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Future Internet
Volume 11
Issue 3
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Future Internet, Volume 11, Issue 3 (March 2019) – 29 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): During recent decades, the Internet has been a key factor in building the global information society and leading economy growth. The mix of technologies in the Internet, such as Cloud Computing, Mobile Edge Computing, Network Function Virtualization (NFV), and Internet of Things (IoT), provide the necessary tools to build a service-centric Future Internet Architecture. However, Internet’s resounding success has also turned out to be the biggest obstacle leading to an inefficient utilization of the underlying infrastructure. The excessive amount of generated traffic from the IoT layer and the need for novel and more targeted networking services has led to a depletion of the physical resources. Thus, the goal of this article is to establish a scalable softwarized end-to-end solution that will gracefully combine different technologies to provide networking services with high Quality of Service and low [...] Read more.
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21 pages, 6520 KiB  
Article
An Access Control Model for Preventing Virtual Machine Hopping Attack
by Ying Dong and Zhou Lei
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030082 - 26 Mar 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 6682
Abstract
As a new type of service computing model, cloud computing provides various services through the Internet. Virtual machine (VM) hopping is a security issue often encountered in the virtualization layer. Once it occurs, it directly affects the reliability of the entire computing platform. [...] Read more.
As a new type of service computing model, cloud computing provides various services through the Internet. Virtual machine (VM) hopping is a security issue often encountered in the virtualization layer. Once it occurs, it directly affects the reliability of the entire computing platform. Therefore, we have thoroughly studied the virtual machine hopping attack. In addition, we designed the access control model PVMH (Prevent VM hopping) to prevent VM hopping attacks based on the BLP model and the Biba model. Finally, we implemented the model on the Xen platform. The experiments demonstrate that our PVMH module succeeds in preventing VM hopping attack with acceptable loss to virtual machine performance. Full article
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13 pages, 8355 KiB  
Article
Nonlinear Analysis of Built-in Sensor in Smart Device under the Condition of Voice Actuating
by Ning Zhao, Yuhe Liu and Junjie Shen
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030081 - 26 Mar 2019
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3533
Abstract
A built-in sensor in a smart device, such as the accelerometer and the gyroscope, will produce an obvious nonlinear output when it receives voice signal. In this paper, based on the chaotic theory, the nonlinearity of smartphone built-in accelerometer is revealed by phase [...] Read more.
A built-in sensor in a smart device, such as the accelerometer and the gyroscope, will produce an obvious nonlinear output when it receives voice signal. In this paper, based on the chaotic theory, the nonlinearity of smartphone built-in accelerometer is revealed by phase space reconstructing after we calculate several nonlinearity characteristics, such as best delay time, embedding dimension, and the attractor of accelerometer system, under the condition of voice commands inputting. The results of theoretical calculation and experiments show that this specific nonlinearity could lay a foundation for further signal extraction and analysis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Information and Communication Systems)
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12 pages, 537 KiB  
Article
Experimental Study on the Utility and Future of Collaborative Consumption Platforms Offering Tourism Related Services
by Joan-Francesc Fondevila-Gascón, Gaspar Berbel and Mònica Muñoz-González
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030080 - 25 Mar 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4212
Abstract
The present study analyzes four well-known online platforms used in the tourist industry for travelling, accommodation, eating, and touring (Blablacar, Airbnb, Eatwith, and Trip4real). The objective is to analyze the utility of the portals, intentions for future use and recommendation (prospective), and reputation. [...] Read more.
The present study analyzes four well-known online platforms used in the tourist industry for travelling, accommodation, eating, and touring (Blablacar, Airbnb, Eatwith, and Trip4real). The objective is to analyze the utility of the portals, intentions for future use and recommendation (prospective), and reputation. The method is an experimental design with a control group and experimental group. Within both groups, three scales were applied. The results indicate clear differences between the control and experimental groups, valuing above all the utility and the intent to use again when the group is exposed to the portals from a needs-based situation (experimental group). The analysis demonstrates a factorial structure that validates the model. At the same time, the results indicate a greater interest in using Trip4Real over BlaBlaCar. Generation Z, the youngest generation, shows greater confidence in the services and greater interest in using tourism related collaborative consumption platforms in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Techno-Social Smart Systems)
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18 pages, 6367 KiB  
Article
Topic-Specific Emotion Mining Model for Online Comments
by Xiangfeng Luo and Yawen Yi
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 79; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030079 - 24 Mar 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4639
Abstract
Nowadays, massive texts are generated on the web, which contain a variety of viewpoints, attitudes, and emotions for products and services. Subjective information mining of online comments is vital for enterprises to improve their products or services and for consumers to make purchase [...] Read more.
Nowadays, massive texts are generated on the web, which contain a variety of viewpoints, attitudes, and emotions for products and services. Subjective information mining of online comments is vital for enterprises to improve their products or services and for consumers to make purchase decisions. Various effective methods, the mainstream one of which is the topic model, have been put forward to solve this problem. Although most of topic models can mine the topic-level emotion of the product comments, they do not consider interword relations and the number of topics determined adaptively, which leads to poor comprehensibility, high time requirement, and low accuracy. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes an unsupervised Topic-Specific Emotion Mining Model (TSEM), which adds corresponding relationship between aspect words and opinion words to express comments as a bag of aspect–opinion pairs. On one hand, the rich semantic information obtained by adding interword relationship can enhance the comprehensibility of results. On the other hand, text dimensions reduced by adding relationships can cut the computation time. In addition, the number of topics in our model is adaptively determined by calculating perplexity to improve the emotion accuracy of the topic level. Our experiments using Taobao commodity comments achieve better results than baseline models in terms of accuracy, computation time, and comprehensibility. Therefore, our proposed model can be effectively applied to online comment emotion mining tasks. Full article
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18 pages, 2186 KiB  
Article
Environmental-Based Speed Recommendation for Future Smart Cars
by Ioannis Galanis, Iraklis Anagnostopoulos, Priyaa Gurunathan and Dona Burkard
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 78; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030078 - 24 Mar 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4836
Abstract
Modern vehicles are enhanced with increased computation, communication and sensing capabilities, providing a variety of new features that pave the way for the deployment of more sophisticated services. Specifically, smart cars employ hundreds of sensors and electronic systems in order to obtain situational [...] Read more.
Modern vehicles are enhanced with increased computation, communication and sensing capabilities, providing a variety of new features that pave the way for the deployment of more sophisticated services. Specifically, smart cars employ hundreds of sensors and electronic systems in order to obtain situational and environmental information. This rapid growth of on-vehicle multi-sensor inputs along with off-vehicle data streams introduce the smart car era. Thus, systematic techniques for combining information provided by on- and off-vehicle car connectivity are of remarkable importance for the availability and robustness of the overall system. This paper presents a new method to employ service oriented agents that cohesively align on- and off-vehicle information in order to estimate the current status of the car. In particular, this work combines, integrates, and evaluates multiple information sources targeting future smart cars. Specifically, the proposed methodology leverages weather-based, on-route, and on-vehicle information. As a use case, the presented work informs the driver about the recommended speed that the car should adapt to, based on the current status of the car. It also validates the proposed speed with real-time vehicular measurements. Full article
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25 pages, 982 KiB  
Review
Open Data for Open Innovation: An Analysis of Literature Characteristics
by Diego Corrales-Garay, Eva-María Mora-Valentín and Marta Ortiz-de-Urbina-Criado
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 77; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030077 - 24 Mar 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 6583
Abstract
In this paper, we review some characteristics of the literature that studies the uses and applications of open data for open innovation. Three research questions are proposed about both topics: (1) What journals, conferences and authors have published papers about the use of [...] Read more.
In this paper, we review some characteristics of the literature that studies the uses and applications of open data for open innovation. Three research questions are proposed about both topics: (1) What journals, conferences and authors have published papers about the use of open data for open innovation? (2) What knowledge areas have been analysed in research on open data for open innovation? and (3) What are the methodological characteristics of the papers on open data for open innovation? To answer the first question, we use a descriptive analysis to identify the relevant journals and authors. To address the second question, we identify the knowledge areas of the studies about open data for open innovation. Finally, we analyse the methodological characteristics of the literature (type of study, analytical techniques, sources of information and geographical area). Our results show that the applications of open data for open innovation are interesting but their multidisciplinary nature makes the context complex and diverse, opening up many future avenues for research. To develop a future research agenda, we propose a theoretical model and some research questions to analyse the open data impact process for open innovation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Future Intelligent Systems and Networks 2019)
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14 pages, 1650 KiB  
Article
eHealth Integrity Model Based on Permissioned Blockchain
by Tomasz Hyla and Jerzy Pejaś
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030076 - 24 Mar 2019
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 6371
Abstract
(1) Background: Large eHealth systems should have a mechanism to detect unauthorized changes in patients’ medical documentation, access permissions, and logs. This is due to the fact that modern eHealth systems are connected with many healthcare providers and sites. (2) Methods: Design-science methodology [...] Read more.
(1) Background: Large eHealth systems should have a mechanism to detect unauthorized changes in patients’ medical documentation, access permissions, and logs. This is due to the fact that modern eHealth systems are connected with many healthcare providers and sites. (2) Methods: Design-science methodology was used to create an integrity-protection service model based on blockchain technology. Based on the problem of transactional transparency, requirements were specified and a model was designed. After that, the model’s security and performance were evaluated. (3) Results: a blockchain-based eHealth integrity model for ensuring information integrity in eHealth systems that uses a permissioned blockchain with off-chain information storage was created. In contrast to existing solutions, the proposed model allows information removal, which in many countries’ eHealth systems is a legal requirement, and is based on a blockchain using the Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerant algorithm. (4) Conclusion: A blockchain can be used to store medical data or only security-related data. In the proposed model, a blockchain is mainly used to implement a data-integrity service. This service can be implemented using other mechanisms, but a blockchain provides a solution that does not require trusted third parties, works in a distributed eHealth environment, and supports document removal. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Information and Communication Systems)
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21 pages, 1276 KiB  
Article
Dynamic SDN Controller Load Balancing
by Hadar Sufiev, Yoram Haddad, Leonid Barenboim and José Soler
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030075 - 21 Mar 2019
Cited by 45 | Viewed by 5562
Abstract
The software defined networking (SDN) paradigm separates the control plane from the data plane, where an SDN controller receives requests from its connected switches and manages the operation of the switches under its control. Reassignments between switches and their controllers are performed dynamically, [...] Read more.
The software defined networking (SDN) paradigm separates the control plane from the data plane, where an SDN controller receives requests from its connected switches and manages the operation of the switches under its control. Reassignments between switches and their controllers are performed dynamically, in order to balance the load over SDN controllers. In order to perform load balancing, most dynamic assignment solutions use a central element to gather information requests for reassignment of switches. Increasing the number of controllers causes a scalability problem, when one super controller is used for all controllers and gathers information from all switches. In a large network, the distances between the controllers is sometimes a constraint for assigning them switches. In this paper, a new approach is presented to solve the well-known load balancing problem in the SDN control plane. This approach implies less load on the central element and meeting the maximum distance constraint allowed between controllers. An architecture with two levels of load balancing is defined. At the top level, the main component called Super Controller, arranges the controllers in clusters, so that there is a balance between the loads of the clusters. At the bottom level, in each cluster there is a dedicated controller called Master Controller, which performs a reassignment of the switches in order to balance the loads between the controllers. We provide a two-phase algorithm, called Dynamic Controllers Clustering algorithm, for the top level of load balancing operation. The load balancing operation takes place at regular intervals. The length of the cycle in which the operation is performed can be shorter, since the top-level operation can run independently of the bottom level operation. Shortening cycle time allows for more accurate results of load balancing. Theoretical analysis demonstrates that our algorithm provides a near-optimal solution. Simulation results show that our dynamic clustering improves fixed clustering by a multiplicative factor of 5. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Content Centric Future Internet Architectures)
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10 pages, 387 KiB  
Review
An Overview on Push-Based Communication Models for Information-Centric Networking
by Rute C. Sofia and Paulo M. Mendes
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030074 - 21 Mar 2019
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 6728
Abstract
Information-centric networking integrates by design a pull-based model which brings in advantages in terms of control as well as of in-network caching strategies. Currently, ICN main areas of action concern content distribution and IoT, both of which are environments that often require support [...] Read more.
Information-centric networking integrates by design a pull-based model which brings in advantages in terms of control as well as of in-network caching strategies. Currently, ICN main areas of action concern content distribution and IoT, both of which are environments that often require support for periodic and even-triggered data transmission. Such environments can benefit from push-based communication to achieve faster data forwarding. This paper provides an overview on the current push-based mechanisms that can be applied to information-centric paradigms, explaining the trade-off associated with the different approaches. Moreover, the paper provides design guidelines for integrating push communications in information-centric networking, having as example the application of this networking architecture in IoT environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Information-Centric Networking (ICN))
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16 pages, 551 KiB  
Review
Reviewing Cyber Security Social Engineering Training and Awareness Programs—Pitfalls and Ongoing Issues
by Hussain Aldawood and Geoffrey Skinner
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030073 - 18 Mar 2019
Cited by 118 | Viewed by 27942
Abstract
The idea and perception of good cyber security protection remains at the forefront of many organizations’ information and communication technology strategy and investment. However, delving deeper into the details of its implementation reveals that organizations’ human capital cyber security knowledge bases are very [...] Read more.
The idea and perception of good cyber security protection remains at the forefront of many organizations’ information and communication technology strategy and investment. However, delving deeper into the details of its implementation reveals that organizations’ human capital cyber security knowledge bases are very low. In particular, the lack of social engineering awareness is a concern in the context of human cyber security risks. This study highlights pitfalls and ongoing issues that organizations encounter in the process of developing the human knowledge to protect from social engineering attacks. A detailed literature review is provided to support these arguments with analysis of contemporary approaches. The findings show that despite state-of-the-art cyber security preparations and trained personnel, hackers are still successful in their malicious acts of stealing sensitive information that is crucial to organizations. The factors influencing users’ proficiency in threat detection and mitigation have been identified as business environmental, social, political, constitutional, organizational, economical, and personal. Challenges with respect to both traditional and modern tools have been analyzed to suggest the need for profiling at-risk employees (including new hires) and developing training programs at each level of the hierarchy to ensure that the hackers do not succeed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in Information and Communication Systems)
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15 pages, 268 KiB  
Essay
Environmental Hazards: A Coverage Response Approach
by Paul J. Croft
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 72; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030072 - 14 Mar 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4774
Abstract
The rapid rise and implementation of Smart Systems (i.e., multi-functional observation and platform systems that depict settings and/or identify situations or features of interest, often in real-time) has inversely paralleled and readily exposed the reduced capacity of human and societal systems to effectively [...] Read more.
The rapid rise and implementation of Smart Systems (i.e., multi-functional observation and platform systems that depict settings and/or identify situations or features of interest, often in real-time) has inversely paralleled and readily exposed the reduced capacity of human and societal systems to effectively respond to environmental hazards. This overarching review and essay explores the complex set of interactions found among Smart, Societal, and Environmental Systems. The resulting rise in the poorly performing response solutions to environmental hazards that has occurred despite best practices, detailed forecast information, and the use and application of real-time in situ observational platforms are considered. The application of Smart Systems, relevant architectures, and ever-increasing numbers of applications and tools development by individuals as they interact with Smart Systems offers a means to ameliorate and resolve confounding found among all of the interdependent Systems. The interactions of human systems with environmental hazards further expose society’s complex operational vulnerabilities and gaps in response to such threats. An examination of decision-making, the auto-reactive nature of responses before, during, and after environmental hazards; and the lack of scalability and comparability are presented with regard to the prospects of applying probabilistic methods, cross-scale time and space domains; anticipated impacts, and the need to account for multimodal actions and reactions—including psycho-social contributions. Assimilation of these concepts and principles in Smart System architectures, applications, and tools is essential to ensure future viability and functionalities with regard to environmental hazards and to produce an effective set of societal engagement responses. Achieving the promise of Smart Systems relative to environmental hazards will require an extensive transdisciplinary approach to tie psycho-social behaviors directly with non-human components and systems in order to close actionable gaps in response. Pathways to achieve a more comprehensive understanding are given for consideration by the wide diversity of disciplines necessary to move forward in Smart Systems as tied with the societal response to environmental hazards. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 10th Anniversary Feature Papers)
20 pages, 4004 KiB  
Article
Effectiveness of Segment Routing Technology in Reducing the Bandwidth and Cloud Resources Provisioning Times in Network Function Virtualization Architectures
by Vincenzo Eramo, Francesco G. Lavacca, Tiziana Catena, Marco Polverini and Antonio Cianfrani
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030071 - 12 Mar 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 5689
Abstract
Network Function Virtualization is a new technology allowing for a elastic cloud and bandwidth resource allocation. The technology requires an orchestrator whose role is the service and resource orchestration. It receives service requests, each one characterized by a Service Function Chain, which is [...] Read more.
Network Function Virtualization is a new technology allowing for a elastic cloud and bandwidth resource allocation. The technology requires an orchestrator whose role is the service and resource orchestration. It receives service requests, each one characterized by a Service Function Chain, which is a set of service functions to be executed according to a given order. It implements an algorithm for deciding where both to allocate the cloud and bandwidth resources and to route the SFCs. In a traditional orchestration algorithm, the orchestrator has a detailed knowledge of the cloud and network infrastructures and that can lead to high computational complexity of the SFC Routing and Cloud and Bandwidth resource Allocation (SRCBA) algorithm. In this paper, we propose and evaluate the effectiveness of a scalable orchestration architecture inherited by the one proposed within the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and based on the functional separation of an NFV orchestrator in Resource Orchestrator (RO) and Network Service Orchestrator (NSO). Each cloud domain is equipped with an RO whose task is to provide a simple and abstract representation of the cloud infrastructure. These representations are notified of the NSO that can apply a simplified and less complex SRCBA algorithm. In addition, we show how the segment routing technology can help to simplify the SFC routing by means of an effective addressing of the service functions. The scalable orchestration solution has been investigated and compared to the one of a traditional orchestrator in some network scenarios and varying the number of cloud domains. We have verified that the execution time of the SRCBA algorithm can be drastically reduced without degrading the performance in terms of cloud and bandwidth resource costs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV))
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17 pages, 1192 KiB  
Article
Software-Defined Heterogeneous Vehicular Networking: The Architectural Design and Open Challenges
by Adnan Mahmood, Wei Emma Zhang and Quan Z. Sheng
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030070 - 11 Mar 2019
Cited by 70 | Viewed by 7894
Abstract
The promising advancements in the telecommunications and automotive sectors over the years have empowered drivers with highly innovative communication and sensing capabilities, in turn paving the way for the next-generation connected and autonomous vehicles. Today, vehicles communicate wirelessly with other vehicles and vulnerable [...] Read more.
The promising advancements in the telecommunications and automotive sectors over the years have empowered drivers with highly innovative communication and sensing capabilities, in turn paving the way for the next-generation connected and autonomous vehicles. Today, vehicles communicate wirelessly with other vehicles and vulnerable pedestrians in their immediate vicinity to share timely safety-critical information primarily for collision mitigation. Furthermore, vehicles connect with the traffic management entities via their supporting network infrastructure to become more aware of any potential hazards on the roads and for guidance pertinent to their current and anticipated speeds and travelling course to ensure more efficient traffic flows. Therefore, a secure and low-latency communication is highly indispensable in order to meet the stringent performance requirements of such safety-critical vehicular applications. However, the heterogeneity of diverse radio access technologies and inflexibility in their deployment results in network fragmentation and inefficient resource utilization, and these, therefore, act as bottlenecks in realizing the aims for a highly efficient vehicular networking architecture. In order to overcome such sorts of bottlenecks, this article brings forth the current state-of-the-art in the context of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and subsequently proposes a software-defined heterogeneous vehicular networking (SDHVNet) architecture for ensuring a highly agile networking infrastructure to ensure rapid network innovation on-demand. Finally, a number of potential architectural challenges and their probable solutions are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 10th Anniversary Feature Papers)
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23 pages, 1590 KiB  
Article
VNF Placement Optimization at the Edge and Cloud †
by Aris Leivadeas, George Kesidis, Mohamed Ibnkahla and Ioannis Lambadaris
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 69; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030069 - 9 Mar 2019
Cited by 83 | Viewed by 8739
Abstract
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has revolutionized the way network services are offered to end users. Individual network functions are decoupled from expensive and dedicated middleboxes and are now provided as software-based virtualized entities called Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs). NFV is often complemented with [...] Read more.
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has revolutionized the way network services are offered to end users. Individual network functions are decoupled from expensive and dedicated middleboxes and are now provided as software-based virtualized entities called Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs). NFV is often complemented with the Cloud Computing paradigm to provide networking functions to enterprise customers and end-users remote from their premises. NFV along with Cloud Computing has also started to be seen in Internet of Things (IoT) platforms as a means to provide networking functions to the IoT traffic. The intermix of IoT, NFV, and Cloud technologies, however, is still in its infancy creating a rich and open future research area. To this end, in this paper, we propose a novel approach to facilitate the placement and deployment of service chained VNFs in a network cloud infrastructure that can be extended using the Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) infrastructure for accommodating mission critical and delay sensitive traffic. Our aim is to minimize the end-to-end communication delay while keeping the overall deployment cost to minimum. Results reveal that the proposed approach can significantly reduce the delay experienced, while satisfying the Service Providers’ goal of low deployment costs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV))
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16 pages, 8373 KiB  
Article
Snack Texture Estimation System Using a Simple Equipment and Neural Network Model
by Shigeru Kato, Naoki Wada, Ryuji Ito, Takaya Shiozaki, Yudai Nishiyama and Tomomichi Kagawa
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030068 - 8 Mar 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5650
Abstract
Texture evaluation is manually performed in general, and such analytical tasks can get cumbersome. In this regard, a neural network model is employed in this study. This paper describes a system that can estimate the food texture of snacks. The system comprises a [...] Read more.
Texture evaluation is manually performed in general, and such analytical tasks can get cumbersome. In this regard, a neural network model is employed in this study. This paper describes a system that can estimate the food texture of snacks. The system comprises a simple equipment unit and an artificial neural network model. The equipment simultaneously examines the load and sound when a snack is pressed. The neural network model analyzes the load change and sound signals and then outputs a numerical value within the range (0,1) to express the level of textures such as “crunchiness” and “crispness”. Experimental results validate the model’s capacity to output moderate texture values of the snacks. In addition, we applied the convolutional neural network (CNN) model to classify snacks and the capability of the CNN model for texture estimation is discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Techniques for Internet, P2P and Cloud Computing—selected papers from 3PGCIC-2018)
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17 pages, 1848 KiB  
Article
Gamification vs. Privacy: Identifying and Analysing the Major Concerns
by Aikaterini-Georgia Mavroeidi, Angeliki Kitsiou, Christos Kalloniatis and Stefanos Gritzalis
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030067 - 7 Mar 2019
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 7150
Abstract
Gamification, the use of game design elements in applications that are not games, has been developed to provide attractive environments and maintain user interest in several domains. In domains such as education, marketing and health, where gamification techniques are applied, user engagement in [...] Read more.
Gamification, the use of game design elements in applications that are not games, has been developed to provide attractive environments and maintain user interest in several domains. In domains such as education, marketing and health, where gamification techniques are applied, user engagement in applications has increased. In these applications the protection of users’ privacy is an important aspect to consider, due to the applications obtaining a record of the personal information of their users. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify if applications where gamification is applied do respect users’ privacy. For the accomplishment of this aim, two main steps have been implemented. Since the main principle of gamification is the existence of game elements, the first step was to identify the set of game elements recorded in the literature that are commonly applied in various applications. Afterwards, an examination of the relationship between these elements and privacy requirements was implemented in order to identify which elements conflict with the privacy requirements leading to potential privacy violations and which elements do not. Α conceptual model according to the results of this examination was designed, which presents how elements conflict with requirements. Based on the results, there are indeed game elements which can lead to privacy violations. The results of this work provide valuable guidance to software developers, especially during the design stages of gamified applications since it helps them to consider the protection of users’ privacy in parallel from the early stages of the application development onwards. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 10th Anniversary Feature Papers)
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18 pages, 4616 KiB  
Article
Communication Protocols of an Industrial Internet of Things Environment: A Comparative Study
by Samer Jaloudi
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030066 - 7 Mar 2019
Cited by 99 | Viewed by 10138
Abstract
Most industrial and SCADA-like (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems use proprietary communication protocols, and hence interoperability is not fulfilled. However, the MODBUS TCP is an open de facto standard, and is used for some automation and telecontrol systems. It is based on [...] Read more.
Most industrial and SCADA-like (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems use proprietary communication protocols, and hence interoperability is not fulfilled. However, the MODBUS TCP is an open de facto standard, and is used for some automation and telecontrol systems. It is based on a polling mechanism and follows the synchronous request–response pattern, as opposed to the asynchronous publish–subscribe pattern. In this study, polling-based and event-based protocols are investigated to realize an open and interoperable Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) environment. Many Internet of Things (IoT) protocols are introduced and compared, and the message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) is chosen as the event-based, publish–subscribe protocol. The study shows that MODBUS defines an optimized message structure in the application layer, which is dedicated to industrial applications. In addition, it shows that an event-oriented IoT protocol complements the MODBUS TCP but cannot replace it. Therefore, two scenarios are proposed to build the IIoT environment. The first scenario is to consider the MODBUS TCP as an IoT protocol, and build the environment using the MODBUS TCP on a standalone basis. The second scenario is to use MQTT in conjunction with the MODBUS TCP. The first scenario is efficient and complies with most industrial applications where the request–response pattern is needed only. If the publish–subscribe pattern is needed, the MQTT in the second scenario complements the MODBUS TCP and eliminates the need for a gateway; however, MQTT lacks interoperability. To maintain a homogeneous message structure for the entire environment, industrial data are organized using the structure of MODBUS messages, formatted in the UTF-8, and then transferred in the payload of an MQTT publish message. The open and interoperable environment can be used for Internet SCADA, Internet-based monitoring, and industrial control systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Internet of Things)
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19 pages, 1867 KiB  
Article
A Game-Theoretic Analysis for Distributed Honeypots
by Yang Li, Leyi Shi and Haijie Feng
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030065 - 5 Mar 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 6360
Abstract
A honeypot is a decoy tool for luring an attacker and interacting with it, further consuming its resources. Due to its fake property, a honeypot can be recognized by the adversary and loses its value. Honeypots equipped with dynamic characteristics are capable of [...] Read more.
A honeypot is a decoy tool for luring an attacker and interacting with it, further consuming its resources. Due to its fake property, a honeypot can be recognized by the adversary and loses its value. Honeypots equipped with dynamic characteristics are capable of deceiving intruders. However, most of their dynamic properties are reflected in the system configuration, rather than the location. Dynamic honeypots are faced with the risk of being identified and avoided. In this paper, we focus on the dynamic locations of honeypots and propose a distributed honeypot scheme. By periodically changing the services, the attacker cannot distinguish the real services from honeypots, and the illegal attack flow can be recognized. We adopt game theory to illustrate the effectiveness of our system. Gambit simulations are conducted to validate our proposed scheme. The game-theoretic reasoning shows that our system comprises an innovative system defense. Further simulation results prove that the proposed scheme improves the server’s payoff and that the attacker tends to abandon launching attacks. Therefore, the proposed distributed honeypot scheme is effective for network security. Full article
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16 pages, 1860 KiB  
Article
A Cache Placement Strategy with Energy Consumption Optimization in Information-Centric Networking
by Xin Zheng, Gaocai Wang and Qifei Zhao
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030064 - 5 Mar 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4724
Abstract
With the rapid development of cloud computing, big data, and Internet of Things, Information-Centric Networking (ICN) has become a novel hotspot in the field of future Internet architecture, and new problems have appeared. In particular, more researchers consider information naming, delivery, mobility, and [...] Read more.
With the rapid development of cloud computing, big data, and Internet of Things, Information-Centric Networking (ICN) has become a novel hotspot in the field of future Internet architecture, and new problems have appeared. In particular, more researchers consider information naming, delivery, mobility, and security in ICN. In this paper, we mainly focus on the cache placement strategy and network performance of ICN, and propose a cache placement strategy with energy consumption optimization. In order to optimize the energy consumption of the ICN, the best cache placement node is selected from the view of users. First of all, the distance sequence of different nodes arriving at each user is obtained in terms of detection results of network distribution channels, and the corresponding energy consumption of information distribution is obtained from the distance sequence. Secondly, the reward function of the cache node is derived using two factors of energy consumption, which includes the additional energy consumed by the change of the cache node and the energy consumption of the content distribution. Finally, we construct the optimal stopping theory problem to solve the maximum expected energy saving. In simulations, we give the comparison results of energy savings, caching benefit, and delivery success rate. The results show that the strategy proposed by this paper has higher delivery success rate and lower energy consumption than other strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Information-Centric Networking (ICN))
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25 pages, 1702 KiB  
Article
Cyber Security Threat Modeling for Supply Chain Organizational Environments
by Abel Yeboah-Ofori and Shareeful Islam
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030063 - 5 Mar 2019
Cited by 61 | Viewed by 17960
Abstract
Cyber security in a supply chain (SC) provides an organization the secure network facilities to meet its overall business objectives. The integration of technologies has improved business processes, increased production speed, and reduced distribution costs. However, the increased interdependencies among various supply chain [...] Read more.
Cyber security in a supply chain (SC) provides an organization the secure network facilities to meet its overall business objectives. The integration of technologies has improved business processes, increased production speed, and reduced distribution costs. However, the increased interdependencies among various supply chain stakeholders have brought many challenges including lack of third party audit mechanisms and cascading cyber threats. This has led to attacks such as the manipulation of the design specifications, alterations, and manipulation during distribution. The aim of this paper is to investigate and understand supply chain threats. In particular, the paper contributes towards modeling and analyzing CSC attacks and cyber threat reporting among supply chain stakeholders. We consider concepts such as goal, actor, attack, TTP, and threat actor relevant to the supply chain, threat model, and requirements domain, and modeled the attack using the widely known STIX threat model. The proposed model was analyzed using a running example of a smart grid case study and an algorithm to model the attack. A discrete probability method for calculating the conditional probabilities was used to determine the attack propagation and cascading effects, and the results showed that our approach effectively analyzed the threats. We have recommended a list of CSC controls to improve the overall security of the studied organization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 10th Anniversary Feature Papers)
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17 pages, 3622 KiB  
Article
Modeling of Information Operations Effects: Technological Systems Example
by Alexander Geyda and Igor Lysenko
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 62; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030062 - 5 Mar 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4301
Abstract
The article outlines conceptual and corresponding formal models of system functioning. Models provide means for estimation of information operation effects and the operational properties of systems and their functioning. Such systems are changed due to information operations. Examples of operational properties are efficiency, [...] Read more.
The article outlines conceptual and corresponding formal models of system functioning. Models provide means for estimation of information operation effects and the operational properties of systems and their functioning. Such systems are changed due to information operations. Examples of operational properties are efficiency, the effectiveness of system functioning, system capabilities and system potential. Operational properties are estimated based on functioning effects. Such effects of information operations are manifested through a system functioning under the conditions of a changing environment. An estimation of effects and operational properties is fulfilled analytically. It is made through plotting the dependences of the predicted values of effects and operational properties of information operations and corresponding IT usage against the variables and options of problems solved. To develop this type of model, the use of information operations during system functioning is analyzed through an example of a technological system. General concepts and principles of the modeling of information operations during the operation of such systems are defined. An exemplary modeling of the effects of technological information, and the related technological non-information operations of technological systems operation is provided. Based on concept models of information operations of technological systems, functioning set-theoretical models followed by functional models are introduced. An example of operational properties indicators estimation is considered. It is based on Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS) diagramming tools’ usage. Use cases of such indicators include choosing optimal information operations characteristics. Full article
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17 pages, 2407 KiB  
Article
A Dual Attack Detection Technique to Identify Black and Gray Hole Attacks Using an Intrusion Detection System and a Connected Dominating Set in MANETs
by Zulfiqar Ali Zardari, Jingsha He, Nafei Zhu, Khalid Hussain Mohammadani, Muhammad Salman Pathan, Muhammad Iftikhar Hussain and Muhammad Qasim Memon
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030061 - 5 Mar 2019
Cited by 47 | Viewed by 6172
Abstract
A mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is a temporary network of wireless mobile nodes. In a MANET, it is assumed that all of the nodes cooperate with each other to transfer data packets in a multi-hop fashion. However, some malicious nodes don’t cooperate with [...] Read more.
A mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is a temporary network of wireless mobile nodes. In a MANET, it is assumed that all of the nodes cooperate with each other to transfer data packets in a multi-hop fashion. However, some malicious nodes don’t cooperate with other nodes and disturb the network through false routing information. In this paper, we propose a prominent technique, called dual attack detection for black and gray hole attacks (DDBG), for MANETs. The proposed DDBG technique selects the intrusion detection system (IDS) node using the connected dominating set (CDS) technique with two additional features; the energy and its nonexistence in the blacklist are also checked before putting the nodes into the IDS set. The CDS is an effective, distinguished, and localized approach for detecting nearly-connected dominating sets of nodes in a small range in mobile ad hoc networks. The selected IDS nodes broadcast a kind of status packet within a size of the dominating set for retrieving the complete behavioral information from their nodes. Later, IDS nodes use our DDBG technique to analyze the collected behavioral information to detect the malicious nodes and add them to the blacklist if the behavior of the node is suspicious. Our experimental results show that the quality of the service parameters of the proposed technique outperforms the existing routing schemes. Full article
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16 pages, 5382 KiB  
Article
Hot Topic Community Discovery on Cross Social Networks
by Xuan Wang, Bofeng Zhang and Furong Chang
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030060 - 4 Mar 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4236
Abstract
The rapid development of online social networks has allowed users to obtain information, communicate with each other and express different opinions. Generally, in the same social network, users tend to be influenced by each other and have similar views. However, on another social [...] Read more.
The rapid development of online social networks has allowed users to obtain information, communicate with each other and express different opinions. Generally, in the same social network, users tend to be influenced by each other and have similar views. However, on another social network, users may have opposite views on the same event. Therefore, research undertaken on a single social network is unable to meet the needs of research on hot topic community discovery. “Cross social network” refers to multiple social networks. The integration of information from multiple social network platforms forms a new unified dataset. In the dataset, information from different platforms for the same event may contain similar or unique topics. This paper proposes a hot topic discovery method on cross social networks. Firstly, text data from different social networks are fused to build a unified model. Then, we obtain latent topic distributions from the unified model using the Labeled Biterm Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LB-LDA) model. Based on the distributions, similar topics are clustered to form several topic communities. Finally, we choose hot topic communities based on their scores. Experiment result on data from three social networks prove that our model is effective and has certain application value. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Techno-Social Smart Systems)
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23 pages, 2514 KiB  
Article
myDIG: Personalized Illicit Domain-Specific Knowledge Discovery with No Programming
by Mayank Kejriwal and Pedro Szekely
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030059 - 4 Mar 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5516
Abstract
With advances in machine learning, knowledge discovery systems have become very complicated to set up, requiring extensive tuning and programming effort. Democratizing such technology so that non-technical domain experts can avail themselves of these advances in an interactive and personalized way is an [...] Read more.
With advances in machine learning, knowledge discovery systems have become very complicated to set up, requiring extensive tuning and programming effort. Democratizing such technology so that non-technical domain experts can avail themselves of these advances in an interactive and personalized way is an important problem. We describe myDIG, a highly modular, open source pipeline-construction system that is specifically geared towards investigative users (e.g., law enforcement) with no programming abilities. The myDIG system allows users both to build a knowledge graph of entities, relationships, and attributes for illicit domains from a raw HTML corpus and also to set up a personalized search interface for analyzing the structured knowledge. We use qualitative and quantitative data from five case studies involving investigative experts from illicit domains such as securities fraud and illegal firearms sales to illustrate the potential of myDIG. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives on Semantic Web Technologies and Applications)
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21 pages, 16107 KiB  
Article
IoH: A Platform for the Intelligence of Home with a Context Awareness and Ambient Intelligence Approach
by Luis Gomes, Carlos Ramos, Aria Jozi, Bruno Serra, Lucas Paiva and Zita Vale
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 58; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030058 - 2 Mar 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5870
Abstract
This paper presents IoH (Intelligence of Home), a platform developed to test some basic intelligent behaviors in Home context. Internet of Things, ambient intelligence and context awareness approaches motivated the development of IoH. The platform involves six layers, responsible by connectivity, persistency, unification, [...] Read more.
This paper presents IoH (Intelligence of Home), a platform developed to test some basic intelligent behaviors in Home context. Internet of Things, ambient intelligence and context awareness approaches motivated the development of IoH. The platform involves six layers, responsible by connectivity, persistency, unification, Internet of Things integration, subsystems integration and user interface. The integrated subsystems involve intelligent systems for light control, television brightness control, desk light control, persons counting and air conditioner control. The IoH platform is then tested for a real building, and results and conclusions are obtained. Different intelligent methods and technologies are used, form the use of a diversity of sensors, actuators, and controllers and processing units to a set of artificial intelligence approaches varying from machine learning and optimization algorithms to the use of sensor fusion and computer vision. The use of IoH day-by-day demonstrated an intelligent performance for the real building occupants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 10th Anniversary Feature Papers)
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11 pages, 214 KiB  
Review
Worldwide Connectivity for the Internet of Things Through LoRaWAN
by Lorenzo Vangelista and Marco Centenaro
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030057 - 2 Mar 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4883
Abstract
The low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) paradigm is gradually gaining market acceptance. In particular, three prominent LPWAN technologies are emerging at the moment: LoRaWAN™ and SigFox™, which operate on unlicensed frequency bands, and NB-IoT, operating on licensed frequency bands. This paper deals with LoRaWAN™, [...] Read more.
The low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) paradigm is gradually gaining market acceptance. In particular, three prominent LPWAN technologies are emerging at the moment: LoRaWAN™ and SigFox™, which operate on unlicensed frequency bands, and NB-IoT, operating on licensed frequency bands. This paper deals with LoRaWAN™, and has the aim of describing a particularly interesting feature provided by the latest LoRaWAN™ specification—often neglected in the literature—i.e., the roaming capability between different operators of LoRaWAN™ networks, across the same country or even different countries. Recalling that LoRaWAN™ devices do not have a subscriber identification module (SIM) like cellular network terminals, at a first glance the implementation of roaming in LoRaWAN™ networks could seem intricate. The contribution of this paper consists in explaining the principles behind the implementation of a global LoRaWAN network, with particular focus on how to cope with the lack of the SIM in the architecture and how to realize roaming. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 10th Anniversary Feature Papers)
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33 pages, 1099 KiB  
Article
On the Need for a General REST-Security Framework
by Luigi Lo Iacono, Hoai Viet Nguyen and Peter Leo Gorski
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030056 - 27 Feb 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5690
Abstract
Contemporary software is inherently distributed. The principles guiding the design of such software have been mainly manifested by the service-oriented architecture (SOA) concept. In a SOA, applications are orchestrated by software services generally operated by distinct entities. Due to the latter fact, service [...] Read more.
Contemporary software is inherently distributed. The principles guiding the design of such software have been mainly manifested by the service-oriented architecture (SOA) concept. In a SOA, applications are orchestrated by software services generally operated by distinct entities. Due to the latter fact, service security has been of importance in such systems ever since. A dominant protocol for implementing SOA-based systems is SOAP, which comes with a well-elaborated security framework. As an alternative to SOAP, the architectural style representational state transfer (REST) is gaining traction as a simple, lightweight and flexible guideline for designing distributed service systems that scale at large. This paper starts by introducing the basic constraints representing REST. Based on these foundations, the focus is afterwards drawn on the security needs of REST-based service systems. The limitations of transport-oriented protection means are emphasized and the demand for specific message-oriented safeguards is assessed. The paper then reviews the current activities in respect to REST-security and finds that the available schemes are mostly HTTP-centered and very heterogeneous. More importantly, all of the analyzed schemes contain vulnerabilities. The paper contributes a methodology on how to establish REST-security as a general security framework for protecting REST-based service systems of any kind by consistent and comprehensive protection means. First adoptions of the introduced approach are presented in relation to REST message authentication with instantiations for REST-ful HTTP (web/cloud services) and REST-ful constraint application protocol (CoAP) (internet of things (IoT) services). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 10th Anniversary Feature Papers)
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15 pages, 1331 KiB  
Review
Simulating Fog and Edge Computing Scenarios: An Overview and Research Challenges
by Sergej Svorobej, Patricia Takako Endo, Malika Bendechache, Christos Filelis-Papadopoulos, Konstantinos M. Giannoutakis, George A. Gravvanis, Dimitrios Tzovaras, James Byrne and Theo Lynn
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030055 - 26 Feb 2019
Cited by 105 | Viewed by 13081
Abstract
The fourth industrial revolution heralds a paradigm shift in how people, processes, things, data and networks communicate and connect with each other. Conventional computing infrastructures are struggling to satisfy dramatic growth in demand from a deluge of connected heterogeneous end points located at [...] Read more.
The fourth industrial revolution heralds a paradigm shift in how people, processes, things, data and networks communicate and connect with each other. Conventional computing infrastructures are struggling to satisfy dramatic growth in demand from a deluge of connected heterogeneous end points located at the edge of networks while, at the same time, meeting quality of service levels. The complexity of computing at the edge makes it increasingly difficult for infrastructure providers to plan for and provision resources to meet this demand. While simulation frameworks are used extensively in the modelling of cloud computing environments in order to test and validate technical solutions, they are at a nascent stage of development and adoption for fog and edge computing. This paper provides an overview of challenges posed by fog and edge computing in relation to simulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cloud Computing and Internet of Things)
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9 pages, 196 KiB  
Review
SAES: An Introduction to Self-Adapting Exploratory Structures
by Giovanni Maria Sacco
Future Internet 2019, 11(3), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi11030054 - 26 Feb 2019
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3726
Abstract
Self-adapting exploratory structures (SAESs) are the basic components of exploratory search. They are abstract structures which allow searching or querying of an information base and summarizing of results using a uniform representation. A definition and a characterization of SAES is given, as well [...] Read more.
Self-adapting exploratory structures (SAESs) are the basic components of exploratory search. They are abstract structures which allow searching or querying of an information base and summarizing of results using a uniform representation. A definition and a characterization of SAES is given, as well as a discussion of structures that are SAES or can be modified in order to become SAES. These include dynamic taxonomies (also known as faceted search), tag clouds, continuous sliders, geographic maps, and dynamic clustering methods, such as Scatter-Gather. Finally, the integration of these structures into a single interface is discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 10th Anniversary Feature Papers)
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