Network research experiments have traditionally been conducted in emulated or simulated environments. Emulators are frequently deployed on physical networks. Network simulators provide a self-contained and simple environment that can be hosted on one host. Simulators provide a synthetic environment that is only an approximation of the real world and therefore the results might not be a true re ection of reality. Recent progress in virtualisation technologies enable the deployment of multiple interconnected, virtual hosts on one machine. Virtual hosts run real network protocol stacks and therefore provide an emulated environment on a single host. The rst objective of this dissertation is to build a network emulator (viNEX) using a virtualisation platform (XEN). The second objective is to evaluate whether viNEX can be used to conduct some network research experiments. Thirdly, some limitations of this approach are identified / Computing / M. Sc. (Computer Science)

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering / Don M. Gruenbacher / Caterina M. Scoglio / Cybersecurity is playing a vital role in today's network. We can use security devices, such as a deep packet inspection (DPI) device, to enhance cybersecurity. However, a DPI has a limited amount of inspection capability, which cannot catch up with the ever-increasing volume of network traffic, and that gap is getting even larger. Therefore, inspecting every single packet using DPI is impractical. Our objective is to find a tradeoff between network security and network performance. More explicitly, we aim at maximizing the utilization of security devices, while not decreasing network throughput. We propose two prototypes to address this issue in a demilitarized zone (DMZ) architecture. Our first prototype involves a flow-size based DMZ criterion. In a campus network elephant flows, flows with large data rate, are usually science data and they are mostly safe. Moreover, the majority of the network bandwidth is consumed by elephant flows. Therefore, we propose a DMZ prototype that we inspect elephant flows for a few seconds, and then we allow them to bypass DPI inspection, as long as they are identified as safe flows; and they can be periodically inspected to ensure they remain safe. Our second prototype is a congestion-aware DMZ scheme. Instead of determining whether a flow is safe or not by its size, we treat all flows identically. We measure the data rates of all flows, and use a global optimization algorithm to determine which flows are allowed to safely bypass a DPI. The objective is to maximize DPI utilization. Both prototypes are implemented using OpenFlow in this work, and extensive experiments are performed to test both prototypes' feasibility. The results attest that the two prototypes are effective in ensuring network security while not compromising network performance. A number of tools for SDN network configuring and testing are also developed.

Esta dissertação descreve os métodos, medidas e análises feitas para otimizar a rede de comunicação de dados do Instituto de Física de São Carlos. As tecnologias e protocolos utilizados na rede são apresentados. Especial atenção é dada a análise do desempenho de VLANs utilizando inicialmente o protocolo LANE no núcleo ATM da rede. Neste caso a rede é composta de switches ATM e ATM-Ethernet. Medidas comparativas foram realizadas com a utilização da tecnologia Fast Ethernet no backbone, que possui uma capacidade de transmissão relativamente próxima da ATM de 155Mbps. Melhores resultados obtidos com a implementação de sub-redes maiores, reduzindo em um numero menor de sub-redes, são discutidos e apresentados. Análises estatísticas baseadas apenas no tempo de resposta da rede são apresentados para avaliar o desempenho das alterações efetuadas nas configurações da rede. Mesmo que o tráfego tenha aumentado muito durante esses anos e que vários serviços tenha sido agregados a esta rede, foi possível adequar o desempenho as novas necessidades beneficiando-se da evolução tecnológica que os equipamentos de rede de dados trouxeram ao IFSC. / This work describes the methods, measures and analyses performed aiming to optimize the data communication network from the Physics Institute of Sao Carlos as well as the technologies and protocols used in the network recently. Special care is given to the analysis of the VLANs performance using, initially, the LANE protocol over ATM which has its core based on pure ATM and ATM-Ethernet switches. Comparative measures had been carried out using a backbone working on a Fast Ethernet technology, which seems to have a very close transmission rate from the ATM 155Mbps. This work also discusses best results acquired with the implementation of larger networks reducing the number of subnetworks, statistical analyses based on time delay of the network in order to evaluate the performance of the changes made on its configuration. Even though the traffic from the Institute has been increased over these years and several services have been added to the network, it was completely possible to adapt the performance to the needs, using the benefits of the technological evolution which the network equipments had brought to the Institute.

Wireless equipment offers several possibilities which make it more attractive than the wired alternative. Meetings or temporary office spaces could be assigned with less consideration of the presence of permanent networking facilities. It also makes it possible for users to create ad-hoc networks simply by being within a certain range of each other, which facilitates information sharing. Since information is broadcasted in the air, it also requires stringent security measures. Vendors of wireless equipment have their non-standard security solutions which lock-in the acquirer. For this purpose I study standard security schemes which could be applied independent of the wireless device manufacturer. The techniques that I have chosen are IPSec, Kerberos and MS Passport. The study describes each technique from the perspectives of manageability, security, performance, compatibility, cost and ease of implementation. The result is a comparison of the studied techniques. I conclude with a recommendation to use a combination of IPSec and Kerberos to enhance the security of a wireless local area network and a reservation towards MS Passport.

As wireless devices become more common, the ability to position a wireless device has become a topic of importance. Accurate positioning through technologies such as the Global Positioning System is possible for outdoor environments. Indoor environments pose a different challenge, and research continues to position users indoors. Due to the prevalence of wireless local area networks (WLANs) in many indoor spaces, it is prudent to determine their capabilities for the purposes of positioning. Signal strength and time based positioning systems have been studied for WLANs. Direction or angle of arrival (AOA) based positioning will be possible with multiple antenna arrays, such as those included with upcoming devices based on the IEEE 802.11n standard. The potential performance of such a system is evaluated. The positioning performance of such a system depends on the accuracy of the AOA estimation as well as the positioning algorithm. Two different maximum-likelihood (ML) derived algorithms are used to determine the AOA of the mobile user: a specialized simple ML algorithm, and the space- alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) channel parameter estimation algorithm. The algorithms are used to determine the error in estimating AOAs through the use of real wireless signals captured in an indoor office environment. The statistics of the AOA error are used in a positioning simulation to predict the positioning performance. A least squares (LS) technique as well as the popular extended Kalman filter (EKF) are used to combine the AOAs to determine position. The position simulation shows that AOA- based positioning using WLANs indoors has the potential to position a wireless user with an accuracy of about 2 m. This is comparable to other positioning systems previously developed for WLANs. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Engineering, School of (Okanagan) / Graduate

Användningen av trådlöst nätverk blev under början av 2000-talet mycket populärt bland privatpersoner, genom dess mobila fördelar, Tekniken medförde många fördelar, men också många nackdelar och frågan var hur många som verkligen hade blivit uppmärksammade på eller kände till dessa och därefter valt att skydda sina trådlösa nätverk. Det främsta syftet med denna uppsats var därmed att undersöka på vilken nivå säkerhetsmedvetandet låg i samhället vid användning av trådlöst nätverk vid gällande tidpunkt. Vidare handlade det också om att reda ut gällande rättsläge , vid handlingar mot eller via ett trådlöst nätverk, och mäta hur utbredd säkerhetsanvändningen var bland trådlösa hemmanätverk. För att besvara detta utgick vi från ett positivistiskt och deduktivt synsätt, med kvalitativa intervjuer för att reda ut gällande rättsläge, pejling av trådlöst nätverk för att mäta säkerhetsläget och kvantitativa enkätintervjuer, för att få fram typer av säkerhetsmedvetande, bland användare av trådlöst hemmanätverk. Innehållet i alla intervjuer baserades på fastställd fakta kring trådlöst nätverk, risker med tekniken, riskförebyggande säkerhetsrutiner och Svensk lag. Vi konstaterade slutligen att gällande rättsläge för närvarande var föråldrat och inte anpassat att hantera de risker som trådlöst nätverk hade medfört. Vidare visade resultatet på ökad säkerhetsanvändning bland trådlösa nätverk i samhället, och att det överlag var yngre användare som stod för denna ökning. Yngre användare visade sig även överlag ha ett högre säkerhetsmedvetande, än äldre, och då särskilt hög teknisk kunskap / The usage of Wireless local area networks (WLAN) became very popular amongst private citizens, during the beginning of the 21 century, because of its mobile advantages. The technology brought many advantages, but also many disadvantages and the question was how many had noticed or knew that these existed and afterwards had chosen to secure their WLAN. The main purpose of this thesis was to examine the current level of security awareness, in the community, when using WLAN. Other goals were to investigate the current general legal context, about actions against or through a WLAN, and measure the widespread usage of security within WLAN. To answer this we used a positivistic and deductive approach, with qualitative interviews to sort out the current general legal context, Wardriving to find and measure the current state of security within WLAN's and quantitative questionnaires to find out the most common types of security awareness amongst users of WLAN. The content of all this was based on facts about the WLAN technology, the risks that comes with it, risk preventing security routines and the Swedish law. Finally we established that the current general legal context was out-of-date and not adapted to handle the new risks that WLAN had brought. Further on the result also showed a increased usage of security amongst WLAN in the community and that the main reason for this was the younger WLAN owners. Younger users also turned out to have higher security awareness, than older users, and particularly very high technical knowledge.

Abstract Handoff is the procedure providing the connection to the backbone network while a mobile terminal is moving across the boundaries of coverage of two wireless points of connection. The complexity of the handoff decision process has led to the examination of a number of traditional and pattern recognition handoff decision algorithms for wireless networks. Traditional algorithms use a received signal strength measurement and an optional threshold, hysteresis, or a dwell timer to determine the handoff decision. Degradation of the signal level, however, is a random process, and simple decision mechanisms result in a ping–pong effect whereby several consecutive handoffs degrade the service provided by the network. Consequently, more complex pattern recognition algorithms are needed to decide on the optimal time for handoff. In these algorithms, the handoff decision receives off line training to create a reference database of possible handoff locations in an environment with an associated handoff "fingerprint" at those locations. This dissertation introduces newly designed neural network and adaptive network based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) pattern recognition algorithms. To select appropriate algorithms for a specific wireless network, we need to create an analytical framework for performance evaluation. The design of a framework for comparative performance evaluation of different handoff algorithms is a complex problem as different networks have different performance evaluation criteria. This dissertation divides wireless networks into three categories according to their topology and wireless service application: traditional cellular phone networks, heterogeneous wireless data networks, and rate adaptive wireless data networks. For each category of wireless networks we define a performance evaluation scenario and using Monte Carlo simulations, Monte Carlo calculations, and direct mathematical analysis we analyze the effects of different handoff decision algorithms. The Manhattan micro-cellular scenario is used for traditional cellular phone networks. Using Monte Carlo simulations on this scenario, the performance of traditional and our neural network and ANFIS handoff decision algorithms are compared. A moving-in moving-out performance evaluation scenario for heterogeneous wireless data networks is defined to characterize intertechnology roaming between two networks with substantially different data rates. We use Monte Carlo calculations to define the optimum handoff location for a mobile terminal in this scenario. Using Monte Carlo simulations and the optimal handoff location, we perform comparative performance evaluation of newly introduced asymmetric traditional and pattern recognition algorithms designed for intertechnology handoff. Finally, we introduce two performance evaluation scenarios for rate adaptive wireless networks to characterize user mobility in rate adaptive networks with random and grid deployments. For the first scenario we provide mathematical analysis for the effects of handoff using relative power to calculate the average throughput observed by the mobile terminal for different distances between the two wireless points of connection. For the second scenario designed for grid deployment we present a comparative performance analysis using Monte Carlo calculations for four handoff decision algorithms.

Abstract An inevitable trend in wireless communications is the requirement for higher and higher data rates. At the same time, location awareness requires high accuracy for positioning ability. One option fulfilling both of these challenges is the use of an ultra wideband (UWB) physical layer technology due to its extremely large inherent bandwidth. From the two possible solutions to generate UWB signals, this thesis is focused on the singleband approach. This technique is closer to the original idea of impulse radio transmission than the other recently proposed multiband UWB approach. This thesis focuses on UWB coexistence with several selected radio systems; global positioning and cellular systems, and wireless local area networks. The topic was studied analytically and with experimental tests. The analytical part is divided into simulations and theoretical calculations. In the study, two different physical layer concepts, several modulation schemes and pulse waveforms have been used to find the best system performance under interference. From time hopping and direct sequence based approaches (TH and DS, respectively), the latter with binary pulse amplitude modulation was seen to outperform the former one in an interfered multipath channel if compared with bit error rate performance. Therefore, the theoretical calculations are addressed to the DS-UWB approach. The formulation defined makes it possible to rather easily calculate the upper bound for DS-UWB system performance in an AWGN channel and the results can be used to calculate reference bounds, for example, in receiver algorithm studies. The experimental part of the work focused on link level coexistence measurements between UWB and either IEEE802.11b or 3G networks. UWB can cause harmful performance degradation on the victim system if there are unrealistic numbers of active interferers in close vicinity of the victim receiver. However, increasing the separation between the UWB interferer and victim to 40 cm, or 70 cm, in the case of WLAN and 3G, respectively, the impact is insignificant. It was also shown that the activity factor of the UWB transmitter has a great impact on the victim system's performance degradation. UWB activity factors of less than about 5% can be tolerated by the studied victim systems.

No description available.

Audio Engineers are required to design and deploy large multi-channel sound systems which meet a set of requirements and use networking technologies such as Firewire and Ethernet AVB. Bandwidth utilisation and parameter groupings are among the factors which need to be considered in these designs. An implementation of an extensible, generic simulation framework would allow audio engineers to easily compare protocols and networking technologies and get near real time responses with regards to bandwidth utilisation. Our hypothesis is that an application-level capability can be developed which uses a network simulation framework to enable this process and enhances the audio engineer’s experience of designing and configuring a network. This thesis presents a new, extensible simulation framework which can be utilised to simulate professional audio networks. This framework is utilised to develop an application - AudioNetSim - based on the requirements of an audio engineer. The thesis describes the AudioNetSim models and implementations for Ethernet AVB, Firewire and the AES- 64 control protocol. AudioNetSim enables bandwidth usage determination for any network configuration and connection scenario and is used to compare Firewire and Ethernet AVB bandwidth utilisation. It also applies graph theory to the circular join problem and provides a solution to detect circular joins.