A quasi-static analysis for a class of induced-current EIT systems using discrete coils

A discrete coil EIT system is investigated for the general case of an eccentric circular inhomogeneity. The solution methodology of the forward problem of this system is explained. An optimization procedure using this forward problem solution is developed to find optimum currents that maximize the distinguishability. For an eccentric inhomogeneity problem, it is shown that the coil currents can be optimized to focus the current density in a region of interest. Optimum coil currents under limited peak coil currents constraint and limited total power constraint are obtained. Representative examples that demonstrate the performance of the system are presented.     

BorderSense: Border patrol through advanced wireless sensor networks

The conventional border patrol systems suffer from intensive human involvement. Recently, unmanned border patrol systems employ high-tech devices, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, unattended ground sensors, and surveillance towers equipped with camera sensors. However, any single technique encounters inextricable problems, such as high false alarm rate and line-of-sight-constraints. There lacks a coherent system that coordinates various technologies to improve the system accuracy. In this paper, the concept of BorderSense, a hybrid wireless sensor network architecture for border patrol systems, is introduced. BorderSense utilizes the most advanced sensor network technologies, including the wireless multimedia sensor networks and the wireless underground sensor networks. The framework to deploy and operate BorderSense is developed. Based on the framework, research challenges and open research issues are discussed.     

Controlling of electronic parameters of GaAs Schottky diode by poly(3,4-ethylenedioxithiophene)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) organic interlayer

The electronic properties of metal-organic semiconductor-inorganic semiconductor structure between GaAs and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxithiophene)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) organic film have been investigated via current-voltage and capacitance-voltage methods. The Au/PEDOT/n-GaAs contact exhibits a rectification behavior with the barrier height of 0.69 eV and ideality factor value of 3.94. The barrier height of the studied diode (0.67 eV) is lower than that of Ni/n-GaAs/In (0.85 eV) and Au/n-GaAs/In Schottky diodes. The decrease in barrier height of Au/n-GaAs/In Schottky diode is likely to be due to the variation in the space charge region in the GaAs. The obtained results indicate that control of the interfacial potential barrier for metal/n-GaAs diode was achieved using thin interlayer of the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxithiophene)-block-poly(ethylene glycol).     

k‐strong privacy for radio frequency identification authentication protocols based on physically unclonable functions

This paper examines Vaudenay's privacy model, which is one of the first and most complete privacy models that featured the notion of different privacy classes. We enhance this model by introducing two new generic adversary classes, k‐strong and k‐forward adversaries where the adversary is allowed to corrupt a tag at most k times. Moreover, we introduce an extended privacy definition that also covers all privacy classes of Vaudenay's model. In order to achieve highest privacy level, we study low cost primitives such as physically unclonable functions (PUFs). The common assumption of PUFs is that their physical structure is destroyed once tampered. This is an ideal assumption because the tamper resistance depends on the ability of the attacker and the quality of the PUF circuits. In this paper, we have weakened this assumption by introducing a new definition k‐resistant PUFs. k‐PUFs are tamper resistant against at most k attacks; that is, their physical structure remains still functional and correct until at most k^th physical attack. Furthermore, we prove that strong privacy can be achieved without public‐key cryptography using k PUF‐based authentication. We finally prove that our extended proposal achieves both reader authentication and k‐strong privacy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Secure sensors data acquisition and communication protection in eHealthcare: Review on the state of the art

Recent advances in hardware technology have led to the development of low cost, power efficient and more feature rich devices that are amongst the most critical parts of communication networks. These devices or sensors can now sense data with more accuracy, process it by themselves and send it to the neighboring node or the sink node. However, robust and reliable security mechanisms are not yet properly implemented on these sensors due to their limited energy and computation power. Sensors also play a very important role in eHealthcare systems where ubiquitous patient monitoring is performed. As data is generated from the sensor nodes, reliable, secure and attack-resistant data acquisition and transmission is important for an efficient eHealthcare systems. This survey focuses on security issues of sensors data acquisition and transmission protocols, describing their main security features and comparing them in the context of a secure eHealthcare system. A taxonomy of open issues and future challenges is also discussed with respect to specific security metrics described in the paper.     

Optimal joint load balancing and EDCA configuration of IEEE 802.11 wireless hotspots

Wireless hotspots, ie, infrastructures composed of several IEEE 802.11 access points (APs), are today the most common solution in providing Internet access to a wide and rapidly changing population of users. According to common device implementation, stations establish associations with APs based on the measured strongest Received Signal Strength Indicator level. This usually leads to an uneven distribution of users to APs, increasing the chances of local network congestion. Load balancing (LB) solutions aim at mitigating this problem controlling the distribution of users. The LB algorithms enforce stations to associate with APs that manage a low number of users and/or that have a low traffic load. Usually, LB solutions do not consider traffic priorities or they assume some a priori quality of service (QoS) configuration for users. In this study, we propose a QoS‐LB solution based on the cell breathing technique with the goal of balancing the load in IEEE 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) Hotspots. The proposed algorithm explores the space of possible power/EDCA configurations by using a branch and bound approach that reduces the number of analyzed configurations and, hence, the time required to find the global optimal solution. The algorithm has been analytically defined and its performance evaluated through simulations and tests in a real test bed. The results prove that the proposed solution is effective in solving the optimal QoS‐LB configuration problem in WiFi hotspots of average size.     

Towards providing optimal energy‐efficiency and throughput for IEEE 802.11 WLANs

IEEE 802.11 wireless network standard has become one of the most used wireless networking technologies for smart devices as it offers mobility support and low cost deployment. However, these devices deeply rely on the energy provided by their batteries, which results in limited running time. IEEE 802.11 network standard provides stations with carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance for the medium access. Yet it results in stations to consume an important amount of power. Therefore, minimizing WiFi‐based energy consumption in smart devices has been received substantial attention in both academia and industry. Accordingly, this paper * proposes a novel beacon‐based energy‐efficient collision‐free medium access control protocol for any type of IEEE 802.11 stations, regardless of being stationary or mobile, or having different amount of traffic flow, transmission rates, or traffic types. The proposed scheme is valid for all types of low or wide bandwidth, single or multiuser multiple‐input multiple‐output WLAN channels, such as IEEE 802.11a\b\g\n\ac. In the proposed scheme, energy saving is achieved, enabling stations to transmit on the right time and maintaining stations in the doze state during a predetermined sleep_time interval after each successful frame transmission, by making use of modified control and management frames of the standard IEEE 802.11 protocol. The proposed scheme reduces the probability of collisions and may allow stations to enter the collision‐free state, regardless of the number of stations on the channel and their traffic types. Widespread simulations have been executed to validate the efficiency of the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly increases overall throughput and reduces power consumption of stations over IEEE 802.11 WLANs.     

Preparation and characterization of conductive polypyrrole/kaolinite composites

Conductive polypyrrole (PPy)/kaolinite clay composites were prepared by in situ chemical polymerization of pyrrole in the presence of kaolinite using FeCl₃ as oxidant. The PPy content and conductivity of the composites reached 32.8% and 8.3×10^?2 S/cm at HCl concentrations of 1.5 M and 0.5 M, respectively. The microhardness of the composites containing different amounts of PPy was higher than that of the PPy and kaolinite components. The highest microhardness observed was 30.17 kg/mm² for the composite containing 9.6% PPy. The electrical resistance of the composites was monitored during heating–cooling cycles over the range 5–120 °C. The change in resistance with temperature was more repeatable for the composite than for PPy. The composites were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The humidity-sensing properties were also examined.     

Multipath channel identification by using global optimization in ambiguity function domain

A new transform domain array signal processing technique is proposed for identification of multipath communication channels. The received array element outputs are transformed to delay-Doppler domain by using the cross-ambiguity function (CAF) for efficient exploitation of the delay-Doppler diversity of the multipath components. Clusters of multipath components can be identified by using a simple amplitude thresholding in the delay-Doppler domain. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) can be used to identify parameters of the multipath components in each cluster. The performance of the proposed PSO-CAF technique is compared with the space alternating generalized expectation maximization (SAGE) technique and with a recently proposed PSO based technique at various SNR levels. Simulation results clearly quantify the superior performance of the PSO-CAF technique over the alternative techniques at all practically significant SNR levels.