Future Internet

16 pages, 455 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Survey on Data Availability in Layer 2 Blockchain Rollups: Open Challenges and Future Improvements

by Muhammad Bin Saif, Sara Migliorini and Fausto Spoto

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 315; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090315 - 29 Aug 2024

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Layer 2 solutions have emerged in recent years as a valuable alternative to increase the throughput and scalability of blockchain-based architectures. The three primary types of Layer 2 solutions are state channels, sidechains, and rollups. The rollups are particularly promising, allowing significant improvements [...] Read more.

Layer 2 solutions have emerged in recent years as a valuable alternative to increase the throughput and scalability of blockchain-based architectures. The three primary types of Layer 2 solutions are state channels, sidechains, and rollups. The rollups are particularly promising, allowing significant improvements in transaction throughput, security, and efficiency, and have been adopted by many real-world projects, such as Polygon and Optimistic. However, the adoption of Layer 2 solutions has led to other challenges, such as the data availability problem, where transaction data processed off-chain must be posted back on the main chain. This is crucial to prevent data withholding attacks and ensure all participants can independently verify the blockchain state. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of existing rollup-based Layer 2 solutions with a focus on the data availability problem and discusses the major advantages and disadvantages of them. Finally, an analysis of open challenges and future research directions is provided. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blockchain and Web 3.0: Applications, Challenges and Future Trends—Volume II)

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33 pages, 1091 KiB

Open AccessArticle

CrossDeFi: A Novel Cross-Chain Communication Protocol

by Shezon Saleem Mohammed Abdul, Anup Shrestha and Jianming Yong

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 314; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090314 (registering DOI) - 29 Aug 2024

Viewed by 199

Abstract

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is rapidly evolving, promising to revolutionize financial services through blockchain technology. Successful integration of asset transfers across diverse DeFi platforms hinges on effective interoperability and transaction finality, ensuring security and cost efficiency. This paper introduces CrossDeFi, a novel cross-chain communication [...] Read more.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is rapidly evolving, promising to revolutionize financial services through blockchain technology. Successful integration of asset transfers across diverse DeFi platforms hinges on effective interoperability and transaction finality, ensuring security and cost efficiency. This paper introduces CrossDeFi, a novel cross-chain communication protocol tailored to address the challenges posed by heterogeneity in consensus mechanisms, smart contracts, and token systems. CrossDeFi introduces two key mechanisms: Miner and bridge selection (MBS) and improved transfer confirmation (ITC). The MBS mechanism optimizes the selection of miners and bridges based on the unique characteristics of each blockchain, significantly improving transfer accuracy, cost efficiency, and speed. Meanwhile, the ITC mechanism leverages cryptographic primitives to secure asset transfer confirmations, ensuring robust transaction finality. The protocol’s effectiveness is demonstrated through detailed efficiency and security analyses, complemented by a prototype evaluation that showcases its capabilities in reducing transfer durations and costs. These findings underscore the potential of CrossDeFi to transform the DeFi ecosystem. Full article

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24 pages, 7635 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Improved Adaptive Backoff Algorithm for Optimal Channel Utilization in Large-Scale IEEE 802.15.4-Based Wireless Body Area Networks

by Mounib Khanafer, Mouhcine Guennoun, Mohammed El-Abd and Hussein T. Mouftah

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 313; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090313 - 29 Aug 2024

Viewed by 154

Abstract

The backoff algorithm employed by the medium access control (MAC) protocol of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard has a significant impact on the overall performance of the wireless sensor network (WSN). This algorithm helps the MAC protocol resolve the contention among multiple nodes in [...] Read more.

The backoff algorithm employed by the medium access control (MAC) protocol of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard has a significant impact on the overall performance of the wireless sensor network (WSN). This algorithm helps the MAC protocol resolve the contention among multiple nodes in accessing the wireless medium. The standard binary exponent backoff (BEB) used by the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC protocol relies on an incremental method that doubles the size of the contention window after the occurrence of a collision. In a previous work, we proposed the adaptive backoff algorithm (ABA), which adapts the contention window’s size to the value of the probability of collision, thus relating the contention resolution to the size of the WSN in an indirect manner. ABA was studied and tested using contention window sizes of up to 256. However, the latter limit on the contention window size led to degradation in the network performance as the size of the network exceeded 50 nodes. This paper introduces the Improved ABA (I-ABA), an improved version of ABA. In the design of I-ABA we observe the optimal values of the contention window that maximize performance under varying probabilities of collision. Based on that, we use curve fitting techniques to derive a mathematical expression that better describes the adaptive change in the contention window. This forms the basis of I-ABA, which demonstrates scalability and the ability to enhance performance. As a potential area of application for I-ABA, we target wireless body area networks (WBANs) that are large-scale, that is, composed of hundreds of sensor nodes. WBAN is a major application area for the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. We evaluate the performance of I-ABA based on simulations. Our results show that, in a large-scale WBAN, I-ABA can achieve superior performance to both ABA and the standard BEB in terms of various performance metrics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue IoT, Edge, and Cloud Computing in Smart Cities)

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14 pages, 1786 KiB

Open AccessArticle

AI Services-Oriented Dynamic Computing Resource Scheduling Algorithm Based on Distributed Data Parallelism in Edge Computing Network of Smart Grid

by Jing Zou, Peizhe Xin, Chang Wang, Heli Zhang, Lei Wei and Ying Wang

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 312; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090312 - 28 Aug 2024

Viewed by 262

Abstract

Massive computational resources are required by a booming number of artificial intelligence (AI) services in the communication network of the smart grid. To alleviate the computational pressure on data centers, edge computing first network (ECFN) can serve as an effective solution to realize [...] Read more.

Massive computational resources are required by a booming number of artificial intelligence (AI) services in the communication network of the smart grid. To alleviate the computational pressure on data centers, edge computing first network (ECFN) can serve as an effective solution to realize distributed model training based on data parallelism for AI services in smart grid. Due to AI services with diversified types, an edge data center has a changing workload in different time periods. Selfish edge data centers from different edge suppliers are reluctant to share their computing resources without a rule for fair competition. AI services-oriented dynamic computational resource scheduling of edge data centers affects both the economic profit of AI service providers and computational resource utilization. This letter mainly discusses the partition and distribution of AI data based on distributed model training and dynamic computational resource scheduling problems among multiple edge data centers for AI services. To this end, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model and a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL)-based algorithm are proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed DRL-based algorithm outperforms the benchmark in terms of profit of AI service provider, backlog of distributed model training tasks, running time and multi-objective optimization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Transport Systems (ITSs) Meet Generative Artificial Intelligence)

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29 pages, 2443 KiB

Open AccessArticle

User Mobility Modeling in Crowdsourcing Application to Prevent Inference Attacks

by Farid Yessoufou, Salma Sassi, Elie Chicha, Richard Chbeir and Jules Degila

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 311; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090311 - 28 Aug 2024

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Abstract

With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile crowdsourcing has become a leading application, leveraging the ubiquitous presence of smartphone users to collect and process data. Spatial crowdsourcing, which assigns tasks based on users’ geographic locations, has proven to be particularly [...] Read more.

With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile crowdsourcing has become a leading application, leveraging the ubiquitous presence of smartphone users to collect and process data. Spatial crowdsourcing, which assigns tasks based on users’ geographic locations, has proven to be particularly innovative. However, this trend raises significant privacy concerns, particularly regarding the precise geographic data required by these crowdsourcing platforms. Traditional methods, such as dummy locations, spatial cloaking, differential privacy, k-anonymity, and encryption, often fail to mitigate the risks associated with the continuous disclosure of location data. An unauthorized entity could access these data and infer personal information about individuals, such as their home address, workplace, religion, or political affiliations, thus constituting a privacy violation. In this paper, we propose a user mobility model designed to enhance location privacy protection by accurately identifying Points of Interest (POIs) and countering inference attacks. Our main contribution here focuses on user mobility modeling and the introduction of an advanced algorithm for precise POI identification. We evaluate our contributions using GPS data collected from 10 volunteers over a period of 3 months. The results show that our mobility model delivers significant performance and that our POI extraction algorithm outperforms existing approaches. Full article

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18 pages, 2820 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Predictive Maintenance Based on Identity Resolution and Transformers in IIoT

by Zhibo Qi, Lei Du, Ru Huo and Tao Huang

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 310; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090310 - 27 Aug 2024

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Abstract

The burgeoning development of next-generation technologies, especially the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), has heightened interest in predictive maintenance (PdM). Accurate failure forecasting and prompt responses to downtime are essential for improving the industrial efficiency. Traditional PdM methods often suffer from high false [...] Read more.

The burgeoning development of next-generation technologies, especially the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), has heightened interest in predictive maintenance (PdM). Accurate failure forecasting and prompt responses to downtime are essential for improving the industrial efficiency. Traditional PdM methods often suffer from high false alarm rates and inefficiencies in complex environments. This paper introduces a predictive maintenance framework using identity resolution and a transformer model. Devices receive unique IDs via distributed identifiers (DIDs), followed by a state awareness model to assess device health from sensor signals. A sequence prediction model forecasts future signal sequences, which are then used with the state awareness model to determine future health statuses. Combining these predictions with unique IDs allows for the rapid identification of facilities needing maintenance. Experimental results show superior performance, with 99% accuracy for the state awareness model and a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.062 for the sequence prediction model, underscoring the effectiveness of the framework. Full article

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27 pages, 616 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Multiparty Quantum Private Equality Comparison Scheme Relying on |GHZ₃⟩ States

by Theodore Andronikos and Alla Sirokofskich

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 309; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090309 - 27 Aug 2024

Viewed by 328

Abstract

In this work, we present a new protocol that accomplishes multiparty quantum private comparison leveraging maximally entangled

| G H Z_{3} ⟩

triplets. Our intention was to develop a protocol that can be readily executed by contemporary quantum computers. This is possible [...] Read more.

In this work, we present a new protocol that accomplishes multiparty quantum private comparison leveraging maximally entangled

| G H Z_{3} ⟩

triplets. Our intention was to develop a protocol that can be readily executed by contemporary quantum computers. This is possible because the protocol uses only

| G H Z_{3} ⟩

triplets, irrespective of the number n of millionaires. Although it is feasible to prepare multiparticle entangled states of high complexity, this is overly demanding on a contemporary quantum apparatus, especially in situations involving multiple entities. By relying exclusively on

| G H Z_{3} ⟩

states, we avoid these drawbacks and take a decisive step toward the practical implementation of the protocol. An important quantitative characteristic of the protocol is that the required quantum resources are linear both in the number of millionaires and the amount of information to be compared. Additionally, our protocol is suitable for both parallel and sequential execution. Ideally, its execution is envisioned to take place in parallel. Nonetheless, it is also possible to be implemented sequentially if the quantum resources are insufficient. Notably, our protocol involves two third parties, as opposed to a single third party in the majority of similar protocols. Trent, commonly featured in previous multiparty protocols, is now accompanied by Sophia. This dual setup allows for the simultaneous processing of all n millionaires’ fortunes. The new protocol does not rely on a quantum signature scheme or pre-shared keys, reducing complexity and cost. Implementation wise, uniformity is ensured as all millionaires use similar private circuits composed of Hadamard and CNOT gates. Lastly, the protocol is information-theoretically secure, preventing outside parties from learning about fortunes or inside players from knowing each other’s secret numbers. Full article

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32 pages, 1667 KiB

Open AccessReview

Artificial Intelligence Applications in Smart Healthcare: A Survey

by Xian Gao, Peixiong He, Yi Zhou and Xiao Qin

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 308; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090308 - 27 Aug 2024

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Abstract

The rapid development of AI technology in recent years has led to its widespread use in daily life, where it plays an increasingly important role. In healthcare, AI has been integrated into the field to develop the new domain of smart healthcare. In [...] Read more.

The rapid development of AI technology in recent years has led to its widespread use in daily life, where it plays an increasingly important role. In healthcare, AI has been integrated into the field to develop the new domain of smart healthcare. In smart healthcare, opportunities and challenges coexist. This article provides a comprehensive overview of past developments and recent progress in this area. First, we summarize the definition and characteristics of smart healthcare. Second, we explore the opportunities that AI technology brings to the smart healthcare field from a macro perspective. Third, we categorize specific AI applications in smart healthcare into ten domains and discuss their technological foundations individually. Finally, we identify ten key challenges these applications face and discuss the existing solutions for each. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue eHealth and mHealth)

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19 pages, 1186 KiB

Open AccessArticle

PrismParser: A Framework for Implementing Efficient P4-Programmable Packet Parsers on FPGA

by Parisa Mashreghi-Moghadam, Tarek Ould-Bachir and Yvon Savaria

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 307; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090307 - 27 Aug 2024

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Abstract

The increasing complexity of modern networks and their evolving needs demand flexible, high-performance packet processing solutions. The P4 language excels in specifying packet processing in software-defined networks (SDNs). Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are ideal for P4-based packet parsers due to their reconfigurability and [...] Read more.

The increasing complexity of modern networks and their evolving needs demand flexible, high-performance packet processing solutions. The P4 language excels in specifying packet processing in software-defined networks (SDNs). Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are ideal for P4-based packet parsers due to their reconfigurability and ability to handle data transmitted at high speed. This paper introduces three FPGA-based P4-programmable packet parsing architectural designs that translate P4 specifications into adaptable hardware implementations called base, overlay, and pipeline, each optimized for different packet parsing performance. As modern network infrastructures evolve, the need for multi-tenant environments becomes increasingly critical. Multi-tenancy allows multiple independent users or organizations to share the same physical network resources while maintaining isolation and customized configurations. The rise of 5G and cloud computing has accelerated the demand for network slicing and virtualization technologies, enabling efficient resource allocation and management for multiple tenants. By leveraging P4-programmable packet parsers on FPGAs, our framework addresses these challenges by providing flexible and scalable solutions for multi-tenant network environments. The base parser offers a simple design for essential packet parsing, using minimal resources for high-speed processing. The overlay parser extends the base design for parallel processing, supporting various bus sizes and throughputs. The pipeline parser boosts throughput by segmenting parsing into multiple stages. The efficiency of the proposed approaches is evaluated through detailed resource consumption metrics measured on an Alveo U280 board, demonstrating throughputs of 15.2 Gb/s for the base design, 15.2 Gb/s to 64.42 Gb/s for the overlay design, and up to 282 Gb/s for the pipelined design. These results demonstrate a range of high performances across varying throughput requirements. The proposed approach utilizes a system that ensures low latency and high throughput that yields streaming packet parsers directly from P4 programs, supporting parsing graphs with up to seven transitioning nodes and four connections between nodes. The functionality of the parsers was tested on enterprise networks, a firewall, and a 5G Access Gateway Function graph. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Convergence of Edge Computing and Next Generation Networking)

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18 pages, 461 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of a New-Concept Secure File Server Solution

by Gábor Arányi, Ágnes Vathy-Fogarassy and Veronika Szücs

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 306; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090306 - 26 Aug 2024

Viewed by 156

Abstract

Ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and defensive solutions must necessarily evolve. Unfortunately, automated backup management through validation—critical for data recovery after an attack—and strengthening file server protection are not sufficiently addressed in current protection strategies. To focus on this area, an architectural [...] Read more.

Ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and defensive solutions must necessarily evolve. Unfortunately, automated backup management through validation—critical for data recovery after an attack—and strengthening file server protection are not sufficiently addressed in current protection strategies. To focus on this area, an architectural model has been developed that complements traditional central data storage with an additional high-level file server protection solution. However, in addition to the functional adequacy of file server protection solutions, the measurability of operational performance is also important. In order to validate and evaluate the developed ransomware-proof file server protection, a dynamic performance metric is introduced for comparability, by which the performance results measured on the tested client–server architectures are presented, together with the methodology and results of the measurements. Our results show that the investigated model does not cause any performance degradation when moving sensitive data files and their backups during operation and even shows performance improvements in some frequently used configurations. The result proves that the developed real-time approach provides a solution to this critical problem in terms of the time required to restore key data from backups and to ensure file availability and continuity of accessibility. Based on a review of the literature and available solutions, it is concluded that there is no integrated solution for implementing a similar concept in practice, and therefore, the developed model is a gap-filling in this priority area. Full article

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15 pages, 8557 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Personalized Visualization of the Gestures of Parkinson’s Disease Patients with Virtual Reality

by Konstantinos Sakkas, Eirini Georgia Dimitriou, Niki Eleni Ntagka, Nikolaos Giannakeas, Konstantinos Kalafatakis, Alexandros T. Tzallas and Evripidis Glavas

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 305; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090305 - 23 Aug 2024

Viewed by 404

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms. Assessment methods, despite the many years of existence of the disease, lack individualized visualization. On the other hand, virtual reality promises immersion and realism. In this paper, we develop an integrated [...] Read more.

Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms. Assessment methods, despite the many years of existence of the disease, lack individualized visualization. On the other hand, virtual reality promises immersion and realism. In this paper, we develop an integrated system for visualizing the gestures of Parkinson’s disease patients in a virtual reality environment. With this application, clinicians will have information about the unique motor patterns and challenges they must address in each individual patient’s case, while the collected data can travel and be easily and instantly visualized in any location. At the beginning of this research, the current terms of immersive technologies in conjunction with data visualization and Parkinson’s disease are described. Through an extensive systematic literature review, the technological developments in the field of Parkinson’s data visualization are presented. The findings of the review lead to the experimental procedure and implementation of the application. The conclusions drawn from this work fuel future extensions on the contribution of immersive technologies to various diseases. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Advances in Collaborative Environments for Virtual, Augmented, Mixed and Extended Reality)

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23 pages, 2046 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Digital Footprints on the Run: A Forensic Examination of Android Running Workout Applications

by Fabian Nunes, Patrício Domingues and Miguel Frade

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 304; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090304 - 23 Aug 2024

Viewed by 271

Abstract

This study applies a forensic examination to six distinct Android fitness applications centered around monitoring running activities. The applications are Adidas Running, MapMyWalk, Nike Run Club, Pumatrac, Runkeeper and Strava. Specifically, we perform a post mortem analysis of each application to find and [...] Read more.

This study applies a forensic examination to six distinct Android fitness applications centered around monitoring running activities. The applications are Adidas Running, MapMyWalk, Nike Run Club, Pumatrac, Runkeeper and Strava. Specifically, we perform a post mortem analysis of each application to find and document artifacts such as timelines and Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates of running workouts that could prove helpful in digital forensic investigations. First, we focused on the Nike Run Club application and used the gained knowledge to analyze the other applications, taking advantage of their similarity. We began by creating a test environment and using each application during a fixed period. This procedure allowed us to gather testing data, and, to ensure access to all data generated by the apps, we used a rooted Android smartphone. For the forensic analysis, we examined the data stored by the smartphone application and documented the forensic artifacts found. To ease forensic data processing, we created several Python modules for the well-known Android Logs Events And Protobuf Parser (ALEAPP) digital forensic framework. These modules process the data sources, creating reports with the primary digital artifacts, which include the workout activities and related GPS data. Full article

(This article belongs to the Collection Innovative People-Centered Solutions Applied to Industries, Cities and Societies)

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22 pages, 4992 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Increasing the Security of Network Data Transmission with a Configurable Hardware Firewall Based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays

by Marco Grossi, Fabrizio Alfonsi, Marco Prandini and Alessandro Gabrielli

Future Internet 2024, 16(9), 303; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi16090303 - 23 Aug 2024

Viewed by 273

Abstract

One of the most common mitigations against network-borne security threats is the deployment of firewalls, i.e., systems that can observe traffic and apply rules to let it through if it is benign or drop packets that are recognized as malicious. Cheap and open-source [...] Read more.

One of the most common mitigations against network-borne security threats is the deployment of firewalls, i.e., systems that can observe traffic and apply rules to let it through if it is benign or drop packets that are recognized as malicious. Cheap and open-source (a feature that is greatly appreciated in the security world) software solutions are available but may be too slow for high-rate channels. Hardware appliances are efficient but opaque and they are often very expensive. In this paper, an open-hardware approach is proposed for the design of a firewall, implemented on off-the-shelf components such as an FPGA (the Xilinx KC705 development board), and it is tested using controlled Ethernet traffic created with a packet generator as well as with real internet traffic. The proposed system can filter packets based on a set of rules that can use the whitelist or blacklist approach. It generates a set of statistics, such as the number of received/transmitted packets and the amount of received/transmitted data, which can be used to detect potential anomalies in the network traffic. The firewall has been experimentally validated in the case of a network data throughput of 1 Gb/s, and preliminary simulations have shown that the system can be upgraded with minor modifications to work at 10 Gb/s. Test results have shown that the proposed firewall features a latency of 627 ns and a maximum data throughput of 0.982 Gb/s. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Future Internet Technology in Italy 2024–2025)

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Future Internet, Volume 16, Issue 9 (September 2024) – 13 articles

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