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Wireless Sensor Networks in Intelligent Transportation Systems

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A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Networks".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 19006

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Ilyoung Chung

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Guest Editor

Department of Computer Engineering, Chosun University, Gwangju 61452, Republic of Korea
Interests: computer networking; security systems; coding theory

Prof. Dr. Wooyeol Choi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Computer Engineering, Chosun University, Gwangju 61452, Republic of Korea
Interests: PHY/MAC cross-layer protocols; machine learning-based resource allocation; SDR-based performance verification for wireless networks
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) have become an incredible technology for avoiding congested traffic and enhancing traffic safety. To address individual requirements of both safety and non-safety applications in the vehicular communication technology, there is the need to build up a new communication technology for integrated solutions of future ITS. However, the use of the ITS suffers from serious issues related to security, and privacy during heterogeneous data sharing and processing, which prevent ITS solutions from becoming the prevalent alternative. On the other hand, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are interconnected sensor nodes that communicate wirelessly to collect data about the surrounding environment. Its conjunction with ITS could make more complex applications possible. In this challenging context, effective WSN-based ITS solutions and strategies emphasizing on secure data sharing and privacy preserving will provide continuous improvement for real implementations.

This Special Issue focuses on advanced developments, technologies, and challenges regarding the security and privacy issues in a WSN-based ITS environment, and in particular to its adoption within the cloud-based VANET research field. We are particularly interested in the latest findings from research, ongoing projects, and in review articles that can provide readers with current research trends and solutions.

The topics relevant to this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

Cloud-based IoT data gathering and processing;
Key management in cloud-assisted IoT scenarios;
Security and privacy for WSN-based ITS;
Privacy-aware secured protocols for blockchain-based WSNs;
New models, solutions with blockchain in cloud/edge-based VANET infrastructure;
Blockchain-based trustworthy applications in VANETs;
Cyber security for IoT and cloud/edge computing;
Big data technologies and applications in ITS;
Information revelation and privacy in WSNs;
Anonymous authentication for privacy preserving in WSN-based ITS;
Privacy concepts and applications in cloud-based ITS platforms;
Optimization of dynamic processes in cloud-assisted VANETs;
Security and privacy issues in mobile VANET infrastructure.

Prof. Dr. Ilyoung Chung
Prof. Dr. Wooyeol Choi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Network security
Privacy protection
Standards and protocols for the Internet of Things
Intelligent transportation systems (ITS)
Smart healthcare sensors
Vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs)
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs)
Cloud-Assisted ITS
Edge and fog computing
Block chain design for VANETs

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 2787 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Approach for Securing Nodes Using Two-Ray Model and Shadow Effects in Flying Ad-Hoc Network

by Manjit Kaur, Deepak Prashar, Mamoon Rashid, Sultan S. Alshamrani and Ahmed Saeed AlGhamdi

Electronics 2021, 10(24), 3164; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10243164 - 19 Dec 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2237

Abstract

In the last decades, flying ad-hoc networks (FANET) have provided unique features in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This work intends to propose an efficient algorithm for secure load balancing in FANET. It is performed with the combination of the firefly algorithm and radio propagation model. To provide the optimal path and to improve the data communication of different nodes, two-ray and shadow fading models are used, which secured the multiple UAVs in some high-level applications. The performance analysis of the proposed efficient optimization technique is compared in terms of packet loss, throughput, end-to-end delay, and routing overhead. Simulation results showed that the secure firefly algorithm and radio propagation models demonstrated the least packet loss, maximum throughput, least delay, and least overhead compared with other existing techniques and models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Intelligent Transportation Systems)

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11 pages, 5230 KiB

Open AccessArticle

CNN-Based Road-Surface Crack Detection Model That Responds to Brightness Changes

by Taehee Lee, Yeohwan Yoon, Chanjun Chun and Seungki Ryu

Electronics 2021, 10(12), 1402; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10121402 - 10 Jun 2021

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3951

Abstract

Poor road-surface conditions pose a significant safety risk to vehicle operation, especially in the case of autonomous vehicles. Hence, maintenance of road surfaces will become even more important in the future. With the development of deep learning-based computer image processing technology, artificial intelligence models that evaluate road conditions are being actively researched. However, as the lighting conditions of the road surface vary depending on the weather, the model performance may degrade for an image whose brightness falls outside the range of the learned image, even for the same road. In this study, a semantic segmentation model with an autoencoder structure was developed for detecting road surface along with a CNN-based image preprocessing model. This setup ensures better road-surface crack detection by adjusting the image brightness before it is input into the road-crack detection model. When the preprocessing model was applied, the road-crack segmentation model exhibited consistent performance even under varying brightness values. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Intelligent Transportation Systems)

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22 pages, 1036 KiB

Open AccessArticle

RSU-Aided Remote V2V Message Dissemination Employing Secure Group Association for UAV-Assisted VANETs

by Haowen Tan and Ilyong Chung

Electronics 2021, 10(5), 548; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10050548 - 26 Feb 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2225

Abstract

Nowadays, the research on vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) remains a hot topic within the Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios. Diverse studies and techniques regarding all aspects of VANETs have been investigated thoroughly. Particularly, the wireless characteristic of heterogeneous vehicular communication, along with the complicated and dynamic connection topology among participating VANET entities, have severely affected the secure and stable data exchange. Specifically, the spontaneous vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) message dissemination, as the essential functionality of VANET, plays a significant role for instant and real-time data sharing for vehicles within a certain vicinity. However, with the short-time interaction and high mobilization of vehicular connections, the remote V2V message delivery intended for long-distance vehicles in the range of different roadside units (RSUs) has not been properly researched. Meanwhile, both V2V and V2R (Vehicle-to-RSU) communication are highly restricted by environmental factors such as physical obstructions or signal interferences, thus drastically reducing the wireless connectivity in practical VANET implementations. In this case, the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as the auxiliary facilities, can provide the VANET with substitute wireless routes, so that the transmission quality and availability can be improved. In this paper, the authenticated UAV group association design is proposed at first. On this basis, the remote V2V message dissemination method is enabled, where the decentralized V2V connections involving all RSUs along the way are provided. The analysis regarding crucial security properties is presented accordingly, where the formal proofs and comparison are conducted. Moreover, the performance evaluation in terms of storage and time consumption during RSU authentication process is illustrated, respectively. Comparison results with the state-of-the-art prove that superiority on the major performance factors can be achieved. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Intelligent Transportation Systems)

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16 pages, 957 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Anonymous Mutual Authentication Scheme for RFID-Based Transportation System

by Sai Ji, Shuai Liu, Chen Wang, Rongxin Qi and Jian Shen

Electronics 2020, 9(12), 2167; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9122167 - 17 Dec 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1985

Abstract

In traditional transportation, each driver usually relies on their experience to determine an appropriate route, which may shorten the driving time and transport cost. However, this may also lead to a waste of time in traffic jams or due to other problems. In recent years, by introducing Internet of Things technology into the transportation system, traffic condition data can be collected and analyzed in real-time, which makes it easier for drivers to choose appropriate routes. However, the transmitted data may be intercepted or falsified, especially in untrusted public communication channels. Some schemes have been proposed to protect personal data, while they are vulnerable to some known attacks. Therefore, we propose a mutual authentication scheme for session key agreement and information encryption before transmitting personal data. This scheme can correctly identify vehicles and information. The Burrows–Abadi–Needham logic proof and our security discussion demonstrate that this authentication scheme can resist the various known attacks, including de-synchronization, the replay attack and the reader lost attack, which is solved for the first time in this field. Compared with some typical schemes, the performance analysis shows that this new scheme realizes a balance between security and computing costs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Intelligent Transportation Systems)

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21 pages, 1786 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Practical Homomorphic Authentication in Cloud-Assisted VANETs with Blockchain-Based Healthcare Monitoring for Pandemic Control

by Haowen Tan, Pankoo Kim and Ilyong Chung

Electronics 2020, 9(10), 1683; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9101683 - 14 Oct 2020

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2828

Abstract

Currently, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has caused catastrophic effect on every aspect of our lives, globally. The entire human race of all countries and regions has suffered devastating losses. With its high infectiousness and mortality rate, it is of great significance to carry out effective precautions and prevention of COVID-19. Specifically, the transportation system has been confirmed as one of the crucial spreading routes. Hence, enhancing healthcare monitoring and infection tracking for high-mobility transportation system is infeasible for pandemic control. Meanwhile, due to the promising advantages in the emerging intelligent transportation system (ITS), vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) is able to collect and process relevant vehicular data for improving the driving experience and road safety, which provide a way for non-contact automatic healthcare monitoring. Furthermore, the proliferating cloud computing and blockchain techniques enable sufficient processing and storing capabilities, along with decentralized remote auditing towards heterogenous vehicular data. In this case, the automated infection tracking for pandemic control could be achieved accordingly. For the above consideration, in this paper we develop a practical homomorphic authentication scheme for cloud-assisted VANETs, where the healthcare monitoring for all involving passengers is provided. Notably, the integrated cloud-assisted VANET infrastructure is utilized, where the hybrid medical data acquisition module is attached. In this way, timely, non-contact measurement on all passengers’ physical status can be remotely done by vehicular cloud (VC), which could also drastically improve the efficiency and guarantee safety. Vulnerabilities of the employed dedicated-short-range-communication (DSRC) technique could be properly addressed with the applied homomorphic encryption design. Additionally, the decentralized blockchain-based vehicle recording mechanism is cooperatively performed by VC and edge units. Infection tracking on specific vehicle and individual can be offered in this way. Each signature sequence is collaboratively maintained and verified by the current roadside unit (RSU) and its neighbor RSUs. The security analysis demonstrates that the proposed scheme is secure against major attacks, while the performance comparison with the state-of-the-arts relevant methods are presented for efficiency discussion. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Intelligent Transportation Systems)

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Review

Jump to: Research

19 pages, 2977 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Survey on Applications of Reinforcement Learning in Flying Ad-Hoc Networks

by Sifat Rezwan and Wooyeol Choi

Electronics 2021, 10(4), 449; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10040449 - 11 Feb 2021

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 4495

Abstract

Flying ad-hoc networks (FANET) are one of the most important branches of wireless ad-hoc networks, consisting of multiple unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) performing assigned tasks and communicating with each other. Nowadays FANETs are being used for commercial and civilian applications such as handling traffic congestion, remote data collection, remote sensing, network relaying, and delivering products. However, there are some major challenges, such as adaptive routing protocols, flight trajectory selection, energy limitations, charging, and autonomous deployment that need to be addressed in FANETs. Several researchers have been working for the last few years to resolve these problems. The main obstacles are the high mobility and unpredictable changes in the topology of FANETs. Hence, many researchers have introduced reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms in FANETs to overcome these shortcomings. In this study, we comprehensively surveyed and qualitatively compared the applications of RL in different scenarios of FANETs such as routing protocol, flight trajectory selection, relaying, and charging. We also discuss open research issues that can provide researchers with clear and direct insights for further research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks in Intelligent Transportation Systems)

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