In order to satisfy the very high traffic demand in crowded hotspot areas and realize adequate security in future fifth-generation networks, this paper studies physical-layer security in the downlink of a two-tier ultra dense heterogeneous network, where a ubiquitous array formed by ultra dense deployed small-cells surrounds a macrocell base station. In this paper, the locations of legitimate users and eavesdroppers are drawn from Poisson point processes. Then, the cumulative distribution functions of the receive signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio for legitimate users and eavesdroppers are derived. Further, the average secrecy rate and secrecy coverage probability for each tier as well as for the whole network are investigated. Finally, we analyze the influences on secrecy performance caused by eavesdropper density, transmit power allocation ratio, antenna number allocation ratio, and association area radius.

This paper proposes a formal approach of verifying ubiquitous computing application scenarios. Ubiquitous computing application scenarios assume that there are a lot of devices and physical things with computation and communication capabilities, which are called smart objects, and these are interacted with each other. Each of these interactions among smart objects is called “federation”, and these federations form a ubiquitous computing application scenario. Previously, Yuzuru Tanaka proposed “a proximity-based federation model among smart objects”, which is intended for liberating ubiquitous computing from stereotyped application scenarios. However, there are still challenges to establish the verification method of this model. This paper proposes a verification method of this model through model checking. Model checking is one of the most popular formal verification approach and it is often used in various fields of industry. Model checking is conducted using a Kripke structure which is a formal state transition model. We introduce a context catalytic reaction network (CCRN) to handle this federation model as a formal state transition model. We also give an algorithm to transform a CCRN into a Kripke structure and we conduct a case study of ubiquitous computing scenario verification, using this algorithm and the model checking. Finally, we discuss the advantages of our formal approach by showing the difficulties of our target problem experimentally.

Wide area virtualization of wireless transceivers by centrally managed software radio systems is a way to efficiently share the resources for supporting a variety of wireless protocols. In order to enable wide-area virtualization of wireless transceivers, the authors have developed a mechanism to deliver the radio space information which is quantized broadband radio wave information including the radio signals to the transceivers. Delivery mechanism consists of a distribution server which distributes radio space corresponding to the request of the client such as the center frequency and the bandwidth and a client which uses the radio space information. Accumulation of the distribution servers which deliver radio space information simultaneously to a large number of clients will contribute to build an infrastructure for any clients ubiquitously distributed over the globe. In this paper, scale-out architecture of a distribution server is proposed to deliver unlimitedly broadband radio space information to unlimited number of clients. Experimental implementation indicates the architecture to be a scale-out solution, while the number of clients is restricted by the computer resources of the distribution server. The band pass filter processing for individual client in the distribution server consumes the dominant part of the processing power, and the number of CPU cores is the upper limit of clients supportable for the distribution server in the current operating system implementation. The logical increase of the number of CPU cores by hardware multithreading does not contribute to relax this limit. We also discuss the guidance architecture or building server derived from these conclusions.

Geomagnetic information is informative because it has the ability to detect information about orientation by way of a ubiquitous device. However, a magnetic disturbance easily influences geomagnetic information. The magnetic disturbance detection method is needed in order to use geomagnetic information. Firstly, in this paper, the availability of geomagnetic information in Japan is investigated by field measurement work. Then, a new magnetic disturbance detection method which is better than the conventional method is proposed. The basic function of the proposed method is tested in actual condition.

A variety of ubiquitous computing devices, such as radio frequency identification (RFID) and wireless sensor network (WSN), are generating huge and significant events that should be rapidly processed for business excellence. In this paper, we describe how complex event processing (CEP) technology can be applied to ubiquitous process management based on context-awareness. To address the issue, we propose a method for context-aware event processing using event processing language (EPL) statement. Specifically, the semantics of a situation drive the transformation of EPL statement templates into executable EPL statements. The proposed method is implemented in the domain of ubiquitous cold chain logistics management. With the proposed method, context-aware event processing can be realized to enhance business performance and excellence in ubiquitous computing environments.

Context awareness is one of the ultimate goals of ubiquitous computing, and spatial information plays an important role in building context awareness. In this paper, we propose a new interoperable spatial information model, which is based on ucode relation (ucR) and Place Identifier (PI), for realizing ubiquitous spatial infrastructure. In addition, we propose a design environment for spatial information database using our model. Our model is based on ucode and its relation. ucode is 128 bits number and the number itself has no meaning. Hence, it is difficult to manage the relation between ucodes without using a tool. Our design environment provides to describe connection between each ucode visually and is able to manipulate data using the target space map interactively. To evaluate the proposed model and environment, we designed three spaces using our tool. In addition, we developed a web application using our spatial model. From evaluation, we have been showed that our model is effective and our design environment is useful to develop our spatial information model.

With the proliferation of IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks, large numbers of wireless access points have been deployed, and it is often the case that a user can detect several access points simultaneously in dense metropolitan areas. Most owners, however, encrypt their networks to prevent the public from accessing them due to the increased traffic and security risk. In this work, we use pricing as an incentive mechanism to motivate the owners to share their networks with the public, while at the same time satisfying users' service demand. Specifically, we propose a “federated network” concept, in which radio resources of various wireless local area networks are managed together. Our algorithm identifies two candidate access points with the lowest price being offered (if available) to each user. We then model the price announcements of access points as a game, and characterize the Nash Equilibrium of the system. The efficiency of the Nash Equilibrium solution is evaluated via simulation studies as well.

“Internet of Things” (IoT) requires information to be collected from “anything”, “anytime”, and “anywhere”. In order to achieve this, wireless devices are required that have (1) automatic data acquisition capability, (2) small size, (3) long life, and (4) long range communication capability. One way to meet these requirements is to adopt active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems. Active RFID is more advantageous than passive RFID and enables higher data reading performance over longer distances. This paper surveys active RFID systems, the services they currently promise to provide, technical problems common to these services, and the direction in which research should head in the future. It also reports the results of EPCglobal (EPC: Electronic Product Code) pilot tests conducted on global logistics for tracking ocean/air container transportation using active RFID systems for which we developed several new types of active RFID tags. The test results confirm that our active RFID tags have sufficient capability and low power consumption to well support ocean/air transportation and logistics service.

Recently, numerous service discovery protocols have been introduced in the open literature. Unfortunately, many of them did not consider security issues, and for those that did, many security and privacy problems still remain. One important issue is to protect the privacy of a service provider while enabling an end-user to search an alternative service using multiple keywords. To deal with this issue, the existing protocols assumed that a directory server should be trusted or owned by each service provider. However, an adversary may compromise the directory server due to its openness property. In this paper, we suggest an efficient verification of service subscribers to resolve this issue and analyze its performance and security. Using this method, we propose an efficient and secure service discovery protocol protecting the privacy of a service provider while providing multiple keywords search to an end-user. Also, we provide performance and security analysis of our protocol.

In ubiquitous sensor networks, extra energy savings can be achieved by selecting the filtering solution to counter the attack. This adaptive selection process employs a fuzzy rule-based system for selecting the best solution, as there is uncertainty in the reasoning processes as well as imprecision in the data. In order to maximize the performance of the fuzzy system the membership functions should be optimized. However, the efforts required to perform this optimization manually can be impractical for commonly used applications. This paper presents a GA-based membership function optimizer for fuzzy adaptive filtering (GAOFF) in ubiquitous sensor networks, in which the efficiency of the membership functions is measured based on simulation results and optimized by GA. The proposed optimization consists of three units; the first performs a simulation using a set of membership functions, the second evaluates the performance of the membership functions based on the simulation results, and the third constructs a population representing the membership functions by GA. The proposed method can optimize the membership functions automatically while utilizing minimal human expertise.

This paper proposes a system called Neary that detects conversational fields based on similarity of auditory situation among users. The similarity of auditory situation between each pair of the users is measured by the similarity of frequency property of sound captured by head-worn microphones of the individual users. Neary is implemented with a simple algorithm and runs on portable PCs. Experimental result shows Neary can successfully distinguish groups of conversations and track dynamic changes of them. This paper also presents two examples of Neary deployment to detect user contexts during experience sharing in touring at the zoo and attending an academic conference.

Ubiquitous computing and communication are the key technology for achieving economic growth, sustainable development, safe and secure community towards a ubiquitous network society. Although the technology alone cannot solve the emerging problems, it is important to deploy services everywhere and reach real people with sensor enabled smart phones or devices. Using these devices and wireless sensor networks, we have been creating various types of ubiquitous services which support our everyday life. In this paper, we describe ubiquitous services based on a HOT-SPA model and discuss challenges in creating new ubiquitous services with smart enablers such as smart phones, wireless sensor nodes, social media, and cloud services. We first classify various types of ubiquitous service and introduce the HOT-SPA model which is aimed at modeling ubiquitous services. Several ubiquitous services, such as DIY smart object services, Twitthings, Airy Notes, and SensingCloud, are described. We then address the challenges in creating advanced ubiquitous services by enhancing coupling between a cyber and a physical space.

Recent Location Based Services (LBS) extend not only information services such as car navigation services, but supporting various applications such as augmented reality and emergency services in ubiquitous computing environments. However location based services in the ubiquitous computing environment bring several security issues such as location privacy and forgery. While the privacy of the location based service is considered as the important security issue, security against location forgery is less considered. In this paper, we propose improved Han et al.'s protocol [1] that provides more lightweight computation. Our proposed model also improves the credibility of LBS by deploying multiple location sensing technologies.

Automatic recognition of finger gestures can be used for promotion of life quality. For example, a senior citizen can control the home appliance, call for help in emergency, or even communicate with others through simple finger gestures. Here, we focus on one-stroke finger gesture, which are intuitive to be remembered and performed. In this paper, we proposed and evaluated an accelerometer-based method for detecting the predefined one-stroke finger gestures from the data collected using a MEMS 3D accelerometer worn on the index finger. As alternative to the optoelectronic, sonic and ultrasonic approaches, the accelerometer-based method is featured as self-contained, cost-effective, and can be used in noisy or private space. A compact wireless sensing mote integrated with the accelerometer, called MagicRing, is developed to be worn on the finger for real data collection. A general definition on one-stroke gesture is given out, and 12 kinds of one-stroke finger gestures are selected from human daily activities. A set of features is extracted among the candidate feature set including both traditional features like standard deviation, energy, entropy, and frequency of acceleration and a new type of feature called relative feature. Both subject-independent and subject-dependent experiment methods were evaluated on three kinds of representative classifiers. In the subject-independent experiment among 20 subjects, the decision tree classifier shows the best performance recognizing the finger gestures with an average accuracy rate for 86.92 %. In the subject-dependent experiment, the nearest neighbor classifier got the highest accuracy rate for 97.55 %.

We describe a parameter estimation method for a target object in an area that sensors monitor. The parameters to be estimated are the perimeter length, size, and parameter determined by the interior angles of the target object. The estimation method does not use sensor location information, only the binary information on whether each sensor detects the target object. First, the sensing area of each sensor is assumed to be line-segment-shaped, which is a model of an infrared distance measurement sensor. Second, based on the analytical results of assuming line-segment-shaped sensing areas, we developed a unified equation that works with general sensing areas and general target-object shapes to estimate the parameters of the target objects. Numerical examples using computer simulation show that our method yields accurate results.

In this paper, we establish our child safety system model related to the addressing contradictory issue of wireless sensor networks caused by the mutual authentication and privacy protection of an end-user. Based on the system model, we propose the novel location-aware and privacy-preserving approach for providing child safety over wireless sensor networks. Although we illustrate our protocol over the sensor networks, the proposed protocol can be operated by various wireless networks (e.g., WiFi and UWB) which can support RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication). Compared to a few previous works, the proposed approach can show the potential of enhancing accuracy with location information, preserve the privacy of an end-user, and provide the capability of controlling the child safety service to an end-user.

A Real-time Capacitor Compensation (RCC) scheme is proposed for low power and continuous communication in the wearable inductive coupling transceiver. Since inductance values of wearable inductor vary dynamically with deterioration of its communication characteristics, the inductance value is monitored and its resonance frequency is adjusted by additive parallel/serial capacitors in real time. RLC Bridge for detection of the inductance variations and the Dual-edge Sampling Comparator for recognition of the variance direction are proposed. It is implemented in a 0.18 µm CMOS technology, and it occupies a 12.7 mm2 chip area. The proposed transceiver consumes only 426.6 µW at 4 Mbps data rate. The compensation time takes 4.78 µs, including 3 µs of detection and 1.78 µs for compensation process in worst case.

Ubiquitous technologies such as sensor network and RFID have enabled companies to realize more rapid and agile manufacturing and service systems. In this paper, we addresses how the huge amount of real-time events coming from these devices can be filtered and integrated to business process such as manufacturing, logistics, and supply chain process. In particular, we focus on complex event processing of sensor and RFID events in order to integrate them to business rules in business activities. We also illustrate a ubiquitous event processing system, named ueFilter, which helps to filter and aggregate sensor event, to detect event patterns from sensors and RFID by means of event pattern languages (EPL), and trigger event-condition-action (ECA) in logistics processes.

A new best-relay selection scheme is proposed in this letter in order to maintain a reliable cooperative communications for ubiquitous sensor networks in indoor environments. The suggested technique relies on eigenvalue decomposition to select the best relay. The simulation results confirm that the performance of the proposed approach is better than that of the previous scheme in indoor environments.

We present a new paging algorithm for wireless networks with ultra-short-range radio access links (picocells). The ubiquitous office (u-office) network is a good example of such a network, and we present some u-office example applications. In addition, we show that conventional paging algorithms are not feasible in such networks. Therefore, we derived a new paging algorithm from the measurement results of an experimental sensor network with short-range wireless links deployed in our office. We equipped persons with sensors and deployed sensor readers at selected places in our office. The sensors transmit messages to the sensor readers at regular intervals. If no sensor reader is in range, the message is lost. Our main observation is that, if a picocell shows an attraction property to a certain person, the residence time of an attached mobile terminal is not gamma distributed (as described in the literature) and the probability of long-lasting residences increases. Thus, if the residence time is larger than a certain threshold, the probability of a long-lasting residence time increases if a sensor reader location has an attraction property to a person. Based on this observation, our proposed paging algorithm registers the location of the mobile terminal only when the residence time in the cell is longer than a predetermined constant. By appropriately setting this constant, we can significantly reduce the registration message frequency while ensuring that the probability of the network successfully connecting to a mobile terminal remains high.