agriculture research as well as classifies and compares various wireless communication protocols, the taxonomy of energy-efficient and energy harvesting techniques for WSNs that can be used in agricultural monitoring systems, and comparison between early research works on agriculture-based WSNs. The challenges and limitations of WSNs in the agricultural domain are explored, and several power reduction and agricultural management techniques for long-term monitoring are highlighted. These approaches may also increase the number of opportunities for processing Internet of Things (IoT) data.


Subject(s)
Physical Phenomena , Wireless Technology , Agriculture , Computer Communication Networks , Internet
17.
Sensors (Basel) ; 16(8)2016 Aug 06.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27509495

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we propose two soft computing localization techniques for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The two techniques, Neural Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN), focus on a range-based localization method which relies on the measurement of the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) from the three ZigBee anchor nodes distributed throughout the track cycling field. The soft computing techniques aim to estimate the distance between bicycles moving on the cycle track for outdoor and indoor velodromes. In the first approach the ANFIS was considered, whereas in the second approach the ANN was hybridized individually with three optimization algorithms, namely Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA), and Backtracking Search Algorithm (BSA). The results revealed that the hybrid GSA-ANN outperforms the other methods adopted in this paper in terms of accuracy localization and distance estimation accuracy. The hybrid GSA-ANN achieves a mean absolute distance estimation error of 0.02 m and 0.2 m for outdoor and indoor velodromes, respectively.

18.
Sensors (Basel) ; 15(5): 11741-68, 2015 May 21.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-26007728

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient transmission technique known as the sleep/wake algorithm for a bicycle torque sensor node. This paper aims to highlight the trade-off between energy efficiency and the communication range between the cyclist and coach. Two experiments were conducted. The first experiment utilised the Zigbee protocol (XBee S2), and the second experiment used the Advanced and Adaptive Network Technology (ANT) protocol based on the Nordic nRF24L01 radio transceiver chip. The current consumption of ANT was measured, simulated and compared with a torque sensor node that uses the XBee S2 protocol. In addition, an analytical model was derived to correlate the sensor node average current consumption with a crank arm cadence. The sensor node achieved 98% power savings for ANT relative to ZigBee when they were compared alone, and the power savings amounted to 30% when all components of the sensor node are considered. The achievable communication range was 65 and 50 m for ZigBee and ANT, respectively, during measurement on an outdoor cycling track (i.e., velodrome). The conclusions indicate that the ANT protocol is more suitable for use in a torque sensor node when power consumption is a crucial demand, whereas the ZigBee protocol is more convenient in ensuring data communication between cyclist and coach.

19.
ScientificWorldJournal ; 2014: 969628, 2014.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-25295311

ABSTRACT

Covert channels are not new in computing systems, and have been studied since their first definition four decades ago. New platforms invoke thorough investigations to assess their security. Now is the time for Android platform to analyze its security model, in particular the two key principles: process-isolation and the permissions system. Aside from all sorts of malware, one threat proved intractable by current protection solutions, that is, collusion attacks involving two applications communicating over covert channels. Still no universal solution can countermeasure this sort of attack unless the covert channels are known. This paper is an attempt to reveal a new covert channel, not only being specific to smartphones, but also exploiting an unusual resource as a vehicle to carry covert information: sensors data. Accelerometers generate signals that reflect user motions, and malware applications can apparently only read their data. However, if the vibration motor on the device is used properly, programmatically produced vibration patterns can encode stolen data and hence an application can cause discernible effects on acceleration data to be received and decoded by another application. Our evaluations confirmed a real threat where strings of tens of characters could be transmitted errorless if the throughput is reduced to around 2.5-5 bps. The proposed covert channel is very stealthy as no unusual permissions are required and there is no explicit communication between the colluding applications.


Subject(s)
Accelerometry/trends , Cell Phone/trends , Computer Communication Networks/trends , Mobile Applications/trends , Accelerometry/methods , Computer Systems/trends
20.
Sensors (Basel) ; 14(8): 15573-92, 2014 Aug 22.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-25153141

ABSTRACT

In a wireless sensor network (WSN), saving power is a vital requirement. In this paper, a simple point-to-point bike WSN was considered. The data of bike parameters, speed and cadence, were monitored and transmitted via a wireless communication based on the ZigBee protocol. Since the bike parameters are monitored and transmitted on every bike wheel rotation, this means the sensor node does not sleep for a long time, causing power consumption to rise. Therefore, a newly proposed algorithm, known as the Redundancy and Converged Data (RCD) algorithm, was implemented for this application to put the sensor node into sleep mode while maintaining the performance measurements. This is achieved by minimizing the data packets transmitted as much as possible and fusing the data of speed and cadence by utilizing the correlation measurements between them to minimize the number of sensor nodes in the network to one node, which results in reduced power consumption, cost, and size, in addition to simpler hardware implementation. Execution of the proposed RCD algorithm shows that this approach can reduce the current consumption to 1.69 mA, and save 95% of the sensor node energy. Also, the comparison results with different wireless standard technologies demonstrate minimal current consumption in the sensor node.


Subject(s)
Remote Sensing Technology , Wireless Technology , Algorithms , Humans
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