International Journal of Web and Grid Services (13 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Internet of Things based Low Cost Water Meter with Multi Functionality  
  by Biswaranjan Bhola, Raghvendra Kumar, Brojo Kishore Mishra 
  Abstract: Water is a very indispensable element for the abidance of human society. Hence it is indeed essential to reduce the wastage of affluent supply drinking water which is further leads to fast diminishing of water day by day. In this paper, aimed an Internet of Things(IoT) based Low cost Water Meter(LWM) used for water usage recording system using Apache server and MySQL database to identify the uses of water in each family. In LWM multi functionality is added using some mathematical function hence the use of extraneous physical sensors are reduced, as a result the cost of Water Meter can be minimized and all the component of this device is scalable in nature hence it is easily assembled. Furthermore it provides a user friendly interface for casual user, the aim is to reduce the wastage of water by using LWM in a minimal cost.
  Keywords: Internet of Things (IoT); Water Meter; Network; Flow Sensor; Water distribution system; Water management; Architecture.
  
  
• A GA-based approach with an interval VIKOR method for solving the constrained QoS-aware service composition in dynamic IoT environments  
  by Fateh Seghir, Renda Kouachi 
  Abstract: The QoS-aware service composition (QSC) with global QoS user-constraints in dynamic IoT environments is an NP-hard problem, where the QoS values of the IoT services are often ambiguous in nature due to various reasons such as network topology changes, IoT devices mobility and economic policies. Therefore, motivated by the fact that the interval number is an efficient and a simple model to express the imprecision of the QoS properties; the QSC in uncertain IoT environments is formulated as an interval multi-criteria optimization (INQSC) problem. Furthermore, to solve the modeled INQSC, we provide a GA-based optimization approach, which integrates an interval VIKOR method to deal with feasible solutions ranking, an interval QoS constraint violation sorting to rank infeasible solutions, and a local search operator with an elitism replacement to enhance both the exploitation and the exploration abilities of the provided optimization approach. The experimental comparison of our proposal with a recently provided GAP approach demonstrates the performance and the effectiveness of the proposed GA-based approach.
  Keywords: IoT services; Quality of Service (QoS) uncertainty; Interval number; Multi-criteria optimization; VIKOR method; Genetic algorithm.
  
  
• A Dynamic Load Balancing Mechanism for Fog Computing Environment  
  by Kamran Sattar Awaisi, Assad Abbas, Hasan Ali Khattak, Abbas Khalid, Hafiz Tayyab Rauf, Seifedine Kadry 
  Abstract: Fog computing has appeared as an effectively distributed computing paradigm to perform internet of things (IoT) applications. It is an extension of cloud computing that provides cloud-like services at the edge of the network. It overcomes the cloud computing issues and ensures to process of the huge amount of heterogeneous data in minimum time by consuming less network bandwidth. Therefore, dynamic load balancing is necessary to acquire the actual benefits of fog computing. In this paper, we propose a dynamic load balancing mechanism (DLBM) to schedule the number of service requests on fog nodes effectively. Furthermore, the DLBM has three algorithms to dynamically balance the load of fog nodes named appropriate node selection (ANS), effective task distribution (ETD), and global task execution and resource allocation (GTERA). The performance of the proposed mechanism is compared with Cloud only technique, fog-cloud-placement (FCP) algorithm, and self-similarity-based load balancing (SSLB) technique.
  Keywords: Internet of Things; Fog Computing; Resource Management; Load Balancing.
  
  
• Deadline Aware and Energy-Efficient Scheduling Algorithm for Fine-Grained Tasks in Mobile Edge Computing  
  by Abdullah Lakhan, Mazin Abed Mohammed, Ahmed N. Rashid, Seifedine Kadry, Karrar Hameed Abdulkareem 
  Abstract: Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is an evolving paradigm that, through the offload process, reduces the energy consumption of mobile devices. However, current studies concentrated on mobile energy and widely overlooked the energy usage of the computing node resources during offloading and scheduling in the MEC network. This research suggests a new mobile edge cloud (Mob-Cloud) that minimizes the resource consumption of resources. The Mob-Cloud, with its varying speed and power consumption, consists of different types of virtual ma-chines. The issue was treated as individual tasks where each has a strict deadline requirement. This study introduces a novel deadline and energy-efficient task scheduling (DEETS) system consisting of task sequencing, resource searching and mobility-conscious scheduling in the Mob-Cloud network to maintain the balance between resource energy usage and task deadline. Simulation results show that all current methods in terms of energy usage and deadlines outperform the new architecture and scheme.
  Keywords: MEC; Slack Time; DEETS; Task Scheduling; Mob-Cloud Architecture.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJWGS.2022.10042009
   
  
• A Novel Geo-opportunistic Routing Algorithm for Adaptive Transmission in Underwater Internet of Things  
  by Turki Alghamdi, Zahoor Ali Khan, Nadeem Javaid 
  Abstract: Localization of sensors in Underwater Internet of Things (UIoTs) is difficultrndue to the mobility. This changing makes the routing decisions difficult, which results in unreliable communication. This paper proposes Adaptive Transmission based Geographic and Opportunistic Routing (ATGOR) protocol for reliable communication between nodes. ATGOR operates in two parts: election of a small cube to avoid redundant transmissions and selection of reliable nodes which forward data from the selected small cube for optimal transmissions. Furthermore, to guarantee the reliability of the data packets in an unfriendly acoustic environment, we propose Mobility Aware ATGOR (MA-ATGOR), which predicts the locations of neighboring sensor nodes for successful data delivery. In addition, prediction of sensor nodes locations helps in avoiding the void holes along with high packet delivery. The performance of the proposed routing protocols is validated based on the PDR, number of void nodes and energy consumption per packet, through simulations.
  Keywords: Underwater Internet of Things; IoTs; adaptive transmission; void hole;rngeographic and opportunistic routing; mobility prediction.
  
  
• Mobile Service Selection in Edge and Cloud Computing Environment with Grey Wolf Algorithm  
  by Ming Zhu, Siyuan Meng, Jing Li, Song Yan 
  Abstract: The proliferation of mobile devices has resulted in the tremendous development of edge computing. A common mechanism is that once the requests from the users are too complex to be afforded by a single service, then edge computing services ought to step in. Nevertheless, services on edge servers are most commonly resource-constrained and unstable. To this end, we propose a novel solution for the mobile service selection problem with edge and cloud computing. An extended grey wolf algorithm is presented; specifically, crossover operator and roulette wheel are applied in reproduction and selection operations. Comparative experiments are implemented between our approach and other nature-inspired algorithms to verify the effectiveness and efficiency, which demonstrate our method may find a solution with better QoS values.
  Keywords: Mobile Edge Computing; Cloud Computing; Grey Wolf Algorithm; QoS; Service Selection.
  
  
• Survey on Tracking and Registration Technology for Mobile Augmented Reality  
  by Mingzhe Yang, Shangguang Wang, Ning Zhang, Ao Zhou, Xiao Ma 
  Abstract: Mobile augmented reality revolutionizes the way how people perceive information and interact with surrounding environments. As one of the key technologies in mobile augmented reality, tracking and registration technology plays an important role in the system performance. In this article, we review the state-of-art tracking and registration technology for mobile augmented reality. Firstly, we introduce the basic concept and a typical pipeline of mobile augmented reality. Then, we mainly classify tracking and registration technology for mobile augmented reality into three categories and analyze the principles and progress of each type respectively. The characteristics of each approach are discussed and compared in details. After that, we present some mobile augmented reality applications. Finally, we discuss the challenges and opportunities in the area of mobile augmented reality.
  Keywords: Augmented reality; mobile augmented reality; tracking and registration; sensor-based approach; vision-based approach; hybrid approach.
  
  
• Recursive Redundancy Zoning for Highly Available Microservices Architecture  
  by Kindson Munonye, Péter Martinek 
  Abstract: This paper aims to provide a solution to the challenge of High Availability in microservices by a novel approach called Recursive Redundancy Zoning(RRZ). This research adopted an integrated approach to High Availability by enhancing the Chain Oriented Load Balancing method. It adopts a combination of redundancy nesting and containerisation to ensure early fault detection and isolation. An empirical and concrete insight is provided in this research that indicated that the RRZ approach provides the best performance in terms of response time, load balancing and scalability. Comparison of this novel approach with existing approaches shows an improvement in availability. Since the experimental tests and evaluations carried out was based on a simulated environment, further research are ongoing to evaluation the performance of the RRZ approach in enterprise cloud environment. Moreover, since additional application artefacts are required the this novel method, some overhead in terms of resource utilisation was incurred. But these does not have any significant impact. This research with further refinements could serve as a standard for design of mission critical information systems that require a high level of stability under unreliable load conditions. The approach proposed in this paper fulfils the present need to provide model for developing loosely-coupled information systems based on microservices architecture
  Keywords: Microservices; High Availability; Redundancy; Nested Redundancy; RRZ; Recursive Redundancy Zoning; Load Balancing;.
  
  
• WMN-PSODGA Hybrid Intelligent Simulation System and Its Web GUI Tool: Performance Evaluation Considering Different Parameters of Genetic Algorithm  
  by Admir Barolli, Shinji Sakamoto 
  Abstract: Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have many advantages compared with the conventional Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) such as system resiliency, low cost, flexible coverage areas, rapid deployment, easy deployment, easy maintenance and high robustness. However, WMNs have some problems such as hidden and exposed node problems, which are related with the node placement problem that effect the network connectivity and user coverage. In order to solve these problems, we consider to optimize the location of mesh routers in WMNs. However, the mesh router placement is known to be an NP-hard problem. For this reason, we consider meta-heuristic algorithms. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a hybrid intelligent simulation system based on Distributed Genetic Algorithm (DGA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The simulation results show that the proposed system has a good performance to solve the node placement problem in WMNs. The best performance is achieved for 64 GA islands. Also, the SPX method has better performance than other crossover methods for the considered scenarios.
  Keywords: Wireless Mesh Network; Node Placement Problem; Hybrid Intelligent System; Particle Swarm Optimization; Distributed Genetic Algorithm.
  
  
• An efficient spatial zoning algorithm for maintaining social distancing in open indoor spaces  
  by Sultan Alamri 
  Abstract: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, numerous workplaces, organizations, and public venues closed their doors. Recently, many have reopened under social distancing restrictions imposed by governments. For example, open indoor spaces such as photo and art galleries, and various museums have now been able to welcome visitors, albeit with social distancing restrictions. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an indoor zoning algorithm for open indoor spaces in order to control the flow between zones and the absence of high-capacity zones to ensure social distancing between moving entities, while allowing them freedom of movement between the zones. The new zoning structure algorithm uses the quadtree concept adapted for the low-cost zoning of moving entities inside these spaces. Extensive simulations and evaluations showed that the proposed zoning algorithm performs well and at a low cost, and can successfully control the social distancing flow of moving entities.
  Keywords: Open indoor space; Zoning; Social distancing; Quadtree; Indoor routing; Moving objects.
  
  
• A Proactive Method of the Webshell Detection and Prevention based on Deep Traffic Analysis  
  by Ha V. Le, Hanh P. Du, Hoa N. Nguyen, Cuong N. Nguyen, Long V. Hoang 
  Abstract: The popularity of today's web application has led to web servers are frequently objects to injecting webshell attacks. In this paper, we propose a new deep inspection method that is composed of a deep learning algorithm and signature-based technique for webshell detection, namely DLWSD. Moreover, to avoid bottlenecks, DLWSD built-in DeepInspector inspects in real-time the large-scale traffic flows with a strategy of periodic sampling at a defined frequency and interval for only flows that do not satisfy any signature. DeepInspector can create/update rules from webshell attacking alert results to prevent in future. We also proposed a mechanism using the cross-entropy loss function to regulate the training imbalanced dataset. Our experiments allow validating the performance of DLWSD using a popular dataset CSE-CIC-IDS2018 with the metrics Accuracy, F1-score, FPR of 99.99%, 99.98%, 0.01% respectively. It is also better compared with other studies using the same dataset.
  Keywords: Intrusion Detection; Webshell Detection; Webshell Prevention; Deep Neural Network; DPDK.
  
  
• NARUN: Noise Adaptive Routing for Utility Networks  
  by Fabio Pagnotta, Leonardo Mostarda, Orhan Gemikonakli, Rosario Culmone, Diletta Cacciagrano, Flavio Corradini 
  Abstract: Wireless Meter-Bus is an open standard for power-efficient smart metering. Data are collected from meters and transmitted to the collector for processing. In smart cities, placing meters with the best quality communication signal is often challenging for urban constraints and other communication signals. Meters can also have limited capabilities in terms of memory and CPU. Previous work has been addressing the reliability issue only in the context of direct collector-meter communication. This paper proposes a novel Noise Adaptive Routing for Utility Networks (NARUN) protocol for improved performance and efficient routing in a partially connected mesh network. Collector keeps a weighted graph of the whole network where weights define the link failure index. No keep-alive or control messages are used to update the weights. Meters eavesdrop on the surrounding environment and efficiently report link failure indexes to the collector with ordinary reading messages. We validate NARUN on a real case study.
  Keywords: WM-Bus; Smart Metering; Routing.
  
  

Special Issue on: Security for Cloud Computing

• Searchable Symmetric Encryption Based on the Inner Product for Cloud Storage
  by Jun Yang, Shujuan Li, Xiaodan Yan, Baihui Zhang, Baojiang Cui 
  Abstract: Searchable encryption enables the data owner to store their own data after encrypting them in the cloud. Searchable encryption also allows the client to search over the data without leaking any information about it. In this paper, we rst introduce a searchable symmetric encryption scheme based on the inner product: it is more ecient to compute the inner product of two vectors. In our construction, the parties can be Data Owners, Clients or the Cloud Server. The three parties communicate with each other through the inner product to achieve the goal that the client can search the data in the cloud without leaking any information on the data the owner stored in the cloud. We then perform a security analysis and performance evaluation, which show that our algorithm and construction are secure and ecient.
  Keywords: Searchable Encryption; Searchable Symmetric Encryption; Inner Product; the Cloud Server; Security.