Software-Defined Networking är ett sätt att implementera ett nätverk som helt styrs från en central plats. Målet med SDN är att vara ett flexibelt nätverk som snabbt kan förändras för att klara av dagens massiva dataströmmar. För att SDN ska kunna fungera krävs det att ett protokoll används för att sköta kommunikationen mellan den centrala kontrollpunkten och nätverksutrustningen i nätverket. OpenFlow är ett sådant protokoll. OpenFlow protokollet är väl etablerat och används i många av dagens SDN-nätverk. Ett alternativ till detta är OpFlex, ett protokoll som är nytt på dagens marknad men har stöd från en mängd stora tillverkare i datavärlden. Målet med denna rapport är att jämföra dessa protokoll både teoretisk och även praktiskt via experiment i laborationsmiljö för att identifiera likheter och skillnader mellan protokollen. För att kunna jämföra dem utfördes först en omfattande litteraturstudie där information samlades in och sammanställdes om protokollen. Efter detta sattes en laborationsmiljö upp för att testa hur protokollen arbetar. Efter experimenten sammanställdes litteraturstudien och laborationsresultaten och protokollen bedömdes på olika områden. Slutligen lyftes olika situationer fram där respektive protokoll skulle lämpas att väljas över det andra. / Software-Defined Networking is a way to implement a fully-managed network from a central location. The goal of SDN is to be a flexible network that can quickly adapt to new configurations to handle today’s massive data streams. In order for SDN to work, a protocol is required to manage communication between the central control point and the network equipment within the network. OpenFlow is such a protocol, The OpenFlow protocol is very well established and used in many of today’s SDN networks. An alternative to OpenFlow is OpFlex, a protocol that is relatively new on today’s market, but has the support of many major manufacturers within networking and computers. The aim of this thesis is to compare these protocols both theoretically and practically through experiments in a laboratory environment to identify similarities and differences between these protocols. In order to be able to compare them, a comprehensive literature study was first conducted where information about the protocols was collected and compiled. After this, a laboratory environment was set up to test how the protocols work. After the experiments, the literature study and the laboratory results were compiled the protocols were assessed in different areas. Finally, different situations were raised where each protocol would be suitable to be chosen over the other.

Exsitec AB är ett medelstort svenskt teknikföretag som nyligen börjat använda sig av ramverket NgRx för tillståndshantering i sina applikationer. Utvecklarna på Exsitec AB har upplevt att de saknar riktlinjer för hur ramverket bäst ska användas, framförallt hur de ska undvika att stora projekt som använder ramverket inte ska bli svårhanterliga. Denna fallstudie syftar till att utröna hur deras arbete med NgRx ser ut vid tiden för studien och utifrån det ta fram praxisar som gör arbetet lättare. Detta görs genom att först genomföra en intervjuserie för att förstå den nuvarande situationen och hitta problemområden. Därefter genomförs kodförståelseexperiment för att se om föreslagna lösningar kan öka kodförståelsen på Exsitec AB. Från detta tas tre praxisar fram med vilka Exsitec ABs arbete med NgRx kan underlättas.

Internet of Things (IoT) is an upcoming prominent technology which is quickly growing. Not all IoTdemands of computing resources can be satisfied by cloud, and obstacles are firmer when it comes to mobility and agility. Thus, edge computing as a suitable middleware can fill the gap between cloud and IoT devices. Refer to the latest researches, edge security is still evolving, and forensics is almost untouched. In this work, we attempt to study available technologies and materials then design and implement an edge computing application which addresses the challenge of log collection from different edge devices. The interaction between edge and cloud is in a fashion that cloud entity can perform log collection from heterogeneous edge devices belong to different owners. On the other hand, due to local computing on the logs, the edge devicecan trust cloud party. Results show that thanks to the crucial topological position of the edge devices, the concept of edge computing can easily solve similar cloud challenges.

With the release of ”Bandersnatch” in 2018, an interactive movie where the viewermakes choices that affects the outcome of the story, we know that successful interactivemovies are possible and appreciated. Although this technology already exists the possibilitiesare seemingly limitless. Perhaps in the future, movies could take certain paths basedon a predetermined profile of a viewer or by scanning facial expressions during the filmto determine what path that best suits the viewer. Interactive films and videos allows theviewer to interact with the storyline of the video. This technique is interesting from boththe user and developer perspective and introduces new challenges. To be able to have anoverview of the different possible branches of the video is helpful and needed in developmentof the media player and the branched video. When different possibles paths of thevideo emerges it can be difficult to keep track of all the different story lines. In this thesis,we make significant improvements to an existing authoring tool for a branched videoplayer. The authoring tool is to be used along side with a media player in order to facilitatethe development of a non-linear branched video. We will also be exploring what featuresof the authoring tool offer the most value to the user.

This thesis aims to investigate the prospect of using Apache Kafka to manage data streams based on secrecy/classification level and separate these data streams in order to meet the requirement set by the secrecy/classification levels. Basalt AB has the responsibility of managing classified data for private and state actors, including the Swedish Armed Forces and other organizations. There is interest in a data-streaming solution that can securely stream large amounts of data while coordinating different data classifications and managing user access. This thesis work examines the viability of logically and physically separating producer data streams into categories based on the classification level of the data in an Apache Kafka cluster. Additionally, the thesis examines the viability of managing access control through the use of Access Control Lists. To protect against embedded attackers this thesis examines the viability of using Shamir Secret Sharing (SSS) algoritm to segment messages to on top of that use multi-factor authentication to ensure that messages cannot be read by a lone individual. The work seeks to contribute to the existing body of knowledge by improving the security, and ensuring the integrity of data through the application of detailed or granular user management of event-logs in an Apache Kafka cluster. This is of interest to organizations that require protection from both external and internal potential attackers. Our results indicate that Apache Kafka is an appropriate tool for data streaming secret data, we used a secret sharing algorithm to segment data and used Simple Authentication and Security Layer to build a multi-factor authentication system.

The covid-19 pandemic required an emergency transition to digital education all over the world and led to a huge learning loss in most countries. Informal learning programs teaching children digital skills were stopped or digitalized due to the pandemic. Studies show that just having access to remote education does not ensure that children absorb knowledge in the same way as face-to-face education (UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank and OECD, 2021) and indicates that there are new challenges that appear in digital education compared to face to face education. This thesis is investigating what problems and opportunities mentors face in a digital informal learning program compared to a face-to-face informal learning program. It also aims to find pedagogical and technical solutions to the problems faced by the mentors. The study is interviewing mentors from the Ericsson programs Digital Lab and the learning program Technovation Girls. It also surveys mentors to generalize the findings and evaluates what are the most important challenges. The logistical advantages are one of the main opportunities for digital mentoring. Mentors experience flexibility and time efficiency and more mentors can join the learning programs. The digitalization of the program makes it possible to reach children in rural areas and mentors and mentees can connect all over the world. The study shows that many mentees have a lack of access to ICT which is a big problem as not all children get the opportunity to participate in digital education. Motivation is a bigger challenge for mentees in the digital environment than in the physical environment, and the mentor has a bigger role in helping motivate the mentees in digital environments. The learning outcome differentiates from different environments and physical and digital education might be more or less effective depending on the skills that should be learned. Mentors also struggle with not having free and accessible tools that are adapted to helping mentees with programming, answer questions and have video call meetings. As an example of a solution to this problem, the features of a selection of commonly used communication tools are compiled and a prototype is developed of a selection tool that could help mentors choose the most efficient digital communication tool fit for purpose. The study highlights challenges and opportunities common to mentors in a digital environment, teaching skills in ICT and the results could be used for further studies to investigate what reasons there are for the learning loss in digital education. / Covid-19-pandemin krävde en snabb övergång till digital utbildning över hela världen och ledde till enorma kunskapsbortfall för elever i många länder. Även informella utbildningsprogram stoppades eller digitaliserades på grund av pandemin. Studier visar att tillgång till distansutbildning inte säkerställer att barn lär sig på samma nivå som när utbildningen sker på plats (UNESCO, UNICEF, Världsbanken och OECD, 2021) vilket indikerar att det finns andra utmaningar inom digital utbildning jämfört med utbildning som sker på plats. Detta examensarbete undersöker vilka problem och möjligheter mentorer möter i ett digitalt informellt utbildningsprogram jämfört med ett informellt utbildningsprogram i en fysisk miljö. Arbetet syftar också till att hitta pedagogiska och tekniska lösningar på de problem som mentorerna upplever. Studien intervjuar sju mentorer från Ericsson-programmet Digital Lab och programmet Technovation Girls. En enkät besvaras av 53 mentorer och används för att generalisera intervjuresultaten samt utvärdera vilka som är de största utmaningarna för mentorerna. De logistiska fördelarna är en av de främsta möjligheterna för digitalt mentorskap. Mentorer upplever flexibilitet och tidseffektivitet och fler mentorer har möjlighet att delta i utbildningsprogrammen. Digitaliseringen av programmet gör det även möjligt att nå barn på landsbygden och mentorer och adepter kan kommunicera över hela världen. Studien visar att många adepter har bristande tillgång till IKT vilket är ett stort problem då det bidrar till att inte alla barn har möjlighet att delta i digital utbildning. Studien visar att motivation är en större utmaning för adepter i den digitala miljön än i den fysiska miljön samt att mentorn har en större roll i att hjälpa till att motivera adepterna i den digitala miljön. Läranderesultatet skiljer sig från olika miljöer och fysisk och digital utbildning kan vara mer eller mindre effektiv beroende på vilka färdigheter som ska läras ut. En utmaning för mentorerna är att finna tillgängliga digitala verktyg som är anpassade för att hjälpa adepter med programmering, svara på frågor och ha videosamtalsmöten. Som ett exempel på en lösning på detta problem sammanställdes funktionerna av ett urval av vanliga kommunikationsverktyg och en prototyp utvecklas av ett urvalsverktyg som kan hjälpa mentorer att välja det mest effektiva digitala kommunikationsverktyget som passar för ändamålet. Studien lyfter fram utmaningar och möjligheter som är gemensamma för mentorer i en digital miljö och resultaten som studien utmynnar i kan användas för vidare studier och för att undersöka vilka orsaker som finns till kunskapsbortfallet i digital utbildning.

Studies show that the trustworthiness of a web application is affected by how it is designed and in particular which font is used, which colour scheme is used and if the layout is expected or unexpected. To test this claim, a web application was developed according to principles about how design elements affect the trustworthiness of a web application. The web application was developed iteratively and design choices as well as implemented functionality were supported by related research. Eight different prototypes of the web application with different combinations of a blue and red colour scheme, the fonts Arial and Comic Sans as well as an expected and unexpected layout was developed. Two user tests were conducted in order to assess how the specific design elements affected the trustworthiness of the web application. The results show that the choice of colour and font for a web application affects how trustworthiness is perceived by the user. The combination of a blue colour scheme, the Arial font and the expected layout was perceived as the most trustworthy out of the examined combinations. Colour and font have a significant impact on perceived trustworthiness, where a blue colour scheme is to be preferred over a red colour scheme as well as the Arial font over Comic Sans. Regarding layout, no conclusions could be drawn from the results whether an expected layout is preferred over an unexpected layout.

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are systems featuring a tight combination of, and coordination between, the system’s computational and physical elements. Cyber-physical systems include systems ranging from critical infrastructure such as a power grid and transportation system to health and biomedical devices. System reliability, i.e., the ability of a system to perform its intended function under a given set of environmental and operational conditions for a given period of time, is a fundamental requirement of cyber-physical systems. An unreliable system often leads to disruption of service, financial cost and even loss of human life. An important and prevalent type of cyber-physical system meets the following criteria: processing large amounts of data; employing software as a system component; running online continuously; having operator-in-the-loop because of human judgment and an accountability requirement for safety critical systems. This thesis aims to improve system reliability for this type of cyber-physical system. To improve system reliability for this type of cyber-physical system, I present a system evaluation approach entitled automated online evaluation (AOE), which is a data-centric runtime monitoring and reliability evaluation approach that works in parallel with the cyber-physical system to conduct automated evaluation along the workflow of the system continuously using computational intelligence and self-tuning techniques and provide operator-in-the-loop feedback on reliability improvement. For example, abnormal input and output data at or between the multiple stages of the system can be detected and flagged through data quality analysis. As a result, alerts can be sent to the operator-in-the-loop. The operator can then take actions and make changes to the system based on the alerts in order to achieve minimal system downtime and increased system reliability. One technique used by the approach is data quality analysis using computational intelligence, which applies computational intelligence in evaluating data quality in an automated and efficient way in order to make sure the running system perform reliably as expected. Another technique used by the approach is self-tuning which automatically self-manages and self-configures the evaluation system to ensure that it adapts itself based on the changes in the system and feedback from the operator. To implement the proposed approach, I further present a system architecture called autonomic reliability improvement system (ARIS). This thesis investigates three hypotheses. First, I claim that the automated online evaluation empowered by data quality analysis using computational intelligence can effectively improve system reliability for cyber-physical systems in the domain of interest as indicated above. In order to prove this hypothesis, a prototype system needs to be developed and deployed in various cyber-physical systems while certain reliability metrics are required to measure the system reliability improvement quantitatively. Second, I claim that the self-tuning can effectively self-manage and self-configure the evaluation system based on the changes in the system and feedback from the operator-in-the-loop to improve system reliability. Third, I claim that the approach is efficient. It should not have a large impact on the overall system performance and introduce only minimal extra overhead to the cyber- physical system. Some performance metrics should be used to measure the efficiency and added overhead quantitatively. Additionally, in order to conduct efficient and cost-effective automated online evaluation for data-intensive CPS, which requires large volumes of data and devotes much of its processing time to I/O and data manipulation, this thesis presents COBRA, a cloud-based reliability assurance framework. COBRA provides automated multi-stage runtime reliability evaluation along the CPS workflow using data relocation services, a cloud data store, data quality analysis and process scheduling with self-tuning to achieve scalability, elasticity and efficiency. Finally, in order to provide a generic way to compare and benchmark system reliability for CPS and to extend the approach described above, this thesis presents FARE, a reliability benchmark framework that employs a CPS reliability model, a set of methods and metrics on evaluation environment selection, failure analysis, and reliability estimation. The main contributions of this thesis include validation of the above hypotheses and empirical studies of ARIS automated online evaluation system, COBRA cloud-based reliability assurance framework for data-intensive CPS, and FARE framework for benchmarking reliability of cyber-physical systems. This work has advanced the state of the art in the CPS reliability research, expanded the body of knowledge in this field, and provided some useful studies for further research.

Computer systems which interact with human users to collect, update or provide information are growing more complex. Additionally, users are demanding more thorough testing of all computer systems. Because of the complexity and thoroughness required, automation of interactive systems testing is desirable, especially for functional testing. Many currently available testing tools, like program proving, are impractical for testing large systems. The solution presented here is the development of an automated test system which simulates human users. This system incorporates a high-level programming language, ATLIS. ATLIS programs are compiled and interpretively executed. Programs are selected for execution by operator command, and failures are reported to the operator's console. An audit trail of all activity is provided. This solution provides improved efficiency and effectiveness over conventional testing methods.

We present a body of work aimed at understanding and improving the security posture of embedded devices. We present results from several large-scale studies that measured the quantity and distribution of exploitable vulnerabilities within embedded devices in the world. We propose two host-based software defense techniques, Symbiote and Autotomic Binary Structure Randomization, that can be practically deployed to a wide spectrum of embedded devices in use today. These defenses are designed to overcome major challenges of securing legacy embedded devices. To be specific, our proposed algorithms are software- based solutions that operate at the firmware binary level. They do not require source-code, are agnostic to the operating-system environment of the devices they protect, and can work on all major ISAs like MIPS, ARM, PowerPC and X86. More importantly, our proposed defenses are capable of augmenting the functionality of embedded devices with a plethora of host-based defenses like dynamic firmware integrity attestation, binary structure randomization of code and data, and anomaly-based malcode detection. Furthermore, we demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the proposed defenses by applying them to a wide range of real- time embedded devices like enterprise networking equipment, telecommunication appliances and other commercial devices like network-based printers and IP phones. Lastly, we present a survey of promising directions for future research in the area of embedded security.