Embedded devices constantly face two challenges in data security and energy efficiency. These devices are limited in processing such secure functions, as well as maintaining enough energy for the device to function properly. One example involves the healthcare industry, where some patients may require an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) in their hearts to measure the heartbeat rate, while powered by a battery. The heartbeat rate is sent wirelessly, and the ICD can receive a jolt of electricity when the heartbeat rate reaches an abnormal value. Transmitting data alone, however, yields potential security risks when sending plain data. Work has shown that an attacker could intercept the heartbeat rate of the ICD, and intentionally send jolts of electricity. Also, replacing the battery on an ICD involves quite a painful process for the patient. A battery-less device that can receive energy wirelessly is much more convenient, but also poses a challenge where power loss may occur under long distances due to a limited supply of energy. In this paper, we design an adaptive light-weight scheduling mechanism that enhances data security, as well as improving energy efficiency on a device with such constraints. We will then prototype this scheduler on a Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP) device, which includes these constraints. Our results will then demonstrate the capabilities of such adaptive scheduling under various distances.

This research investigates the implementation of battery-less RFID sensing platforms inside lossy media, such as, concrete and grout. Both concrete and novel grouts can be used for nuclear plant decommissioning as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) cleanup projects. Our research examines the following: (1) material characterization, (2) analytical modeling of transmission and propagation losses inside lossy media, (3) maximum operational range of RFID wireless sensors embedded inside concrete and grout, and (4) best positioning of antennas for achieving longer communication range between RFID antennas and wireless sensors. Our research uses the battery-less Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP) which can be used to monitor temperature, and humidity inside complex materials. By using a commercial Agilent open-ended coaxial probe (HP8570B), the measurements of the dielectric permittivity of concrete and grout are performed. Subsequently, the measured complex permittivity is used to formulate analytical Debye models. Also, the transmission and propagation losses of a uniform plane wave inside grout are calculated. Our results show that wireless sensors will perform better in concrete than grout. In addition, the maximum axial and radial ranges for WISP are experimentally determined. Our work illustrates the feasibility of battery-less wireless sensors that are embedded inside concrete and grout. Also, our work provides information that can be used to optimize the power management, sampling rate, and antenna design of such sensors.

No / This paper draws a comparison between the 700-year-old historically reported will-o'-the-wisp phenomenon and the more recent discovery of extremophilic colonization of hostile environments; both have been observed as present in isolated, stressed environmental regions and originating from biological phenomena. However, whereas extremophilic activity can be understood in terms of a survival strategy based upon the synthesis of specific suites of protective biochemicals which are designed to control biogeologically the stressed habitats and to provide protection against the extreme environments, the analytical techniques that have proved so successful for the illumination of these survival strategies of extremophiles and which are now being miniaturized for in-field studies and for extraterrestrial exploration have not been applied to a clarification or evaluation of the phenomenon of will-o'-the-wisp. The reason is simply that the will-o'-the-wispsightings have now disappeared completely. Tantalizingly, all of the most reasonable physico-chemical and biological explanations for the will-o'-the-wisp phenomenon proved to be unsatisfactory in some respect and it is clear that, just as in the case of extremophilic colonization, will-o'-the-wisp would benefit from a modern rigorous analytical study which would produce the data from which the potentially novel biological behaviour could be characterized and which would help a better understanding to be made of our natural world.

IEEE 802.11 wireless networking equipment has made it possible to bridge the last mile for new broadband internet service providers. Inexpensive wireless networking equipment and high gain antennas enable high speed internet delivery at a fraction of the cost of installing or upgrading land lines for cable or DSL services. Based on this research, a guide of general practices and procedures is proposed for designing, installing, and maintaining a reliable wireless community area network. Included tests have provided performance results for several types of wireless antennas (including wire grid parabolic dishes, Yagi and Vagi styles, and echo backfire), wireless bridges, and other factors which influence overall signal strength and throughput. Two separate configurations are recommended. The first configuration is based on high reliability, longer distances, and low error rates. The second recommendation is based on lower overall cost, ease of installation, and shorter link distances.

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) is a contactless, automatic identification wireless technology primarily used for identifying and tracking of objects, goods and humans. RFID is not only limited to identification and tracking applications. This proliferating wireless technology has been deployed in numerous securities sensitive applications e.g. access control, e-passports, contactless payments, driver license, transport ticking and health cards. RFID inherits all the security and privacy problems that are related to wireless technology and in addition to those that are specific to RFID systems. The security and privacy protection schemes proposed in literature for wireless devices are mostly secured through symmetric/asymmetric keys encryption/decryption and hash functions. The security of all these cryptographic algorithms depends on computationally complex problems that are hard to compute using available resources. However, these algorithms require cryptographic operations on RFID tags which contradict the low cost demand of RFID tags. Due to limited number of logic gates in tags, i.e., 5K-10K, these methods are not practical. Much research effort has done in attempt to solve consumer's privacy and security problem. Solutions that prevent clandestine inventory are mostly application layer techniques. To solve this problem, a new RFID physical layer scheme has been proposed namely Direct Sequence Backscatter Encryption (DSB Enc). The proposed scheme uses level generator to produce different levels before transmitting the signal to the tag. The tag response to the signal sent by the reader using backscatter communications on the same signal which looks random to the eavesdropper. Therefore eavesdropper cannot extract the information from reader to tag and tag to reader communication using passive eavesdropping. As reader knows the different generated levels added to the carrier signal, it can remove the levels and retrieve the tag's messages. We proposed a lightweight, low-cost and practically secure physical layer security to the RFID system, for a supply chain processing application, without increasing the computational power and tag's cost. The proposed scheme was validated by simulations on GNU Radio and experimentation using SDR and a WISP tag. Our implementation and experimental results validate that DSB Enc is secure against passive eavesdropping, replay and relay attacks. It provides better results in the presence of AWGN channel.