The applications of ad hoc wireless networks envisaged in this thesis are those related to issues of disaster management, rehabilitation, security and defense. The circumstances in such situations warrants the deployment of a quick ad hoc network that is simple and uses minimum resoures to get started. The communication within the network has to be reliable and it has to be simple so that it can be deployed in extremely compex topography and other climatic conditions. Since large batteries cannot be assumed to be at our disposal for the sake of communication at all the times, energy conservation by way of energy efficient schemes is a paramount issue. Ad hoc wireless networks are broadcast networks by nature. For all the communications, transmissions by the nodes are broadcast into the air. A networkwide broadcast is distinguished from this. When a node wants its data to reach all the other nodes in the network then it initiates a networkwide broadcast. There may be nodes in the network that are not directly reachable by the node that wants to do a networkwide broadcast. Networkwide broadcast is used by ad hoc wireless networks for routing protocols, updating of network status information, network organization and multicasting. Most importantly, the applications envisaged out of this thesis need all their data communication as networkwide broadcast alone. In an ad hoc wireless network, a networkwide broadcast is usually effected by the flooding mechanism, which is inherently inefficient, since all the nodes in the network have to transmit the same information. It is possible to exploit the topology of the network in such a way, that only a few of the nodes need to transmit the information to complete a networkwide broadcast. The thesis deals with a new scheme for a networkwide broadcast implemented in the media access control (MAC) layer of an ad hoc wireless network. The new scheme is developed by extending the concept of handshaking signals used in unicast, to the networkwide broadcast scenario. In the case of unicast, where there is an intended recipient, handshaking is done for reliability and happens through the RTS and CTS packets. This idea is extended to suit the networkwide broadcast scenario and the consequences are discussed in detail in the thesis. Intuitively, adding more packets for handshaking increases the number of bytes transmitted. But the results obtained are interesting, since the network transmits fewer bytes per networkwide broadcast, on an average, with the newly proposed scheme. A comparison is done with the implementation of simple flooding following the IEEE 802.11 standard. These results have been demonstrated by simulations. The average improvement is nearly 2.5 times reduction in the number of bytes transmitted per networkwide broadcast. The performance of a networkwide broadcast in an ad hoc wireless network is usually affected badly by losses due to transmssion error in the medium. In a medium with errors, persistence improves reliability. This reliability helps in bringing robustness. The advantage of the proposed scheme is that it uses the idea of persistence to ensure the networkwide broadcast reachabilityto be almost independent of transmission error rate. The MAC layer ensures that the broadcast packet reaches each and every node that is connected to the node that initiates the etworkwide broadcast. The effects of collision are also overcome. Our simulations establish that the scheme works correctly, and gives good performance.

Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) are re-emerging as a popular networking facility for wireless device users. A growing number of diversified applications are now accessible via wireless devices. The different applications may have different Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, which may better be satisfied by using different routing methods or metric types. Existing ad hoc network routing solutions do not consider various application-level requirements when making a routing decision. They typically make routing decisions based upon limited information acquired at the network layer. Most of the existing routing protocols make use of a single routing metric. Using a single metric type and/or information, only acquired at the network layer may not be able to accommodate different QoS requirements, imposed by diversified user-level applications or application-level data types.The aim of this thesis is to design an efficient routing function for ad hoc networks while at the same time satisfying users‟ and/or applications‟ QoS and security requirements. To achieve this, the thesis investigates and specifies routing requirements that could best support application-level QoS and security requirements in MANETs. It also investigates and critically analyses the state of the art in MANET routing, and the mechanisms used for protecting the routing functions. To overcome the weaknesses and advance the state of the art in MANET routing, this thesis proposes two major solutions. The first solution is the Secure ETX (SETX) routing protocol. It is a secure routing solution that can provide routing functions efficiently in malicious MANET environment. The SETX protocol provides a security mechanism to counter black hole attacks in MANETs on the ETX metric acquisition process. Simulation studies have been carried out and discussed in the thesis. Simulation results show that the SETX protocol can provide a marked improvement in network performances in the presence of black hole attacks, and it can do so with a negligible level of additional overhead.The second solution is a novel routing decision making called the Flexible Routing Decision (FRD) framework. The FRD framework supports routing decision making by using multiple metric types (i.e. multi-criteria routing decision making) and uses a cross-layer approach to support application-level QoS requirements. This allows users to use different routing metrics types, making the most appropriate routing decision for a given application. To accommodate the diversified application-level QoS requirements, multiple routing metric types have been identified and interpreted in the FRD framework design. The FRD framework has overcome some weaknesses exhibited by existing single metric routing decision making, used in MANETs. The performance of a routing decision making of FRD is also evaluated using NS2 simulation package. Simulation results demonstrate that the FRD framework outperforms the existing routing decision making methods.

This research involves the design, development, and theoretical demonstration of models resulting in integrated misbehavior resolution protocols for ad hoc networked devices. Game theory was used to analyze strategic interaction among independent devices with conflicting interests. Packet forwarding at the routing layer of autonomous ad hoc networks was investigated. Unlike existing reputation based or payment schemes, this model is based on repeated interactions. To enforce cooperation, a community enforcement mechanism was used, whereby selfish nodes that drop packets were punished not only by the victim, but also by all nodes in the network. Then, a stochastic packet forwarding game strategy was introduced. Our solution relaxed the uniform traffic demand that was pervasive in other works. To address the concerns of imperfect private monitoring in resource aware ad hoc networks, a belief-free equilibrium scheme was developed that reduces the impact of noise in cooperation. This scheme also eliminated the need to infer the private history of other nodes. Moreover, it simplified the computation of an optimal strategy. The belief-free approach reduced the node overhead and was easily tractable. Hence it made the system operation feasible. Motivated by the versatile nature of evolutionary game theory, the assumption of a rational node is relaxed, leading to the development of a framework for mitigating routing selfishness and misbehavior in Multi hop networks. This is accomplished by setting nodes to play a fixed strategy rather than independently choosing a rational strategy. A range of simulations was carried out that showed improved cooperation between selfish nodes when compared to older results. Cooperation among ad hoc nodes can also protect a network from malicious attacks. In the absence of a central trusted entity, many security mechanisms and privacy protections require cooperation among ad hoc nodes to protect a network from malicious attacks. Therefore, using game theory and evolutionary game theory, a mathematical framework has been developed that explores trust mechanisms to achieve security in the network. This framework is one of the first steps towards the synthesis of an integrated solution that demonstrates that security solely depends on the initial trust level that nodes have for each other.

According to a Gartner Group (www.gartner.com) report in September 2008, the worldwide telecommunications market is on pace to reach $2 trillion in 2008. Gartner predicts that by 2012, the ratio of mobile to fixed connections will exceed 4-to-1. The North American mobile data market grew to 141.1 million connections in 2007, with a compound annual growth rate of 41.7 percent. It is believed that a large portion will be ad hoc and multi-hop connections, which will open many opportunities for Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET) applications and Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) applications. A MANET is a self-organizing multi-hop wireless network where all nodes participate in the routing and data forwarding process. Such a network can be easily deployed in situations where no base station is available, and a network must be build spontaneously. In applications such as battlefield communications, national crises, disaster recovery, and sensor deployment, a wired network is not available and ad hoc networks provide the only feasible means of communications and information access. Ad hoc networks have also become commonplace for gaming, conferencing, electronic classrooms, and particularly vehicle-to-vehicle communications. A Wireless mash network (WMN) is collection of mesh clients and mesh nodes (routers), with mesh nodes forming the backbone of the network and providing connection to the Internet and other network. Their rapid deployment and ease of maintenance are suitable for on-demand network such as disaster recovery, homeland security, convention centers, hard-to-wire buildings and unfriendly terrains. One important problem with MANET is the routing protocol that needs to work well not just with a small network, but also sustain efficiency and scalability as the network gets expanded and the application transmits data in greater volume. In such an environment, mobility, channel error, and congestion are the main causes for packet loss. Due to mobility of mobile hosts, addressing frequent and unpredictable topology changes is fundamental to MANET research. Two general approaches have been considered: connection-oriented approach and connectionless-oriented approach. In the former, the emphasis is on how to reconnect quickly with low overhead when a broken link occurs. Examples of this approach includes includes [5], [9], [10], [16], [26], [28], [29], [34], [44], and [45]. In contrast, connectionless-oriented approach focuses on minimizing the occurrence of broken links. We proposed one such scheme called Connectionless Approach (CLA) and . In CLA, the network area is divided into non-overlapping grid cells, each serving as a virtual router. Any physical router (i.e., mobile host), currently inside a virtual router, can help forward the data packet to the next virtual router along the virtual link. This process is repeated until the packet reaches its final destination. Since a virtual link is based on virtual routers which do not move, it is much more robust than physical links used in the connection-oriented techniques. Simulation results in our previous works and , based on GloMoSim , indicate that CLA performs significantly better than connection-oriented techniques (i.e., AODV, DSR, LAR, GRID, TMNR, and GPSR). The contribution of this work consists of investigating and developing new Connectionless-Oriented Approach for Mobile Ad Hoc Network. Two of the greatest impacts of this research are as follows. First, the new approach is targeted towards robustly support high mobility and large scale environment which has been adapted for vehicle-to-vehicle environment in . Second, the detailed simulations which compare eight representative routing protocols, namely AODV, DSR, LAR, GRID, TMNR, GPSR, CBF, and CLA, under high-mobility environments. As many important emergent applications of the technology involved high-mobility nodes, very little is known about the existing routing methods perform relative to each other in high-mobility environments. The simulation results provide insight into ad hoc routing protocols and offer guidelines for mobile ad hoc network applications. Next, we enhanced and extend the connectionless-oriented approach. The current connectionless-oriented approach, however, may suffer from packet drops since traffic congestion is not considered in the packet forwarding policy. We address this weakness by considering the connectionless-oriented approach with a collision avoidance routing technique. After that, we investigate techniques to enforce collaboration among mobile devices in supporting the virtual router functionality. Many works have been published to combat such problem - misbehaving nodes are detected and a routing algorithm is employed to avoid and penalize misbehaving nodes. These techniques, however, cannot be applied to the connectionless-oriented approach since any node in the general direction towards the destination node can potentially help forward the data packets. To address the security and cooperation issues for connectionless-oriented approach, we introduce a cooperation enforcement technique called 3CE (3-Counter Enforcement). In addition, wireless mesh networks have become increasingly popular in recent years. Wireless mash network (WMNs) are collection of mesh clients and mesh nodes (routers), with mesh nodes forming the backbone of the network and providing connection to the Internet and other network. We propose a paradigm that combines virtual routers and mesh nodes to create a hybrid network call VR-Mesh Network. This hybrid network can reduce number of mesh node needed without decrease the performance of the network.

With recent advances in technology, Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) have grown in application. One of these areas of application is Vehicle Safety Communication (VSC) technology. VSC technology allows for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications that enhance vehicle safety and driving experience. However, these newly developing technologies bring with them a concern for the vehicular privacy of drivers. Vehicles already employ the use of pseudonyms, unique identifiers used with signal messages for a limited period of time, to prevent long term tracking. But can attackers still attack vehicular privacy even when vehicles employ a pseudonym change strategy? The major contribution of this paper is a new attack model that uses long-distance pseudonym changing and short-distance non-changing protocols to associate vehicles with their respective pseudonyms.

No description available.

Vehicular communication networks are essential to the development of intelligent navigation systems and improvement of road safety. Unlike most terrestrial networks of today, vehicular networks are characterized by stringent reliability and latency requirements. In order to design efficient networks to meet these requirements, it is important to understand the system-level performance of vehicular networks. Stochastic geometry has recently emerged as a powerful tool for the modeling and analysis of wireless communication networks. However, the canonical spatial models such as the 2D Poisson point process (PPP) does not capture the peculiar spatial layout of vehicular networks, where the locations of vehicular nodes are restricted to roadways. Motivated by this, we consider a doubly stochastic spatial model that captures the spatial coupling between the vehicular nodes and the roads and analyze the performance of vehicular communication networks. We model the spatial layout of roads by a Poisson line process (PLP) and the locations of nodes on each line (road) by a 1D PPP, thereby forming a Cox process driven by a PLP or Poisson line Cox process (PLCP). In this dissertation, we develop the theory of the PLCP and apply it to study key performance metrics such as coverage probability and rate coverage for vehicular networks under different scenarios. First, we compute the signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR)-based success probability of the typical communication link in a vehicular ad hoc network (VANET). Using this result, we also compute the area spectral efficiency (ASE) of the network. Our results show that the optimum transmission probability that maximizes the ASE of the network obtained for the Cox process differs significantly from that of the conventional 1D and 2D PPP models. Second, we calculate the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR)-based downlink coverage probability of the typical receiver in a vehicular network for the cellular network model in which each receiver node connects to its closest transmitting node in the network. The conditioning on the serving node imposes constraints on the spatial configuration of interfering nodes and also the underlying distribution of lines. We carefully handle these constraints using various fundamental distance properties of the PLCP and derive the exact expression for the coverage probability. Third, building further on the above mentioned works, we consider a more complex cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) communication network in which the vehicular nodes are served by roadside units (RSUs) as well as cellular macro base stations (MBSs). For this setup, we present the downlink coverage analysis of the typical receiver in the presence of shadowing effects. We address the technical challenges induced by the inclusion of shadowing effects by leveraging the asymptotic behavior of the Cox process. These results help us gain useful insights into the behavior of the networks as a function of key network parameters, such as the densities of the nodes and selection bias. Fourth, we characterize the load on the MBSs due to vehicular users, which is defined as the number of vehicular nodes that are served by the MBS. Since the limited network resources are shared by multiple users in the network, the load distribution is a key indicator of the demand of network resources. We first compute the distribution of the load on MBSs due to vehicular users in a single-tier vehicular network. Building on this, we characterize the load on both MBSs and RSUs in a heterogeneous C-V2X network. Using these results, we also compute the rate coverage of the typical receiver in the network. Fifth and last, we explore the applications of the PLCP that extend beyond vehicular communications. We derive the exact distribution of the shortest path distance between the typical point and its nearest neighbor in the sense of path distance in a Manhattan Poisson line Cox process (MPLCP), which is a special variant of the PLCP. The analytical framework developed in this work allows us to answer several important questions pertaining to transportation networks, urban planning, and personnel deployment. / Doctor of Philosophy / Vehicular communication networks are essential to the development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and improving road safety. As the in-vehicle sensors can assess only their immediate environment, vehicular nodes exchange information about critical events, such as accidents and sudden braking, with other vehicles, pedestrians, roadside infrastructure, and cellular base stations in order to make critical decisions in a timely manner. Considering the time-sensitive nature of this information, it is of paramount importance to design efficient communication networks that can support the exchange of this information with reliable and high-speed wireless links. Typically, prior to actual deployment, any design of a wireless network is subject to extensive analysis under various operational scenarios using computer simulations. However, it is not viable to rely entirely on simulations for the system design of highly complex systems, such as the vehicular networks. Hence, it is necessary to develop analytical methods that can complement simulators and also serve as a benchmark. One of the approaches that has gained popularity in the recent years for the modeling and analysis of large-scale wireless networks is the use of tools from stochastic geometry. In this approach, we endow the locations of wireless nodes with some distribution and analyze various aspects of the network by leveraging the properties of the distribution. Traditionally, wireless networks have been studied using simple spatial models in which the wireless nodes can lie anywhere on the domain of interest (often a 1D or a 2D plane). However, vehicular networks have a unique spatial geometry because the locations of vehicular nodes are restricted to roadways. Therefore, in order to model the locations of vehicular nodes in the network, we have to first model the underlying road systems. Further, we should also consider the randomness in the locations of vehicles on each road. So, we consider a doubly stochastic model called Poisson line Cox process (PLCP), in which the spatial layout of roads are modeled by random lines and the locations of vehicles on the roads are modeled by random set of points on these lines. As is usually the case in wireless networks, multiple vehicular nodes and roadside units (RSUs) operate at the same frequency due to the limited availability of radio frequency spectrum, which causes interference. Therefore, any receiver in the network obtains a signal that is a mixture of the desired signal from the intended transmitter and the interfering signals from the other transmitters. The ratio of the power of desired signal to the aggregate power of the interfering signals, which is called as the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), depends on the locations of the transmitters with respect to the receiver. A receiver in the network is said to be in coverage if the SIR measured at the location of the receiver exceeds the required threshold to successfully decode the message. The probability of occurrence of this event is referred to as the coverage probability and it is one of the fundamental metrics that is used to characterize the performance of a wireless network. In our work, we have analytically characterized the coverage probability of the typical vehicular node in the network. This was the first work to present the coverage analysis of a vehicular network using the aforementioned doubly stochastic model. In addition to coverage probability, we have also explored other performance metrics such as data rate, which is the number of bits that can be successfully communicated per unit time, and spectral efficiency. Our analysis has revealed interesting trends in the coverage probability as a function of key system parameters such as the density of roads in a region (total length of roads per unit area), and the density of vehicles on the roads. We have shown that the vehicular nodes in areas with high density of roads have lower coverage than those in areas with sparsely distributed roads. On the other hand, the coverage probability of a vehicular node improves as the density of vehicles on the roads increases. Such insights are quite useful in the design and deployment of network infrastructure. While our research was primarily focused on communication networks, the utility of the spatial models considered in these works extends to other areas of engineering. For a special variant of the PLCP, we have derived the distribution of the shortest path distance between an arbitrary point and its nearest neighbor in the sense of path distance. The analytical framework developed in this work allows us to answer several important questions pertaining to infrastructure planning and personnel deployment.

Fueled by the rapid advancement in digital and wireless technologies, the ever-increasing capabilities of wireless devices have placed upon us a tremendous challenge - how to put all of this capability to effective use. Individually, wireless devices have outpaced the ability of users to optimally configure them. Collectively, the complexity is far more daunting. Research in cognitive networks seeks to provide a solution to the diffculty of effectively using the expanding capabilities of wireless networks by embedding greater degrees of intelligence within the network itself. In this dissertation, we address some fundamental questions related to cognitive networks, such as "What is a cognitive network?" and "What methods may be used to design a cognitive network?" We relate cognitive networks to a common artificial intelligence (AI) framework, the multi-agent system (MAS). We also discuss the key elements of learning and reasoning, with the ability to learn being the primary differentiator for a cognitive network. Having discussed some of the fundamentals, we proceed to further illustrate the cognitive networking principle by applying it to two problems: multichannel topology control for dynamic spectrum access (DSA) and routing in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET). The multichannel topology control problem involves confguring secondary network parameters to minimize the probability that the secondary network will cause an outage to a primary user in the future. This requires the secondary network to estimate an outage potential map, essentially a spatial map of predicted primary user density, which must be learned using prior observations of spectral occupancy made by secondary nodes. Due to the complexity of the objective function, we provide a suboptimal heuristic and compare its performance against heuristics targeting power-based and interference-based topology control objectives. We also develop a genetic algorithm to provide reference solutions since obtaining optimal solutions is impractical. We show how our approach to this problem qualifies as a cognitive network. In presenting our second application, we address the role of network state observations in cognitive networking. Essentially, we need a way to quantify how much information is needed regarding the state of the network to achieve a desired level of performance. This question is applicable to networking in general, but becomes increasingly important in the cognitive network context because of the potential volume of information that may be desired for decision-making. In this case, the application is routing in MANETs. Current MANET routing protocols are largely adapted from routing algorithms developed for wired networks. Although optimal routing in wired networks is grounded in dynamic programming, the critical assumption, static link costs and states, that enables the use of dynamic programming for wired networks need not apply to MANETs. We present a link-level model of a MANET, which models the network as a stochastically varying graph that possesses the Markov property. We present the Markov decision process as the appropriate framework for computing optimal routing policies for such networks. We then proceed to analyze the relationship between optimal policy and link state information as a function of minimum distance from the forwarding node. The applications that we focus on are quite different, both in their models as well as their objectives. This difference is intentional and signficant because it disassociates the technology, i.e. cognitive networks, from the application of the technology. As a consequence, the versatility of the cognitive networks concept is demonstrated. Simultaneously, we are able to address two open problems and provide useful results, as well as new perspective, on both multichannel topology control and MANET routing. This material is posted here with permission from the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of Virginia Tech library's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this material, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it. / Ph. D.

Automobile accidents are one of the leading causes of death and claim more than 40,000 lives annually in the US alone. A substantial portion of these accidents occur at road intersections. Stop signs and traffic signals are some of the intersection control devices used to increase safety and prevent collisions. However, these devices themselves can contribute to collisions, are costly, inefficient, and are prone to failure. This thesis proposes an adaptive, decentralized, cooperative collision avoidance (CCA) system that optimizes each vehicle's controls subject to the constraint that no collisions occur. Three major contributions to the field of collision avoidance have resulted from this research. First, a nonlinear 5-state variable vehicle model is expanded from an earlier model developed in [1]. The model accounts for internal engine characteristics and more realistically approximates vehicle behavior in comparison to idealized, linear models. Second, a set of constrained, coupled Extended Kalman Filters (EKF) are used to predict the trajectory of the vehicles approaching an intersection in real-time. The coupled filters support decentralized operation and ensure that the optimization algorithm bases its decisions on good, reliable estimates. Third, a vehicular network based on the new WAVE standard is presented that provides cooperative capabilities by enabling intervehicle communication. The system is simulated against today's common intersection control devices and is shown to be superior in minimizing average vehicle delay. / Master of Science

Common control channels in cognitive radio (CR) ad hoc networks are spectrum resources temporarily allocated and commonly available to CR users for control message exchange. With no presumably available network infrastructure, CR users rely on cooperation to perform spectrum management functions. One the one hand, CR users need to cooperate to establish common control channels, but on the other hand, they need to have common control channels to facilitate such cooperation. This control channel problem is further complicated by primary user (PU) activities, channel impairments, and intelligent attackers. Therefore, how to reliably and securely establish control links in CR ad hoc networks is a challenging problem. In this work, a framework for control channel design and analysis is proposed to address control channel reliability and security challenges for seamless communication and spectral efficiency in CR ad hoc networks. The framework tackles the problem from three perspectives: (i) responsiveness to PU activities: an efficient recovery control channel method is devised to efficiently establish control links and extend control channel coverage upon PU's return while mitigating the interference with PUs, (ii) robustness to channel impairments: a reinforcement learning-based cooperative sensing method is introduced to improve cooperative gain and mitigate cooperation overhead, and (iii) resilience to jamming attacks: a jamming-resilient control channel method is developed to combat jamming under the impacts of PU activities and spectrum sensing errors by leveraging intrusion defense strategies. This research is particularly attractive to emergency relief, public safety, military, and commercial applications where CR users are highly likely to operate in spectrum-scarce or hostile environment.