Papers by Emanuel Popovici
arXiv (Cornell University), Jun 8, 2018
Future Internet
This study proposes the wider use of non-intrusive side-channel power data in cybersecurity for i... more This study proposes the wider use of non-intrusive side-channel power data in cybersecurity for intrusion detection. An in-depth analysis of side-channel IoT power behaviour is performed on two well-known IoT devices—a Raspberry Pi 3 model B and a DragonBoard 410c—operating under normal conditions and under attack. Attacks from the categories of reconnaissance, brute force and denial of service are applied, and the side-channel power data of the IoT testbeds are then studied in detail. These attacks are used together to further compromise the IoT testbeds in a “capture-the-flag scenario”, where the attacker aims to infiltrate the device and retrieve a secret file. Some clear similarities in the side-channel power signatures of these attacks can be seen across the two devices. Furthermore, using the knowledge gained from studying the features of these attacks individually and the signatures witnessed in the “capture the flag scenario”, we show that security teams can reverse engineer...
Future Internet
This study proposes a heterogeneous hardware-based framework for network intrusion detection usin... more This study proposes a heterogeneous hardware-based framework for network intrusion detection using lightweight artificial neural network models. With the increase in the volume of exchanged data, IoT networks’ security has become a crucial issue. Anomaly-based intrusion detection systems (IDS) using machine learning have recently gained increased popularity due to their generation’s ability to detect unseen attacks. However, the deployment of anomaly-based AI-assisted IDS for IoT devices is computationally expensive. A high-performance and ultra-low power consumption anomaly-based IDS framework is proposed and evaluated in this paper. The framework has achieved the highest accuracy of 98.57% and 99.66% on the UNSW-NB15 and IoT-23 datasets, respectively. The inference engine on the MAX78000EVKIT AI-microcontroller is 11.3 times faster than the Intel Core i7-9750H 2.6 GHz and 21.3 times faster than NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics cards, when the power drawn was 18mW. In addition, the...
2013 IEEE 9th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob), 2013
Nowadays, the technology advancements of sensors, low power mixed-signal/RF circuits, wireless co... more Nowadays, the technology advancements of sensors, low power mixed-signal/RF circuits, wireless communication and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have enabled the design of compact, low power, high performance and low cost solutions for a wide range of applications, surveillance, building monitoring, sports/fitness, and of particular interesting are applications for health care. Novel sensors for human biomedical signal together with wireless connectivity and low power solutions are creating new opportunities for wearable devices which allow continuous monitoring together with freedom of movement of the users. This paper presents a low-power wearable sensor networks platform for on-body physiological measurements and wireless data communications. The platform hosts novel high sensitivity electric potential dry surface sensors that can be used in either contact or non-contact mode to measure ECG and EMG signals. Heart rate and respiration rate is performed runtime directly on the node. This approach reduces the amount of data than need to be transmitted, from raw measurement to analyzed data. In doing so the duty cycle of the radio has been reduced and the power consumption of the node optimized. Experimental measurements show the acquisition and processing of data from sensors and the low power consumption achieved with the node in different modalities.
2018 40th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2018
Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference, 2017
Clinical evaluation of electroencephalogram (EEG) is important for understanding and monitoring t... more Clinical evaluation of electroencephalogram (EEG) is important for understanding and monitoring the electrical activity present in the brain. In collusion with engineering advances, the movement towards portable, rapid and low-cost EEG monitoring is growing. This will allow a greater availability of monitoring technologies for assessing brain function and health in disadvantaged communities. This paper presents an alternative method for interpreting neonatal brain health in real-time via the sonification of EEG on a smartphone. The paper discusses the implementation of the real-time EEG sonification using a phase vocoder and shows how the method is achievable using low-cost smartphone technologies with energy efficient algorithms.
Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Bridge Engineering, 2017
Daly's Bridge is a historic steel suspension footbridge in Ireland, known locally as the ‘Sha... more Daly's Bridge is a historic steel suspension footbridge in Ireland, known locally as the ‘Shaky Bridge’ for its noticeable movement under pedestrian loading. Although there is concern regarding the performance of the structure, testing or modelling has not been carried out to date and inadequate information exists in relation to carrying out such analyses. In this paper, Daly's Bridge is instrumented and tested for the first time and a model of the bridge is established and improved in the process. Apart from ambient vibration, excitation from traversing pedestrians and cyclists is considered. Video analysis of dynamic deflection, a wavelet-packet-based technique using acceleration responses and dynamic measurements from a cheap smartphone accelerometer application are used to identify and compare the natural frequency of the bridge. The work contributes to the evidence base of full-scale measurements from instrumenting and analysing responses of aging pedestrian bridges, hi...
IET Irish Signals and Systems Conference (ISSC 2006), 2006
Security in wireless sensor networks is currently provided through symmetric key cryptography. Al... more Security in wireless sensor networks is currently provided through symmetric key cryptography. Although the low computational complexity involved in private key algorithms is advantageous, session keys must be embedded in the sensor nodes before the nodes can be deployed. Protocols are also necessary to ensure synchronization of keys between the devices on a network. These protocols require significant communication and storage overhead. The limitation of such a cryptosystem is that it is not possible to guarantee the confidentiality of the session keys. It is commonly perceived that public key algorithms are slow, consume a lot of power and require a significant amount of architectural overhead. In this paper we show that it is possible to implement public key algorithms on resource constrained sensor node platforms. Using a hardware/software codesign approach, we have successfully mapped a public key cryptosystem based on Rabin's scheme onto the motes developed by Tyndall National Institute. Our implementation focuses on efficient architectures that execute the public key algorithms using minimal resources.
IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2015
In communication systems channel quality variation, mostly induced by interferences, mobility, an... more In communication systems channel quality variation, mostly induced by interferences, mobility, and environmental factors, is an unhindered physical phenomenon, which is usually perceived as a threat in pursuing reliable communication. There is a direct relation between the channel condition and the amount of computational resources and energy that have to be spend in order to reconstruct the correct messages at the reception side. When the quality is good, the decoding requires less resources and energy to identify and correct channel condition induced message errors, while when the channel noise level is high more resources and energy are needed to correct the errors. To be able to properly handle high noise levels while keeping the QoS requirements satisfied, telecom platforms are built upon largely over-designed hardware, i.e., they rely on worse case designs, which results in a substantial energy waste during most of their operation. In this chapter we introduce a methodology to dynamically adapt the platform operation mode to the channel noise level. The main objective is to keep QoS requirements satisfied regardless of the actual channel conditions while minimizing the energy consumption footprint. In particular, we propose a technique to exploit channel noise variability towards energy effective LDPC decoding amenable to adaptable low-energy operation. Endowed with the instantaneous channel noise level knowledge, our technique dynamically adjusts the operating voltage on-the-fly, aiming to achieve the optimal tradeoff between decoder performance and energy consumption without ignoring the fulfillment of the QoS requirements expressed in terms of frame/bit error rate. To demonstrate the capabilities of our proposal we implemented it and other state of the art energy reduction methods in the framework of a fully parallel LDPC decoder mapped on a Virtex-6 FPGA. Our experiments indicate that the proposed technique outperforms state of the art counterparts, in terms of energy reduction, with 71% to 76% and 15% to 28%, w.r.t. early termination without and with DVS, respectively, while maintaining the targeted decoding robustness. Moreover, the measurements suggest that in certain conditions Degradation Stochastic Resonance occurs, i.e., timing faults caused by unpredictable underpowered components in the circuit unexpectedly become supporters rather than enemies of the decoding process.
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2015
While the potential of offshore wind and wave energy devices is well established in terms of envi... more While the potential of offshore wind and wave energy devices is well established in terms of environmental impact, operations and maintenance issues are still not very well researched or understood. One of the important aspects in this regard is the lack of access to these devices since they are typically situated in high wind and wave conditions to generate more energy. Consequently, deployment of sensors for such devices is an important issue
2015 26th Irish Signals and Systems Conference (ISSC), 2015
In recent years monitoring of beehives through technology has become increasingly frequent in res... more In recent years monitoring of beehives through technology has become increasingly frequent in research and industry. This is due to a decline in beekeeping, and stagnant honey bee populations across the globe, due to, among other factors, pests and disease. Recent advances in the area of low power wireless sensor network technology can be applied to the beehive for a better understanding of the colony's condition. This combination of engineering and beekeeping has led to the emergence of Precision Beekeeping. One of the key metrics of the strength of a beehive is the weight of the colony. Changes in weight can accurately reflect the productivity of the colony, as well as its health and condition. This paper describes the development of a wireless platform weighing scales, for implementation as part of a smart beehive. A single point impact load cell was selected as the most appropriate load sensor and was integrated into the design of the scales. The final weighing system was interfaced via a high precision analogue to digital converter to an off-the-shelf processing platform enabled with a low power Zigbee radio, to allow for data transfer to the base station. An initial simulation of the scale's ability was carried out, using standard weights to simulate the brood chamber of a beehive and varying weight to mimic the production and consumption of honey. The results showed that the initial platform scale has a linear output characteristic. The analogue to digital converter was evaluated and the system was found to be able to detect changes in weight in the order of tens of grams. A power analysis of the system was also undertaken to confirm that the solution was suitable for remote, battery powered, deployments.
Energy aware adaptive sampling algorithm for energy harvesting wireless sensor networks
2015 IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium (SAS), 2015
Wireless sensor nodes have a limited power budget, while they are often expected to be functional... more Wireless sensor nodes have a limited power budget, while they are often expected to be functional for a very long period of time once deployed in the field. Therefore, the minimization of energy consumption and energy harvesting technology are key tools for maximization of network lifetime and achieving self sustainability in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). This paper proposes an energy aware Adaptive Sampling Algorithm (ASA) for WSN with power hungry sensors and harvesting capabilities. An existing ASA developed for wireless sensor networks with power hungry sensors is optimized and enhanced to adapt the sampling frequency according to the available energy of the node. The proposed algorithm is evaluated using an in-field testbed with a sensor node which incorporates a wind harvester and a power hungry wind speed/direction sensor. Simulation and comparison between an existing ASA and the energy aware ASA in terms of energy durability are carried out using the measured wind energy and the wind speed over a period of a month. The simulation results have shown that using ASA in combination with energy aware function on the nodes can drastically increase the lifetime of a WSN node. Moreover, the energy aware ASA in conjunction with the node energy harvesting capability can lead towards a perpetual operation of WSN and significantly outperform state-of-the-art ASA.
2011 International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems and Workshops (DCOSS), 2011
This work presents the design and evaluation of the REAM (Remote Electricity Actuation and Monito... more This work presents the design and evaluation of the REAM (Remote Electricity Actuation and Monitoring) node based around the modular Tyndall Mote platform. The REAM node enables the user to remotely actuate power to a mains power extension board while sampling the current, voltage, power and power factor of the attached load. The node contains a current transformer interfaced to an Energy Metering IC which continuously samples current and voltage. These values are periodically read from the part by a PIC24 microcontroller, which calculates the RMS current and voltage, power factor and overall power. The resultant values can then be queried wirelessly employing the Tyndall 802.15.4 compliant wireless module.
2014 22nd International Conference on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI-SoC), 2014
In communication systems, channel quality variation is a well known phenomenon, which fundamental... more In communication systems, channel quality variation is a well known phenomenon, which fundamentally influences the decoding process. While most of the time, the transmission takes place in good signal to noise conditions, to satisfy QoS requirements in all cases, telecom platforms rely on largely overdesigned hardware, which may result in energy waste during most of their operation. In this paper we propose to exploit the channel noise variability and adapt the platform operation conditions such that QoS requirements are satisfied with the minimum energy consumption. In particular, we propose a technique to exploit channel noise variability towards energy effective LDPC decoding amenable to low-energy operation. Endowed with the channel noise variability knowledge, our technique adaptively tunes the operating voltage at runtime, aiming to achieve the optimal tradeoff between decoder performance and power consumption, while fulfilling the QoS requirements. To demonstrate the capabilities of our proposal we implemented it and other state of the art energy reduction methods in conjunction with a fully parallel LDPC decoder on a Virtex-6 FPGA. Our experiments indicate that the proposed technique outperforms state of the art counterparts, in terms of energy reduction, with 71% to 76% and 15% to 28%, w.r.t. early termination without and with DVS, respectively, while maintaining the targeted decoding robustness. Moreover, the measurements suggest that in certain conditions Degradation Stochastic Resonance occurs, i.e., the energy consumption is unexpectedly diminished due to the fact that unpredictable underpowered components facilitate rather than impede the decoding process.
Toys play a vitally important role in the lives of children, with critical roles relating to soci... more Toys play a vitally important role in the lives of children, with critical roles relating to social development, education and entertainment. In this paper, a platform for interactive toys using ultra low power Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technologies is proposed and developed. These are implemented through the integration of WSN technology into a number of off the shelf micro-robotic toys. The heterogeneous network devices react together, controlled by an external environmental interface realized through the addition of a wireless microphone node acting as a network coordinator. This creates an engaging, interactive concert scenario which responds to music with synchronized dancing and light displays. The proposed WSN interface improves the versatility and application range of intelligent toys at a very low cost and low power overhead. This work represents a first step in the development of intelligent interfaces for enhanced interaction with toys for children. Experimental results show the low power features of the solution and the possibility of providing long lasting real world application scenarios, including potential application of an ultra-low power wake up radio.
2008 First International Symposium on Applied Sciences on Biomedical and Communication Technologies, 2008
The total energy consumed by the radios is compared for a cooperative transmission (CT) protocol ... more The total energy consumed by the radios is compared for a cooperative transmission (CT) protocol and a non-CT routing protocol, in a two-hop, single cluster, ad hoc network. The radio energy model is a function of parameter sets that are typically found in radio specifications. The protocols are compared for five different parameter sets, corresponding to five different existing radios. The CT protocol is the Opportunistic Large Array (OLA). The non-CT protocol simply selects one node from the cluster to forward the packet, but other nodes in the cluster that do not relay are assumed to overhear or decode at least part of the packets. The relative energy consumption is determined as a function of the fraction of the data packet that is decoded by the node for decision-making. CT is shown to be beneficial for certain decoding fractions and for certain radio parameter sets.
2012 Ninth International Conference on Wearable and Implantable Body Sensor Networks, 2012
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2011 20th European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD), 2011
This paper presents a novel architecture and its implementation for a versatile, miniaturised mot... more This paper presents a novel architecture and its implementation for a versatile, miniaturised mote which can communicate concurrently using a variety of combinations of ISM bands, has increased processing capability, and interoperability with mainstream GSM technology. All these features are integrated in a small form factor platform. The platform can have many configurations which could satisfy a variety of applications' constraints. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first integrated platform of this type reported in the literature. The proposed platform opens the way for enhanced levels of Quality of Service (QoS), with respect to reliability, availability and latency, in addition to facilitating interoperability and power reduction compared to existing platforms. The small form factor also allows potential of integration with other mobile platforms including smart phones.
2011 Seventh International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing, 2011
this paper documents the design, implementation and characterisation of a wireless sensor node (G... more this paper documents the design, implementation and characterisation of a wireless sensor node (GENESI Node v1.0), applicable to long-term structural health monitoring. Presented is a three layer abstraction of the hardware platform; consisting of a Sensor Layer, a Main Layer and a Power Layer. Extended operational lifetime is one of the primary design goals, necessitating the inclusion of supplemental energy sources, energy awareness, and the implementation of optimal components (microcontroller(s), RF transceiver, etc.) to achieve lowest-possible power consumption, whilst ensuring that the functional requirements of the intended application area are satisfied. A novel Smart Power Unit has been developed; including intelligence, ambient available energy harvesting (EH), storage, electrochemical fuel cell integration, and recharging capability, which acts as the Power Layer for the node. The functional node has been prototyped, demonstrated and characterised in a variety of operational modes. It is demonstrable via simulation that, under normal operating conditions within a structural health monitoring application, the node may operate perpetually.
Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 2010
In this research we focus on the Tyndall 25mm and 10mm nodes energy-aware topology management to ... more In this research we focus on the Tyndall 25mm and 10mm nodes energy-aware topology management to extend sensor network lifes pan and optimise node power consumption. The two tiered Tyndall Het erogeneous Automated Wireless Sensors (THAWS) tool is used to quickly create and configure application-specific sensor networks. To this end, we propose to implement a distributed route discovery algorithm and a practical energy-aware reaction model on the 25mm nodes. Triggered by the energy-warning events, the miniaturised Tyndall 10mm data collec tor nodes adaptively and periodically change their association to 25mm base station nodes, while 25mm nodes also change the inter-connections between themselves, which results in reconfiguration of the 25mm nodes tier topology. The distributed routing protocol uses combined weight functions to balance the sensor network traffic. A system level simula tion is used to quantify the benefit of the route management framework when compared to other state of the art approaches in terms of the system power-saving.
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Papers by Emanuel Popovici