New wireless technologies promise mobile users easy access to real-time data and the ability to stay connected with business partners, colleagues and friends any where, any time. While emerging mobile applications are designed to be data-centric, existing IP-oriented communication paradigms are not flexible enough to support these new functionalities. Additionally, serious security and privacy concerns have been raised. To fully support emerging mobile applications, we are developing a next-generation mobile network, SECON, that supports mobile content centric networking features.
This project will demonstrate new mobile internet features via prototyping and large scale experimentations using GENI testbeds. Key features include (i) intra and inter-domain intentional-named message dissemination, (ii) efficient mobile content centric networking protocol design, and (iii) data-centric security with search capability. The proposed educational component will equip both graduate and undergraduate students with both design and implementation experience of innovative mobile Internet features. The PI also plans to organize outreach activities for minority students.
The major goal of this project is to design and prototype a secure mobile content-centric networking that works on GEN testbed. We have accomplished significant technical results as well as achieve a broader impact of training graduate and undergraduate students as productive technical workforce in industry. The various technical accomplishments are listed below: (a) design and prototype a secure mobile content-cetnric network with the following features: (i) keyword-based information retrieval, (ii) mobility support, (iii) real time video delivery system, (iv) image-based information retrieval. In addition, we conduct large scale simulation studies using real Internet topology to evaluate our mobilty support design and our results indicate that our design is effective. (b) We design and prototype a campus tour mobile application that utilize many of the features we designed for SECON. Our campus tour mobile application allows prospective students to explore a campus virtually and in real-time. Students can submit keyword-based queries to retrieve relevant information online without being present in that campus or submit image-based queries to gather more information about a particular building while they are visitin in-person. (c) We have designed an efficient secure information retrieval scheme where a user can conduct searches over encrypted data. Such technique can be used in many different scenarios e.g. healthcare system, smartgrid system. Apart from technical contributions, this project provides training ground for students (both undergraduates and graduates) involved in this project to pick up hands-on experience for conducting new networking related experiments using NSF-funded GENI testbeds. Such students become productive technical staff in industry after they graduated. Several graduate students who were supported by this grant are now working in industry. Furthermore, a cloud computing related homework assignment was created to allow undergradfuate students taking an undergraduate operating system class to learn some hands-on experience using ProtoGENI testbed.
