Search Results (4)

This paper examines precise timestamping of LoRaWAN messages (particularly beacons) to enable wide-area synchronization for end devices without GNSS. The need for accuracy demands hardware-level timestamping architectures, possibly using time-domain cross-correlation (matched filtering) against internally generated chirp references. Focusing on Time-of-Arrival (TOA) estimation from raw IQ samples, the authors analyze effects of non-idealities—additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO), Sampling Phase and Frequency Offset (SPO and SFO, respectively), and radio parameters such as spreading factor (SF) and sampling rate of the baseband signals. A MATLAB (R2020) simulation mimics preamble detection and Start-of-Frame Delimiter (SFD) timestamping while sweeping SF (7, 9, 12), sampling rates (0.25–10 MSa/s), SNR (−20 to +20 dB), and CFO/SFO offsets (−10–10 ppm frequency deviation). Errors are evaluated in terms of mean and dispersion, the latter represented by the P95–P5 range metric. Results show that oversampling not only improves temporal resolution, but sub-microsecond error dispersion can be achieved with high sampling rates in favorable SNR and SF cases. Indeed, SPO and SNR greatly contribute to error dispersion. On the other hand, higher SF values increase correlation robustness at the cost of longer chirps, making SFO a dominant error source; ±10 ppm SFO can induce roughly ±3 μs SFD bias for SF12. CFO largely cancels after up-/down-chirp averaging. As a concluding remark, matched-filter hardware timestamping can ensure sub-μs errors thanks to oversampling but requires SFO compensation for accurate real-world synchronization in practice. Full article

This paper proposes an innovative approach capitalized on the distinctive characteristics of command and control (C&C) beacons, namely, time intervals and frequency between consecutive unique connections, to compress the network flow dataset. While previous studies on the same matter used single technique, we propose a multi-technique approach for efficient detection of DoH tunnels. We use a baseline public dataset, CIRA-CIC-DoHBrw-2020, containing over a million network flow properties and statistical features of DoH, tunnels, benign DoH and normal browsing (HTTPS) traffic. Each sample is represented by 33 features with a timestamp. Our methodology combines star graph and bar plot visualizations with supervised and unsupervised learning techniques. The approach underscores the importance of C&C beacon characteristic features in compressing a dataset and reducing a flow dimension while enabling efficient detection of DoH tunnels. Through compression, the original dataset size and dimensions are reduced by approximately $95\%$ and $94\%$ respectively. For supervised learning, RF emerges as the top-performing algorithm, attaining precision and recall scores of 100% each, with speed increase of $\approx 6796$ times faster in training and $\approx 55$ in testing. For anomaly detection models, OCSVM emerges as the most suitable choice for this purpose, with precision (88.89) and recall (100). Star graph and bar graph models also show a clear difference between normal traffic and DoH tunnels. The reduction in flow sample size and dimension, while maintaining accuracy, holds promise for edge networks with constrained resources and aids security analysts in interpreting complex ML models to identify Indicators of Compromise (IoC). Full article

The concept of verifiable delay functions has received attention from researchers since it was first proposed in 2018. The applications of verifiable delay are also widespread in blockchain research, such as: computational timestamping, public random beacons, resource-efficient blockchains, and proofs of data replication. This paper introduces the concept of verifiable delay functions and systematically summarizes the types of verifiable delay functions. Firstly, the description and characteristics of verifiable delay functions are given, and weak verifiable delay functions, incremental verifiable delay functions, decodable verifiable delay functions, and trapdoor verifiable delay functions are introduced respectively. The construction of verifiable delay functions generally relies on two security assumptions: algebraic assumption or structural assumption. Then, the security assumptions of two different verifiable delay functions are described based on cryptography theory. Secondly, a post-quantum verifiable delay function based on super-singular isogeny is introduced. Finally, the paper summarizes the blockchain-related applications of verifiable delay functions. Full article

An updated, binary-coded message has been developed for transmission to extraterrestrial intelligences in the Milky Way galaxy. The proposed message includes basic mathematical and physical concepts to establish a universal means of communication followed by information on the biochemical composition of life on Earth, the Solar System’s time-stamped position in the Milky Way relative to known globular clusters, as well as digitized depictions of the Solar System, and Earth’s surface. The message concludes with digitized images of the human form, along with an invitation for any receiving intelligences to respond. Calculation of the optimal timing during a given calendar year is specified for potential future transmission from both the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope in China and the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array in northern California to a selected region of the Milky Way which has been proposed as the most likely location for life to have developed. These powerful new beacons, the successors to the Arecibo radio telescope which transmitted the 1974 message upon which this expanded communication is in part based, can carry forward Arecibo’s legacy into the 21st century with this equally well-constructed communication from Earth’s technological civilization. Full article