Research Projects

CAREER: Leveraging Wireless Virtuali-zation for Enhancing Network Capacity, Coverage, Energy Efficiency and Security (NSF): This project focuses on the design, analysis and evaluation of a Wireless Virtualization (Wi-Vi) framework by combining different wireless resources and infrastructures, beyond spectrum sharing with licensed users, to be used as on-demand service over the network, with the goal of enhancing network capacity, coverage, energy efficiency and security. We are developing Wi-Vi architecture using systematic approaches to improve overall network performance. Specifically, the significance of the proposed research includes: 1) development of a generalized wireless virtualization framework that will help meet dynamic demands of wireless users by expanding or shrinking wireless resources of the virtual wireless operators; 2) study and implementation of optimal wireless resource sharing among coverage- and capacity-driven Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs); 3) development of systematic approaches for base station-level, MVNO-level and user level optimizations and Quality-of-Service (QoS) provisioning; 4) application of wireless virtualization in network security through dynamic network segmentation; and 5) validation and evaluation of the proposed novel techniques through extensive simulations and experiments. This project will impact many emerging areas in which wireless communication has applications - such as smart grid, eHealth, vehicular networks, next generation cellular networks, Internet-of-things, cyber-physical systems and secure cyberspace. For further detail, please visit Project Page >>

Cybersecurity and Privacy through Blockchain based Cyber-threat information sharing (iShare) Framework (AFRL, DHS): The goal of cyber-threat information sharing without revealing any private information for cybersecurity is far from being met with today's frameworks. Currently, organizations hesitate to share their cyber-threat information with other organizations because of the following reasons: i) Absence of a common format and framework for information exchange for cybersecurity; ii) Organizations are reluctant to share their information because of reputation concerns in case of cyber-attacks caused by negative publicity and privacy concerns; iii) Rival organizations/agencies may misuse the shared information for their own rational or competitive advantages; and iv) Organizations may not see any immediate benefits of sharing their information for cybersecurity. How can different organizations share cyber-defense and cyber-threat information without revealing their private information to prevent spreading malwares and future cyber attacks? This project aims to design, develop and evaluate a blockchain enabled cyber-threat/defense information sharing (iShare, for short) framework for different organizations to protect their networked systems from cyber-attacks. For further detail, please visit Project Page >>

ROAR: Near Real-time Opportunistic Spectrum Access in Cloud based Cognitive Radio Networks (NSF, DHS): This project focuses on the development of ROAR: A Real-time Opportunistic spectrum Access in cognitive Radio networks testbed. This project will setup a cloud-based cognitive network for real-time opportunistic spectrum access across diverse RF bands (e.g., 10 Hz – 13 GHz) including cellular, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n, IEEE 802.15.4, DSRC/WAVE and Bluetooth networks. This project impacts the implementation, evaluation and development of future wireless systems. This project also enables experimental investigations in a number of other research projects, including secure dynamic spectrum access design, cognitive radio enabled opportunistic spectrum access in highly mobile vehicular networks, primary user security emulation, energy management techniques for mobile devices, cross-layer based protocol design, security for cyber-physical system design, interference mitigation techniques and wireless resource management schemes. The information gained from ROAR will provide a platform to assess maturity of the technology and identify areas that need further research for real-time opportunistic dynamic spectrum access in a heterogeneous cognitive network environment, and will support enhancement of our national wireless infrastructure and capacity. For further detail, please visit Project Page >> and small scale CRN Experimenal setup

Leveraging Software Defined Networks for Energy Efficient Cybersecurity (NSF, DHS, CfS): Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging paradigm, which breaks the vertical integration in traditional networks to provide the flexibility to program the network through (logical) centralized network control. SDN has the capability to adapt its network parameters on the fly based on its operating environment. The decoupled structure of SDN serves as a solution for managing the network with more flexibility and ease. In SDN, the centralized cost effective architecture provides network visibility which helps to achieve efficient resource utilization and high performance. Due to the increasingly pervasive existence of smart programmable devices in the network, SDN provides security, energy efficiency and network virtualization for enhancing the overall network performance. For further detail, please visit Project Page

Cybersecurity for IoT and IoT-enabled Critical Systems: Protecting and securing IoT devices is more challenging than traditional network security because there are wider range of communication protocols, standards and device capabilities. Providing the ability for users to authenticate an IoT device is also challenging because of the scale and nature of the users such as connected cars, traditional computers, AMIs, sensors, etc. Furthermore, encrypting in IoT systems for data at rest and in transit to maintain data integrity and preventing data sniffing by hackers is another challenge. Collecting, aggregating, monitoring, and normalizing big data from IoT devices using big data analytics and machine learning along with artificial intelligence are important steps for providing actionable reporting and alerting on speciﬁc activities or detecting anomalous activities that are outside established policies. In this project, we are designing, developing and evaluating security techniques, protocols and standards for cybersecurity in IoT enabled critical systems. For further detail, please visit Project Page

Cybersecurity for Resiliency in Smart Energy Cyber Physical Systems (NSF, DHS, GSU):: Due to the recent changes in electrical consumption behavior and technological advancement, demand of power grids have increased drastically. Robust and efficient delivery and distribution of electricity, integration of renewable energy sources into the grid cannot function without an extensive data communication system. Smart grid communication provides two way delivery of information and energy in the power systems infrastructure as shown in Figure 1. However, increased connectivity of grid assets and bidirectional communications presents severe security challenges. Due to the critical nature of the smart grid services, it becomes a prime target for acts of cyber terrorism. Thus, cyber security for smart grid is essential for reliable power grid operations. Our research focuses on all aspects of cybersecurity for smart grid including threat information sharing, blockchain based security, privacy-aware security, electronic warfare, moving target defense, cloud security, big data analytics for security, proactive real-time intrusion prevention systems (IPS)/intrusion detection systems (IDS) using machine learning and artificial intelligence, network segmentation, controlled wireless propagation, authentication, authorization and certification. The proposed solutions comprised of scalable, resilient, and adaptive cyber security/defense techniques for smart grid operation without affecting any legitimate operations. For further detail, please visit Energy CPS Project Page | Transportation CPS Project Page

Big Data Analytics for Wireless Network Security and Planning (NSF, DHS): The next generation wireless networks are expected to operate in fully automated fashion to meet the burgeoning capacity demand and to serve users with superior quality of experience. Mobile wireless networks can leverage spatio-temporal information about user and network condition to embed the system with end-to-end visibility and intelligence. Big data analytics has emerged as a promising approach to unearth meaningful insights and to build artificially intelligent models with assistance of machine learning and deep learning tools. Utilizing aforementioned tools and techniques, we propose to analyze huge amount of data in near real-time for real-time anomaly detection and deploy cyber-defense solutions. For further detail, please visit Project Page

Resilient Intelligent Transportation Systems: Security, Privacy,Connectivity and Reliability (NSF, DHS, HU): A Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is a special case of Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) to enable exchange of information among nearby vehicles using vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications and between vehicles as well as nearby roadside unit (RSU) using vehicle-to-roadside (V2R) communications. VANETs are expected to implement variety of wireless technologies to provide safety as well as comfort for passengers and to make more efficient roads in the future by providing timely information to drivers and concerned authorities. The message forwarding and propagation in VANET should be done in small amount of time. Reliability and low delay are extremely important factors for VANET applications to propagate and disseminate the message toward the region of interest. In V2V based vehicular communications, it is also important to check the legitimate of the received message since a given vehicle can work as a router, source and destination for the message. This project aims at developing resilient algorithms for information dissemination, transportation CPS security, adaptive protocols, machine-to-machine communications, reliable routing, security, privacy and trust issues. For further detail, please visit Project Page>> | iParking Page >> | iTraffic >>.

Cybersecurity (Network Security, Big data security, Wireless Security, Information/data Security) for Hardening Connected Systems (HU, NSF): This project focuses on all aspects of cybersecurity including threat information sharing, blockchain based security, privacy-aware security, electronic warfare, moving target defense, cloud security, big data analytics for security, proactive real-time intrusion prevention systems (IPS)/intrusion detection systems (IDS) using machine learning and artificial intelligence, network segmentation, controlled wireless propagation, authentication, authorization and certification. The proposed cyber-defense solutions comprised of scalable, resilient, and adaptive to cyber-attacks. For further detail, please visit Project Page >>

Secure and Reliable Mission Critical (semi-) Autonomous 3-D Wireless System (NSF, DHS, GSU): Wireless security and connectivity for communication and control in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) networks is very critical to accomplish an assigned task such as monitoring a given area, video surveillance. Because of 3-dimensional nature and dynamic mobility of UAVs, there are several challenges. Furthermore, due to the three-dimensional nature of UAVs, a new model for wireless ad hoc networks needs to be developed. Traditional network models assume a two-dimensional framework and do not take into account the large changes in 3-D (longitude, attitude and altitude) that typically occurs with UAV networks. In this project, we are in the process of analyzing, designing, developing and evaluating 3-D wireless ad hoc network security and connectivity for mission critical systems and applications. For further detail, please visit Project Page

Low Power Wireless Networking for Large Infrastructure Monitoring (NSF, DHS, GSU): Low power wireless network or Wireless sensor network consist of distributed autonomous sensors in which each node is typically equipped with a radio transceiver, a small computing device and an energy source. Energy efficient resource allocation is of vital importance in sensor network. An ad-hoc or short-live network is the network of two or more mobile devices connected to each other without any help of intervening infrastructure. A mobile ad-hoc sensor or hybrid ad-hoc network consists of a number of sensor spreads in a geographical area or throughout of the structure. Each sensor is capable of mobile communication and has some level of intelligence to process signals and to transmit data. Application includes Wireless Sensor network for Airplane status monitoring, wind turbine monitoring, Farm monitoring, etc. For further detail, please visit Project Page