Latest News

Practical Course on WSNs (Lab)
The next course takes place from 28 November - 03 December 2019 More

New Equipment
The sensorlab has received various new equipment to allow for wider and easier study of all things related to WSNs. More

Research Focus

Research topics diagram

Publications

  1. Tri-MCL: Synergistic Localization for Mobile Ad-hoc and Wireless Sensor Networks. Arne Bochem, Yali Yuan, and Dieter Hogrefe. In 41st IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN), Dubai, UAE, November 2016.
  2. A Privacy-Preserving and Power-Efficient Bicycle Tracking Scheme for Theft Mitigation. Arne Bochem, Kevin Freeman, Martin Schwarzmaier, Omar Alfandi, and Dieter Hogrefe. In IEEE Second International Smart Cities Conference (ISC2 2016), Trento, Italy, September 2016.
  3. Applied Sensor-Assisted Monte Carlo Localization for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks. Salke Hartung, Arne Bochem, Andreas Zdziarstek, and Dieter Hogrefe. In 2016 ACM International Conference on Embedded Wireless Systems and Networks (EWSN), Graz, Austria, February 2016.
  4. Demo: Dead Reckoning for Monte Carlo Localization in Low Seed Density Scenarios. Arne Bochem, Andreas Zdziarstek, Salke Hartung, and Dieter Hogrefe. In 2016 ACM International Conference on Embedded Wireless Systems and Networks (EWSN) - Demo Session, Graz, Austria, February 2016.
  5. Monte Carlo Localization for Path-Based Mobility in Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks. Salke Hartung, Ansgar Kellner, Konrad Rieck, and Dieter Hogrefe. In 2016 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), Doha, Qatar, April 2016.
  6. Omar Alfandi, Arne Bochem, Ansgar Kellner, Christian Göge, and Dieter Hogrefe. Secure and Authenticated Data Communication in Wireless Sensor Networks. In Sensors 2015, 15, 19560-19582, August 2015. [ pdf ]
  7. Omar Alfandi, Arne Bochem, Bulert K., Hogrefe D., Maier A.. Received Signal Strength Indication for Movement Detection. In Eighth International Conference on Mobile Computing and Ubiquitous Networking (ICMU2015), Hokkaido, Japan, January 2015.
  8. Omar Alfandi, Arne Bochem, Sripriya Srikant Adhatarao, and Dieter Hogrefe. SMART Parking System for Vehicles. In 2014 IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference (VNC) - Poster Session, Paderborn, Germany, December 2014.
  9. Salke Hartung, Ansgar Kellner, Arne Bochem, and Dieter Hogrefe. Sensor-Assisted Monte Carlo Localization for Wireless Sensor Networks. In 6th IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS) - Poster + Demo Session, Dubai, UAE, April 2014.
  10. Salke Hartung, Somayeh Taheri, and Dieter Hogrefe. Sensor-Assisted Monte Carlo Localization for Wireless Sensor Networks. In 6th IEEE International Conference on Cyber Technology (CYBER), Hong Kong, HK, June 2014.
  11. Salke Hartung, Henrik Brosenne, and Dieter Hogrefe. Practical RSSI Long Distance Measurement Evaluation in Wireless Sensor Networks. In The 2013 IEEE Conference on Wireless Sensors (ICWiSe 2013), Kuching, Malaysia, December 2013.
  12. Joydeep Banerjee, Mrinal Kanti Naskar, Utpal Biswas, Omar Alfandi, and Dieter Hogrefe. Leader Selection in Wireless Sensor Networks - An Energy Efficient Approach. In International Conference on Control, Instrumentation, Energy & Communication (CIEC14), Calcutta, India, February 2014.
  13. Shaik Sahil Babu, Arnab Raha, Mrinal Kanti Naskar, Omar Alfandi, and Dieter Hogrefe. Trust Integrated Node Potential Aware Routing for WSNs. In Int. J. of Trust Management in Computing and Communications, INDERSCIENCE, 2014.
  14. Omar Alfandi, Arpita Chakraborty, Dieter Hogrefe, Mrinal Kanti Naskar, and Arnab Raha. A Novel Indirect Trust Based Link State Routing Scheme Using a Robust Route Trust Method for Wireless Sensor Networks. In The Fifth IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security (NTMS'2012), Istanbul, 2012. [ pdf ]
  15. Shaik Sahil Babu, Arnab Raha, Mrinal Kanti Naskat, Omar Alfandi, and Dieter Hogrefe. Fuzzy Logic Election of Node for Routing in WSNs. In 11th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (IEEE TrustCom-12), Symposium on Advances in Trusted and Secure Information Systems (TSIS-2012), Liverpool, UK, June 2012.
  16. Ansgar Kellner, Omar Alfandi, and Dieter Hogrefe. A Survey on Measures for Secure Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks. International Journal of Sensor Networks and Data Communications (IJSNDC), 2012.
  17. Arnab Raha, Shovan Maity, Mrinal Kanti Naskar, Omar Alfandi, and Dieter Hogrefe. An Optimal Sensor Deployment Scheme to Ensure Multi Level Coverage and Connectivity in Wireless Sensor Networks. In 8th International Wireless Communications & Mobile Computing Conference, August 2012. [ pdf ]
  18. Omar Alfandi, Arne Bochem, Ansgar Kellner, and Dieter Hogrefe. Simple Secure PKI-based Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks. In The Seventh International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing (ISSNIP 2011), Adelaide, Australia, December 2011.
  19. Arnab Raha, Shaik Babu, Mrinal Kanti Naskar, Omar Alfandi, and Dieter Hogrefe. Trust Integrated Link State Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks (TILSRP). In The Fifth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Networks and Telecommunication Systems (IEEE ANTS 2011), Bengaluru (Bangalore), India, December 2011.
  20. Zhixiao Wang, Omar Alfandi, Deyun Zhanga, Wenyao Yand, Ang Gao, and Dieter Hogrefe. TAGER: Trust-Aware Georouting Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks. In 8th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Systems (IEEE MASS 2011), Valencia, Spain, October 2011.
  21. Zhixiao Wang, Deyun Zhang, Omar Alfandi, and Dieter Hogrefe. Efficient Geographical 3D Routing for Wireless Sensor Networks in Smart Spaces. In Baltic Congress on Future Internet Communications (BCFIC 2011), Riga, Latvia, February 2011.

Technical Reports

  1. Andreas Zdziarstek, Salke Hartung, and Dieter Hogrefe. Writing a GPS Device Driver for the MTS420CC sensor board on TinyOS. Technical Report No. IFI-TB-2015-03, Institute of Computer Science, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany, September 2015. ISSN 1611-1044. [ pdf ]

Practical Research Projects

Completed

Digital Investigation of Wireless Sensor Networks - IRIS Mote
by Argianto Rahartomo
Supervised by Omar Alfandi and Arne Bochem
Abstract
For forensically analyzing incidents, it is important to gather as much data about the incident as possible. In the case of WSNs, this means that data has to be extracted from the sensor nodes, when a compromise or other security incident occurs.
Among the data to be extracted are the program running on the node, so it can be analyzed for tampering, as well as the log and configuration flash memory usually stored on a separate chip on the sensor node.
Finally, information about the compromise can be gathered from the node's RAM, especially if for example a vulnerability in the software running on the node was exploited, the (commonly small) RAM can be examined for anomalies.

Extending TLS for WSN Networks
by Leon Arian Tan
Supervised by Omar Alfandi and Arne Bochem
Abstract
TLS (Transport Layer Security) is an end-to-end security protocol. It establish a secure session between node A (client) and node B (server). Node A initiates the negotiation (Handshake) by sending s clienthello message to B conveying the cryptographic options. B replies with the supported cryptographic option and a certificate containing B's public key. A generates a premaster secret and encrypts it using B's public key and B decrypts it using its private key. A and B use the premaster secret to generate a session key SK (master secret) that will be used to deduce several keys (key block) for encrypting and key-hashing application data.
In this project, we propose extending TLS to establish secure sessions between several sensors. The proposed extension will allow all the nodes to share the same session key.

Entropy Gathering on Resource-Constrained Sensor Nodes
by Oliver Buse
Supervised by Omar Alfandi and Arne Bochem
Abstract
Random bits are necessary for various cryptographic operations, such as generating keys or nonces. Once some initial seed entropy is provided, it becomes possible to use a DRBG (deterministic random bit generator), such as CTR_DRBG, but the seed entropy needs to be of high quality to guarantee the security of any cryptographic schemes built on top of it. The scope of this project is to investigate existing solutions for gathering entropy on AVR-based sensor nodes (e.g. the Entropy library for Arduino), porting the most promising for use with TinyOS and evaluating the quality of entropy generated, using e.g. the criteria from NIST SP800-90B. A solution that works on Telosb compatible nodes also requires investigation.

Evaluating Waspmote Cryptography
by Soham Mukherjee
Supervised by Omar Alfandi and Arne Bochem
Abstract
Libelium's Waspmote is one WSN platform available in the sensorlab. The scope of this project is to benchmark the cryptographic components included by the Waspmote platform, port our TinyOS crypto implementations to Waspmote and benchmark these too, finally comparing the performance of both implementations and to the values given in the official Waspmote documentation. The platform also provides an implementation of RSA that seems to be rather fast, going by the given timings, so it should be compared to AVRNaCl's Curve25519 and TinyECC on TinyOS/IRIS. (Since Waspmotes and IRIS nodes use the same microcontroller at apparently the same clock rate, this comparison should be valid.)

Squirrel - Tracking of cargo via RFID
by Sebastian Schrage and Lars Runge
Abstract
Getting an overview of the constantly changing stock in a big warehouse with huge in- and efflux can be quite problematic. Especially if the location of cargos change during the storage, failures can occur and perishable goods can get lost. To counteract this problem, we propose a program using RFID reader and tags to accomplish a dynamic map measuring the position and recording the content of cargos inside the store. The program is able to monitor the expiration date of the cargo and give the user different warnings the further it approaches.

Course Projects

(Password protected.)

Winter 2019/2020

Summer 2019

Winter 2018/2019

Summer 2018

Winter 2017/2018

Summer 2017

Winter 2016/2017

Summer 2016

Winter 2015/2016

Summer 2015

Summer 2014

Winter 2013/2014

Summer 2013

Winter 2012/2013

Winter 2011/2012

Summer 2011

Bachelor and Master Theses

Bachelor Theses

Erstellung und Analyse einer Bibliothek zur Entropiesammlung für Wireless Sensor Nodes nach NIST SP800-90B
by Oliver Buse
Abstract
Im Rahmen dieser Bachelorarbeit wird eine bestehende Entropie Bibliothek für Mikrokontroller mit AVR Chips analysiert und für TinyOS Anwendungen weiterentwickelt. Dabei entsteht eine bis dato nicht exisitierende NesC Bibliothek für IRIS Nodes nach den Empfehlungen des NIST Special Paper 800-90 B. Im Gegensatz zu anderen derzeit verfügbaren Methoden erfordert diese Bibliothek keine externe Hardware und erzeugt einen wesentlich zufälligeren Zahlenstrom als Methoden die auf der Technik basieren einen nicht verbundenen analogen Pin auszulesen. Motiviert wird diese Arbeit durch das Fehlen eines vermeintlich sicheren softwarebasierten Zufallszahlengenerators für das TinyOS Betriebssystem. Die entstehende Entropie Bibliothek ist vorrangig für die Nutzung auf den IRIS Notes des Instituts für Informatik gedacht und wird daher für die entsprechenden Bauteile entwickelt.

Evaluations of a Simple Secure PKI-based approach for Wireless Sensor Networks
by Arne Bochem
Abstract
Today, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are deployed in an increasing variety of use cases. In some of these, for example WSNs in medical environments, security - that is authentication of network participants, as well as protection of data integrity and confidentiality - is of high importance. This thesis describes an implementation of a simple, secure, PKIbased communication scheme for WSNs using IRIS sensor motes running TinyOS. A central Certificate Authority (CA) is used to sign key pairs, which are distributed to sensor motes at compile time. Due to performance considerations, a hybrid scheme, using elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), as well as symmetric block ciphers is employed. To improve resistance against accidental corruption, the option to use an error correcting code is given.Practicability of this scheme is shown in simulations using TOSSIM and on physical IRIS motes in multiple scenarios. Performance and energy efficiency of the scheme, when using the different block ciphers Skipjack, RC5, XTEA and AES-128, is evaluated, while also giving consideration to memory consumption.

Master Theses

Digital Investigations on Biomedical Wireless Sensor - Zephyr BioHarness 3
by Argianto Rahartomo
Abstract
Recently, WSN or Wireless Sensor Network emerges as a new technology. Some of its applications are patient monitoring, military communication, and crop quality monitoring. This research will evaluate one biomedical sensor from Zephyr Company, which is called BioHarness 3. BioHarness 3 measures several patient conditions, such as ECG, heart rate, respiration rate, and body orientation. The aims of this research are to use our investigation methodologies in this sensor and to provide meaningful extraction that indicates whether our sensor is attacked or not. We used Waspmote from Libelium Company as our receiver and attacker sensor. These tools communicate with Bluetooth Protocol (BT Pro) and use Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) algorithms for log detection. This research contributes by providing evidence that BioHarness can communicate with Waspmote and that our log detection methodology works, as well as opportunities for future research with BioHarness sensor.

Efficient Localization for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks using extended Monte Carlo Localization
by Arne Bochem
Abstract
Today, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are deployed in an increasing variety of use cases and facilitate the gathering of various kinds of data in a wide range of environments, ranging from medical, over industrial to geological and biological fields. It is often necessary to know the locations of wireless sensor nodes. Such localization approaches are currently an active area of research. One common approach is the use of seed nodes that have more expensive GPS sensors and provide spatial location information to other nodes equipped with no or low-cost sensors. Recently, Monte Carlo particle filters have been used to perform localization in WSNs with mobile nodes. This thesis describes and discusses the implementation and experimental evaluation of an extended version of an efficient Monte Carlo Localization (MCL) scheme called sensor-assisted MCL (SA-MCL) that uses additional, low-cost motion sensors to improve location estimates.

Analysis of Attacks on the Routing Protocal Directed Diffusion in Wireless Sensor Networks
by Geyu Chen
Abstract
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are designed to monitor or track objects, animals, humans, vehicles and other interesting events through the cooperation of a large number of distributed autonomous sensors. WSNs become a very important technology with the diverse deployment of WSN applications ranging from military, environment, health, home to other commercial areas. Routing security in WSNs is very challenging due to the resource limitations of sensor nodes.The objective of this thesis is to explore and implement attacks on sensor network routing and analyze the attacks' impact on their performance to give an insight into their overall security vulnerability. This work implements several possible attacks on the routing protocol directed diffusion in WSNs using a popular simulation environment OMNet++ and presents a detailed evaluation of the impact of the implemented attacks on the performance of original protocol. The simulation results show that these attacks significantly reduce the functionality as well as the overall performance especially depending on the attack type and the network size.

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