Optimizing Wireless Connectivity: A Deep Neural Network-Based Handover Approach for Hybrid LiFi and WiFi Networks.

A Hybrid LiFi and WiFi network (HLWNet) integrates the rapid data transmission capabilities of Light Fidelity (LiFi) with the extensive connectivity provided by Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), resulting in significant benefits for wireless data transmissions in the designated area. However, the challenge of decision-making during the handover process in HLWNet is made more complex due to the specific characteristics of electromagnetic signals' line-of-sight transmission, resulting in a greater level of intricacy compared to previous heterogeneous networks. This research work addresses the problem of handover decisions in the Hybrid LiFi and WiFi networks and treats it as a binary classification problem. Consequently, it proposes a handover method based on a deep neural network (DNN). The comprehensive handover scheme incorporates two sets of neural networks (ANN and DNN) that utilize input factors such as channel quality and the mobility of users to enable informed decisions during handovers. Following training with labeled datasets, the neural-network-based handover approach achieves an accuracy rate exceeding 95%. A comparative analysis of the proposed scheme against the benchmark reveals that the proposed method considerably increases user throughput by approximately 18.58% to 38.5% while reducing the handover rate by approximately 55.21% to 67.15% compared to the benchmark artificial neural network (ANN); moreover, the proposed method demonstrates robustness in the face of variations in user mobility and channel conditions.

Evidential value of country location evidence obtained from IP address geolocation.

Knowledge of the previous location of an Internet device is valuable information in forensics. The previous device location can be obtained via the IP address that the device used to access Internet services, such as email, banking, and online shopping. However, the problem with the device location using its IP address is the unknown evidential value, which is used to admit the evidence in the case. This work introduces a method to process free and constantly updated data to assess the evidential value of the IP country location. The evidential value is assessed for several countries by analyzing historical data over 8 years. Tampering with the location evidence is discussed, as well as its detection. The source code to replicate the results and to apply the updated data to future evidence is available.

General Internet service assessment by latency including partial measurements.

Latency is one of the key parameters of Internet services. However, it is difficult to correctly assess a service by its latency. Many latency measurements are blocked en route by routers and firewalls. For this reason, the service latency is not fully known. This work proposes a method to assess Internet services including the blocked latency measurements. Survival theory is applied to process latency values. The results show that the omission of blocked latencies from statistical processing severely underestimates the service latency. Two Internet service providers were compared as an example. Their latency difference was 9 ms using the traditional approach. The survival latency resulted in a difference of 17 ms. The method of survival latency can be used to increase revenues in e-commerce and to improve the experience of online gaming.

A Method for Cheating Indication in Unproctored On-Line Exams.

COVID-19 has disrupted every field of life and education is not immune to it. Student learning and examinations moved on-line on a few weeks notice, which has created a large workload for academics to grade the assessments and manually detect students' dishonesty. In this paper, we propose a method to automatically indicate cheating in unproctored on-line exams, when somebody else other than the legitimate student takes the exam. The method is based on the analysis of the student's on-line traces, which are logged by distance education systems. We work with customized IP geolocation and other data to derive the student's cheating risk score. We apply the method to approx. 3600 students in 22 courses, where the partial or final on-line exams were unproctored. The found cheating risk scores are presented along with examples of indicated cheatings. The method can be used to select students for knowledge re-validation, or to compare student cheating across courses, age groups, countries, and universities. We compared student cheating risk scores between four academic terms, including two terms of university closure due to COVID-19.

Retrospective IP Address Geolocation for Geography-Aware Internet Services.

The paper deals with the locations of IP addresses that were used in the past. This retrospective geolocation suffers from continuous changes in the Internet space and a limited availability of past IP location databases. I analyse the retrospective geolocation of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses over five years. An approach is also introduced to handle missing past IP geolocation databases. The results show that it is safe to retrospectively locate IP addresses by a couple of years, but there are differences between IPv4 and IPv6. The described parametric model of location lifetime allows us to estimate the time when the address location changed in the past. The retrospective geolocation of IP addresses has a broad range of applications, including social studies, system analyses, and security investigations. Two longitudinal use cases with the applied results are discussed. The first deals with geotargeted online content. The second deals with identity theft prevention in e-commerce.

Visible Light Communication: A System Perspective-Overview and Challenges.

Visible light communication (VLC) is a new paradigm that could revolutionise the future of wireless communication. In VLC, information is transmitted through modulating the visible light spectrum (400⁻700 nm) that is used for illumination. Analytical and experimental work has shown the potential of VLC to provide high-speed data communication with the added advantage of improved energy efficiency and communication security/privacy. VLC is still in the early phase of research. There are fewer review articles published on this topic mostly addressing the physical layer research. Unlike other reviews, this article gives a system prespective of VLC along with the survey on existing literature and potential challenges toward the implementation and integration of VLC.