Papers by Emmanouil Skondras

The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences (ISPRS Archives), Vol. XLII-2/W10: Underwater 3D Recording and Modelling - A Tool for Modern Applications and CH Recording, 2019
Τhe development in the fields of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) management and Maritime Archa... more Τhe development in the fields of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) management and Maritime Archaeology, yields an interdisciplinary and creative academic framework, such as the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector that has been proved to build intelligent systems and applications. However, the ways to fully make use of these technologies are still being explored, as their potential have not been exploited yet. Underwater archaeological sites, semi (/or fully) submerged settlements, ancient ports and shipwrecks, unlike land sites, are not accessible to public due to their special (sub) marine environment and depth. In this paper, an innovative research idea of using Augmented Reality (AR) for maintaining the memory and the information of underwater archaeological sites, is presented. Although the "artificial" visual documentation cannot replace the authentic values of the underwater tangible heritage, the AR technology can contribute to the protection of the intangible properties and the conquered knowledge of the past of a place. This research work will focus, among other case studies, on the (semi) submerged fortifications and their contiguous contents of the acropolis of Halai in east Lokris, Greece. Hence, along with the climate change that may lead more antiquities covered by water during the following years, the advances in the communication field and the up-coming 5G and cloud technologies will make the idea fully applicable, contributing to the enhancement of the coastal and the underwater archaeological remains.

WTS 2019 - Wireless Telecommunications Symposium, 2019
Flying Ad-hoc Networks (FANETs) use 5G network access technologies to fulfill the requirements of... more Flying Ad-hoc Networks (FANETs) use 5G network access technologies to fulfill the requirements of their services. In this environment, Drone to Infrastructure (D2I) communication is supported, while each drone could use both Disaster Management (DM) and non-Disaster Management (nDM) services. Efficient network selection algorithms are required to satisfy the constraints of the used services, since the presence of DM services affects the importance of nDM services in situations where a natural disaster occurs. This paper proposes a network selection algorithm which is called Dynamic Trapezoidal Fuzzy Topsis with Adaptive Criteria Weights (DTFT-ACW). DTFT-ACW accomplishes the ranking of the candidate networks considering the importance of each service, as well as the weights of the corresponding selection criteria, as they are obtained with respect to the severity level of a natural disaster occurred. Interval-Valued Trapezoidal Fuzzy Numbers (IVTFN) are used for the criteria evaluation. Experimental results show that the suggested method outperforms existing algorithms by satisfying the constraints of DM services when a disaster becomes severe. Furthermore, DTFT-ACW eliminates the computational complexity of the network selection by considering past decisions.

WTS 2019 - Wireless Telecommunications Symposium, 2019
The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry has not embraced digital transforma... more The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry has not embraced digital transformation with the same enthusiasm as other industries (e.g. such as manufacture industry). Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a revolutionary technology that is characterized as the opportunity of the AEC industry to move to the digital era and improve the collaboration amongst the partners of this industry by exploiting Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). BIM provides all the necessary tools and automations to achieve end-to-end communication, data exchange and information sharing between project actors. Thus, the virtual 3D models generated in the context of engaging in the BIM process and as-delivered physical assets through Building Management Systems (BMS) could adopt Internet of Things (IoT) architectures and services. However, the orchestration of IoT in a highly modular environment with many moving parts and inter-dependencies between the stakeholders of this environment, lead to many security issues. Therefore, this paper proposes a system architecture that employs the Blockchain technology as a measure to secure and control the BIM technology coupled with IoT. The system architecture under scrutiny is considering the case of a museum building, where efficient security, management and monitoring are of great importance.

Elsevier Vehicular Communications Journal, 2019
Fifth generation (5G) Vehicular Cloud Computing (VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access te... more Fifth generation (5G) Vehicular Cloud Computing (VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access technologies to fulfill the requirements of modern services. Multiple services with different Quality of Service (QoS) constraints could be available in each vehicle, while at the same time, user requirements and provider policies must be addressed. Therefore, the design of efficient Vertical Handover (VHO) management schemes for 5G-VCC infrastructures is needed. In this paper, a novel VHO management scheme for 5G-VCC systems is proposed. Whenever the user satisfaction grade becomes less than a predefined threshold, VHO is initiated and network selection is performed, considering the velocity of the vehicle, network characteristic criteria such as throughput, delay, jitter and packet loss, as well as provider policy criteria such as service reliability, security and price. The proposed scheme uses linguistic values for VHO criteria attributes represented by Interval Valued Pentagonal Fuzzy Numbers (IVPFNs) to express the information using membership intervals. The VHO scheme is applied to a 5G-VCC system which includes 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and IEEE 802.16 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) Macrocells and Femtocells, as well as IEEE 802.11p Wireless Access for Vehicular Environment (WAVE) Road Side Units (RSUs). Performance evaluation shows that the suggested method ensures the Always Best Connection (ABC) principle, while at the same time outperforms existing VHO management schemes.

International Journal of Computational Methods in Heritage Science (IJCMHS) - IGI Global, 2018
Virtual tours using drones enhance the experience the users perceive from a place with cultural i... more Virtual tours using drones enhance the experience the users perceive from a place with cultural interest. Drones equipped with 360 o cameras perform real-time video streaming of the cultural sites. The user preferences about each monument type should be considered in order the appropriate flying route for the drone to be selected. This paper describes a scheme for supporting personalized real-time virtual tours in sites with cultural interest using drones. The user preferences are modeled using the MPEG-21 and the MPEG-7 standards, while Web Ontology Language (OWL) ontologies are used for the description of the metadata structure and semantics. The Metadata-aware Analytic Network Process (MANP) algorithm is proposed in order the weights about the user preferences for each monument type to be estimated. Subsequently, the Trapezoidal Fuzzy Topsis for Heritage Route Selection (TFT-HRS) algorithm accomplishes ranks the candidate heritage routes. Finally, after each virtual tour, the user preferences metadata are updated in order the scheme to continuously learn about the user preferences.

VH 2018 - Visual Heritage Congress, 2018
The development of three-dimensional (3D) models and the use of Augmented Reality (AR) in the fie... more The development of three-dimensional (3D) models and the use of Augmented Reality (AR) in the field of cultural heritage consists an innovative process the recent years that provides the visitors of archaeological sites with additional information. This has been made possible due to achievements in digital technologies, communications, devices and developments in software engineering. Nevertheless, the research to fully make use of these new methods continues, as the potentials of new technologies have not been exploited. In archaeological sites, the production of 3D models for AR is focused on the virtual reconstruction of ruined monuments at their original form, aiming to give visitors the third dimension (height, volume etc.), especially to those who do not have special knowledge of archaeology. This paper describes an innovative approach of using AR for maintaining the memory and the information of monuments, as they have been originally excavated, but that are going to be back-filled due to the particularity of their material or their location. Also, the system architecture of the proposed scheme is described considering two study cases, a Neolithic settlement in the archaeological site of Halai, Lokris and the remains of a Classical Temple on open field of a hill in Thebes, Boeotia. Both mentioned monuments are under the direction of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (ASCSA).
EUROMED 2018 - International Conference on Digital Heritage, 2018
The cultural heritage of a city, both tangible and intangible, constitutes a resource of inestima... more The cultural heritage of a city, both tangible and intangible, constitutes a resource of inestimable value that in the uprising digital era needs as well sustainable use and management. The transformation of heritage sites and cultural intangible fields into Smart Cultural Heritage environments implies to the development of Smart Cities. This paper introduces a new delivery model for providing cloud based cultural services to users, through advanced network infrastructures in Smart Cities environments. The proposed model is called Smart Cultural Heritage as a Service (SCHaaS) and aims to promote and preserve the cultural heritage through smart applications and participatory processes. This model also aims to be customized according the special cultural characteristics of a city and the needs of its citizens.

GIIS 2018 - Global Information Infrastructure and Networking Symposium, 2018
Fifth generation (5G) vehicular systems support multiple services with strict Quality of Service ... more Fifth generation (5G) vehicular systems support multiple services with strict Quality of Service (QoS) constraints. To fulfill the increased communication needs, 5G Vehicular Cloud Computing (5G-VCC) architectures with dense deployments of the access network infrastructures have been proposed. In such systems, the network resources manipulation is a critical task that could be addressed by the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. MAC schemes that have been proposed for vehicular networks, can be applied to 5G-VCC systems in order optimal manipulation of communication resources to be accomplished. This paper makes an overview of available MAC schemes, while a comprehensive discussion about their implementation in 5GVCC systems is performed leading to useful conclusions.
Index Terms—5G Vehicular Cloud Computing (5G-VCC), Ultra Dense Networks (UDN), Medium Access Control (MAC), Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I), Survey

IISA 2018 - The 9th International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications, 2018
Virtual tourism is a novel trend that enhances the experience the users perceive from touristic p... more Virtual tourism is a novel trend that enhances the experience the users perceive from touristic places, such as archaeological sites. Drones are equipped with 360 o video cameras and used for video capturing of the heritage sites. The video material is streamed to the users in real time, enriched with additional 3D, Augmented Reality (AR) or Mixed Reality (MR) material. Furthermore, the selection of the appropriate flying route for each drone should be performed, in order to provide a satisfactory tour experience to the user, considering his preferences about specific monuments. To address this issue, this paper describes a heritage route selection scheme for supporting real-time virtual tours in sites with cultural interest using drones. The proposed scheme applies a Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making (FMADM) algorithm, the Trapezoidal Fuzzy Topsis for Heritage Route Selection (TFT-HRS), to accomplish the ranking of the candidate heritage routes. The algorithm uses Interval-Valued Trapezoidal Fuzzy Numbers (IVTFN) for the representation of heritage routes evaluation values. Performance evaluation shows that the suggested method produces better results compared to the Fuzzy Topsis (FTOPSIS) by selecting the most appropriate flying route for the drone.

IISA 2018 - The 9th International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications, 2018
Fifth Generation Vehicular Cloud Computing (5G-VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access tech... more Fifth Generation Vehicular Cloud Computing (5G-VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access technologies to fulfill the requirements of modern vehicular services. Efficient network selection algorithms are required to satisfy the constraints of Driver Assistance (DA) services, Passengers Entertainment and Information (PEnI) services and Medical (MED) services that provided to vehicular users. The presence of MED services affects the importance of other services in situations where patients with immediate health status exist within the vehicle. This paper proposes a network selection scheme which considers the patient health status to adapt the importance of each service. The scheme consists of two Fuzzy Multi Attribute Decision Making (FMADM) algorithms: the Trapezoidal Fuzzy Adaptive Analytic Network Process (TF-AANP) to calculate the relative importance of each vehicular service and the selection criteria, as well as the Trapezoidal Fuzzy Topsis with Adaptive Criteria Weights (TFT-ACW) to accomplish the ranking of the candidate networks. Both algorithms use Interval-Valued Trapezoidal Fuzzy Numbers (IVTFN). Performance evaluation shows that the suggested method outperforms existing algorithms by satisfying the constraints of MED services when the patient health status becomes immediate.

WTS 2018 - Wireless Telecommunications Symposium, 2018
Fifth Generation Vehicular Cloud Computing (5G-VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access tech... more Fifth Generation Vehicular Cloud Computing (5G-VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access technologies in order to fulfill the requirements of modern services, including medical services with strict constraints. Therefore, the need for efficient Vertical Handover (VHO) management schemes must be addressed. In this paper, a VHO management scheme for supporting medical services in 5G-VCC systems, is described. It consists of the VHO initiation and the network selection processes, while at the same time, the vehicle's velocity, its current connection type, as well as the status of the onboard patient's health, are considered. Specifically, during the VHO initiation process the necessity to perform handover is evaluated. Subsequently, the network selection process selects the appropriate network alternative considering both medical service requirements and patients' health status. The proposed scheme is applied to a 5G-VCC system which includes Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Worldwide Interoperability Microwave Access (WiMAX) Macrocells and Femtocells, as well as Wireless Access for Vehicular Environment Road Side Units (WAVE RSUs). Performance evaluation shows that the proposed algorithm outperforms existing VHO management schemes.
IISA 2017 - The 8th International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications, 2017
Healthcare Vehicular Cloud Computing (VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access technologies ... more Healthcare Vehicular Cloud Computing (VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access technologies to fulfill the requirements of medical services and enhance the health monitoring and care of vehicular users. In such a system, efficient network selection algorithms are required to satisfy the constraints of critical medical services such as health monitoring using sensors, live streaming of medical video and clinical data transmission. Therefore, in this paper a network selection scheme for supporting medical services in VCC systems is proposed.

IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC), 2017
Vehicular Cloud Computing (VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access technologies in order to... more Vehicular Cloud Computing (VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access technologies in order to fulfill the requirements of modern services. Therefore, the need for efficient Vertical Handover (VHO) management schemes must be addressed. In this paper a VHO management scheme for VCC systems is described. The proposed method takes into account the vehicle's velocity as well as its current connection type and applies a two step VHO algorithm to reduce operations' costs and optimize mobility management. Accordingly, as a first step a VHO initiation process evaluates the necessity to perform handover and subsequently a network selection process selects the appropriate network alternative considering both vehicular service requirements and operators' policies. The proposed scheme is applied to a VCC system which includes Long Term Evolution (LTE) Macrocells and Femtocells as well as 802.11p Road Side Units (RSUs). Performance evaluation shows that the suggested algorithm ensures the Always Best Connection (ABC) principle, while at the same time outperforms existing VHO management schemes.

The 3GPP Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) standard specifies a set of pioneer features such a... more The 3GPP Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) standard specifies a set of pioneer features such as relay nodes and carrier aggregation. At the same time, the Software Defined Networks (SDN) have become an emerging technology which provides centralized control and programmability to modern networks. In the current communication environment, cloud computing could combine the advantages of both technologies in order to create a novel cloud assisted Software Defined LTE-A architecture with relay nodes. Moreover, due to the increased requirements of modern services, the optimal resource allocation is a necessity. In such a context, this paper describes a QoS aware cross carrier scheduler for downlink flows, aiming at the optimization of system resources allocation. The proposed scheduler is evaluated against the PF, MLWDF, EXP/PF, EXP RULE, LOG RULE, FLS and FLSA schedulers in a cloud assisted Software Defined LTE-A topology with relay nodes. Simulation results show that the proposed scheduler improves the real time services performance while at the same time maintains an acceptable performance for best effort flows.

The wide spread of real-time services in wireless networks demands scheduling mechanisms supporti... more The wide spread of real-time services in wireless networks demands scheduling mechanisms supporting strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. Nevertheless, the specifications of the LTE standard for mobile connectivity defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) does not impose any specific scheduler for the proper allocation of resources to services. Therefore, several LTE schedulers have been proposed in the literature meeting the QoS requirements of modern services. In this paper a QoS aware scheduler for the LTE downlink is proposed namely the FLS-Advanced (FLSA) aiming at prioritizing real-time traffic. The proposed scheduler has been built on three distinct levels assigning the available radio resources to services according to their requirements. Based on simulation results, the FLSA outperforms in terms of packet loss ratio, attainable throughput and fairness the performance of existing schedulers including PF, MLWDF, EXP/PF, FLS, EXP RULE and LOG RULE.
A QoS aware scheduler, the FLS-Advanced (FLSA), a modified version of FLS, for the LTE downlink t... more A QoS aware scheduler, the FLS-Advanced (FLSA), a modified version of FLS, for the LTE downlink transmission is proposed.

Next generation wireless networks consist of many heterogeneous access technologies that should s... more Next generation wireless networks consist of many heterogeneous access technologies that should support various service types with different quality of service (QoS) constraints, as well as user, requirements and provider policies. Therefore, the need for network selection mechanisms that consider multiple factors must be addressed. In this paper, a network selection method is proposed by applying the analytic network process to estimate the weights of the selection criteria, as well as a fuzzy version of technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution to perform the ranking of network alternatives. The method is applied to a heterogeneous network environment providing different QoS classes and policy characteristics. Each user applies the method to select the most appropriate network, which satisfies his or her requirements in respect of his or her service-level agreement (SLA). Performance evaluation shows that when the user requests only one service, the proposed method performs better compared to the original technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution, as well as the Fuzzy AHP-ELECTRE method. Moreover, the proposed method can be applied in cases where a user requires multiple services simultaneously on a device. The sensitivity analysis of the proposed method shows that it can be properly adjusted to conform to network environment changes.
The smart usage of hi-end military technological solutions in daily activities makes people life ... more The smart usage of hi-end military technological solutions in daily activities makes people life better. This paper describes a network and position proposal scheme in respect of technical networking and positioning information. A Link-16 based Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence (C3I) system is established among the mobile devices. Each device knows its geographical position using its GPS. A network along with a possible good position for user's service is proposed, fulfilling his/her requirements for comfortable work.

Multimedia information has been increased in the recent years while new content delivery services... more Multimedia information has been increased in the recent years while new content delivery services enhanced with personalization functionalities are provided to users. Several standards are proposed for the representation and retrieval of multimedia content. This paper makes an overview of the available standards and technologies. Furthermore a prototype semantic P2P architecture is presented which delivers personalized audio information. The metadata which support personalization are separated in two categories: the metadata describing user preferences stored at each user and the resource adaptation metadata stored at the P2P network's web services. The multimedia models MPEG-21 and MPEG-7 are used to describe metadata information and the Web Ontology Language (OWL) to produce and manipulate ontological descriptions. SPARQL is used for querying the OWL ontologies. The MPEG Query Format (MPQF) is also used, providing a well-known framework for applying queries to the metadata and to the ontologies.
This paper presents a mobile audio server enhanced with personalization capabilities. The server ... more This paper presents a mobile audio server enhanced with personalization capabilities. The server as well as the client is implemented over the Android platform. It provides mobility to the system's parts. The metadata which support personalization are separated into two categories: the metadata describing user preferences stored at each client and the resource adaptation metadata stored at the server. The multimedia models MPEG-21 and MPEG-7 are used to describe metadata information. The Web Ontology Language (OWL) is used to produce and manipulate the relative semantic descriptions about the metadata. The mobile server promotes audio tracks to the clients according to their preferences.
Uploads
Papers by Emmanouil Skondras
Index Terms—5G Vehicular Cloud Computing (5G-VCC), Ultra Dense Networks (UDN), Medium Access Control (MAC), Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I), Survey