Dr Shaleeza Sohail

In recent years cybersecurity has become a major concern in the adaptation of smart applications. A secure and trusted mechanism can provide peace of mind for users, especially in smart homes where a large number of IoT devices are used. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) provide promising results for detecting any security attacks on smart applications. However, due to the complex nature of the model used for this technique, it is not easy for common users to trust ANN-based security solutions. Also, the selection of the right hyperparameters for ANN architecture plays a crucial role in the accurate detection of security attacks. This paper proposes Multi-tiered ANN Model for Intrusion Detection (MAMID) that is a novel and scalable solution for optimal hyperparameter selection to detect security attacks with high accuracy. The explainability analysis of the predictions made by the model is also provided for establishing trust among users. The approach considers a subset of the dataset for quick, scalable and optimal selection of hyperparameters to reduce the overhead of the process of ANN architecture design. Using a very recent IoT dataset the proposed approach showed high performance for intrusion detection with 99.9%, 99.7%, and 97.7% accuracy for binary, category, and subcategory classification of attacks. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no previous research work has been able to achieve attack detection at the subcategory level beyond 90%.

During the recent COVID-19 outbreak, educational institutions have transitioned to online teaching for all students for most of the programs. Due to lack of in-person interactions and monitoring, assessments in online courses may be more susceptible to contract cheating, collusion, fabrication and other types of academic misconduct than the assessments in face-to-face courses. This situation has raised several research questions that need immediate attention, such as what are the best possible options for online assessments and how to administer online assessments so that academic integrity could be preserved. The authors have conducted a scoping study and carried out an extensive literature review on i) different types of assessments that are suitable for online courses, ii) strategies for ensuring academic integrity, and iii) methods, tools and technologies available for preventing academic misconduct in online assessments. It is evident from the literature review that there are a range of options available for designing assessment tasks to detect and prevent violations of academic integrity. However, no single method or design is enough to eliminate all sorts of academic integrity violations. After thorough research and analysis of existing literature, the authors have provided a comprehensive set of recommendations that could be adopted for ensuring academic integrity in online assessments.

Research community has been showing an immense interest for more than a decade in issues related to providing better than best effort service guarantees on the Internet. A number of options have been explored in this regard. Differentiated Services architecture is one of the proposed solutions that treat traffic flows based on their pre-assigned classes to eliminate scalability issue, otherwise a difficult and non trivial problem to solve. Bandwidth Broker is a logical resource management entity in Differentiated Services domain that performs a number of important functions at inter and intra-domain level to optimize resource utilization. Optimal resource management is not only complex but is tricky in this scenario, as the network's service providing ability is greatly affected by the optimality of domain management. Hence, Bandwidth Broker has been a focus of a lot of research efforts. This paper: a) provides a brief but concise discussion on different functions and modules of Bandwidth Broker, b) points out some advance features proposed for BB's performance enhancements and, c) reviews recent patents directly and indirectly related to Bandwidth Broker. © 2011 Bentham Science Publishers.

True integration of multimedia services over wired or wireless networks increase the productivity and effectiveness in today's networks. IP Multimedia Subsystems are Next Generation Network architecture to provide the multimedia services over fixed or mobile networks. This paper proposes an extended SIP-based QoS Management architecture for IMS services over underlying IP access networks. To guarantee the end-to-end QoS for IMS services in interconnection backbone, SIP based proxy Modules are introduced to support the QoS provisioning and to reduce the handoff disruption time over IP access networks. In our approach these SIP Modules implement the combination of Diffserv and MPLS QoS mechanisms to assure the guaranteed QoS for real-time multimedia services. To guarantee QoS over access networks, SIP Modules make QoS resource reservations in advance to provide best QoS to IMS users over heterogeneous networks. To obtain more reliable multimedia services, our approach allows the use of SCTP protocol over SIP instead of UDP due to its multi-streaming feature. This architecture enables QoS provisioning for IMS roaming users to differentiate IMS network from other common IP networks for transmission of realtime multimedia services. To validate our approach simulation models are developed on short scale basis. The results show that our approach yields comparable performance for efficient delivery of IMS services over heterogeneous IP access networks.

True integration of multimedia services over wired or wireless networks increase the productivity and effectiveness in today's networks. IP Multimedia Subsystems are Next Generation Network architecture to provide the multimedia services over fixed or mobile networks. This paper proposes an extended SIP-based QoS Management architecture for IMS services over underlying IP access networks. To guarantee the end-to-end QoS for IMS services in interconnection backbone, SIP based proxy Modules are introduced to support the QoS provisioning and to reduce the handoff disruption time over IP access networks. In our approach these SIP Modules implement the combination of Diffserv and MPLS QoS mechanisms to assure the guaranteed QoS for real-time multimedia services. To guarantee QoS over access networks, SIP Modules make QoS resource reservations in advance to provide best QoS to IMS users over heterogeneous networks. To obtain more reliable multimedia services, our approach allows the use of SCTP protocol over SIP instead of UDP due to its multi-streaming feature. This architecture enables QoS provisioning for IMS roaming users to differentiate IMS network from other common IP networks for transmission of real- time multimedia services. To validate our approach simulation models are developed on short scale basis. The results show that our approach yields comparable performance for efficient delivery of IMS services over heterogeneous IP access networks.

In this paper, we propose a novel approach for reducing the download time of large files over the Internet. Our approach, known as Parallelized File Transport Protocol (P-FTP), proposes simultaneous downloads of disjoint file portions from multiple file servers. P-FTP server selects file servers for the requesting client on the basis of a variety of QoS parameters, such as available bandwidth and server utilization. The sensitivity analysis of our file server selection technique shows that it performs significantly better than random selection. During the file transfer, P-FTP client monitors the file transfer flows to detect slow servers and congested links and adjusts the file distributions accordingly. P-FTP is evaluated with simulations and real-world implementation. The results show at least 50 percent reduction in download time when compared to the traditional file-transfer approach. Moreover, we have also carried out a simulation-based study to investigate the issues related to large scale deployment of our approach on the Internet. Our results demonstrate that a large number of P-FTP users has no adverse effect on the performance perceived by non-P-FTP users. In addition, the file servers and network are not significantly affected by large scale deployment of P-FTP. © 2006 IEEE.

Grid computing provides a global-scale distributed computing infrastructure for executing scientific and business applications. An important requirement is the need to make this infrastructure appear as a single logical coordinated resource¿which in reality consists of a variety of resources aggregated across different administrative domains. The aggregation of network resources is often undertaken over a ¿best effort¿ infrastructure as provided by the Internet¿however many applications, which necessitate soft-real time constraints, such as collaborative working or remote visualisation, require more stringent traffic guarantees. Managing Quality of Service (QoS) requirements across these aggregated resources therefore becomes an important concern. Such QoS criteria must extend to computational, data and network resources, and are often expressed in a Service Level Agreement, multiples of which may co-exist over the entire collection of resources. In this paper we focus on network QoS as part of our wider work on the Grid QoS Management (G-QoSm) framework. Provisioning of such QoS support is provided via the Differentiated Services architecture, and relies on the use of a Bandwidth Broker (BB) component. Performance results of using the BB alongside other elements in G-QoSm are presented.

We extend the service abstraction in the Open Grid Services Architecture [12] for Quality of Service (QoS) properties. The realization of QoS often requires mechanisms such as advance or on-demand reservation of resources, varying in type and implementation, and independently controlled and monitored. Foster et al. propose the GARA [10] architecture. The GARA library provides a restricted representation scheme for encoding resource properties and the associated monitoring of Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Our focus is on the application layer, whereby a given service may indicate the QoS properties it can offer, or where a service may search for other services based on particular QoS properties.

One of the important characteristics of smart cities is ease in accessibility of information for residents and visitors alike. Language barriers, impairments and presence of crowd should not influence the context-awareness of the visitors in such cities. The information provided via advertisement boards play an important part in this regard. In this paper, we propose Smart ads-RFID based system for real time retrieval and translation of public advertisements. Candidate signs and advertisements are RFID-enabled and the electronic contents of such advertisements/signs are acquired and stored in a cloud database server. The system offers both real time and off-line text/voice translation into user's preferred language and communicates the translated contents to user's smart phone. The system also provides real time GIS map visualization of the RFID enabled advertisements in the city. It collects statistics regarding the number of users subscribed in the system, their locations, preferred language and most frequently used languages to help decision makers to decide when and where to post such advertisements. We described our developed pilot project and we investigated its usability, validity and usefulness using Fuzzy Rule-based System. We believe that such system could provide promising services within the context of smart cities.

A general problem while coducting lab sessions is inability to correctly assess students' progress of the taught material. The main reason is that generally the lab layout does not provide access to view every student's computer screen. Application of science and technology in the field of education can solve this and numerous other issues. For this specific problem, class and lab monitoring systems provide easy control and monitoring facility to teachers for all students' activities on every computer in the lab. For this purpose a number of classroom management softwares are commercially available in the market these days. Research has shown that the use of such management applications can facilitate teachers and can improve students' learning. However, such applications are expensive and cannot be customized as source code is not available due to their commercial nature. We have designed an open source and free of cost educational application called Smart-Lab by using simple networking concepts. Smart-Lab provides effective means for carrying out interactive and efficient lab sessions and classroom exercises. The design and preliminary testing of this application is discussed in this paper. © 2011 IEEE.

Intelligent analysis and designing of network routing provides an edge in this increasingly fast era. In this work, we present a variation of Genetic Algorithm (GA) for finding the Optimized shortest path of the network. The algorithm finds the optimal path by using an objective function consisting of the bandwidth and delay metrics of the network. We also introduce the concept of "2-point over 1-point crossover". The population comprises of all chromosomes (feasible and infeasible). Moreover, it is of variable length, so that the algorithm can perform efficiently in all scenarios. Rank-based selection is used for cross-over operation. Mutation operation is used for maintaining the population diversity. We have also performed various experiments for the population selection. The experiments indicate that random selection method is the most optimum. Hence, the population is selected randomly once the generation is developed. The results prove our assertion that our proposed algorithm finds the optimal shortest path more efficiently than existing algorithms. In this work, we have shown the results using a smaller network; however the work for larger network is in progress. ©2010 IEEE.

Large range of tiny, embedded sensor devices capable of sensing, communicating and routing data are available now a days. Due to higher failure rate of sensor nodes or their mobility, the sink node might not exist in their transmission range. We proposed an approach which uses fuzzy logic to deal with diverse QoS requirements of sensor applications. In this paper, we have designed, an Intelligent Intermediate Robust Gateway module, which provides an efficient and consistent QoS based connectivity to sensor applications to outside world. This Gateway defines a decision structure needed by sensor network applications to switch over to any wireless network, in order to make communication with the remote sink fulfilling application QoS requirement. The result of our approach show that it is capable of selecting appropriate network for range of sensor network applications. © 2009 IEEE.

In this paper, we present a variation of Genetic Algorithm (GA) for finding the Optimized shortest path of the network. The algorithm finds the optimal path based on the bandwidth and utilization of the network. The main distinguishing element of this work is the use of "2-point over 1- point crossover". The population comprises of all chromosomes (feasible and infeasible). Moreover, it is of variable length, so that the algorithm can perform efficiently in all scenarios. Rankbased selection is used for cross-over operation. Therefore, the best chromosomes crossover and give the most suitable offsprings. If the resulting offsprings are least fitted, they are discarded. Mutation operation is used for maintaining the population diversity. We have also performed various experiments for the population selection. The experiments indicate that random selection method is the most optimum. Hence, the population is selected randomly once the generation is developed. In this paper, we have shown the results using a smaller network; however the work for larger network is in progress. © 2009 IEEE.

In the software development life cycle, maintenance is a key phase that determines long term and effective use of any software. Maintenance can become very lengthy and costly for large software systems when structure of the system is complicated. One of the factors complicating the structure of the software system is subsystem boundaries becoming ambiguous due to system evolution, lack of up to date documentation and high turn over rate of software professionals (leading to non availability of original designers of the software systems). Software module clustering helps software professionals to recover high-level structure of the system by decomposing the system into smaller manageable subsystems, containing interdependent modules. Automated approaches simplify the software clustering process, which otherwise is quite a tedious task for medium and large software systems. We treat software clustering as an optimization problem and propose an automated technique to get near optimal decompositions of relatively independent subsystems, containing interdependent modules. We propose the use of self adaptive Evolution Strategies to search a large solution space consisting of modules and their relationships. We compare our proposed approach with a widely used genetic algorithm based approach on a number of test systems. Our proposed approach shows considerable improvement in terms of quality and effectiveness of the solutions for all tests cases. © 2008 IEEE.

Effective life time of any software can be increased many folds by proper and up to date maintenance. Automated software module clustering is a method used by software professionals to recover high-level structure of the system by decomposing the system into smaller manageable subsystems, containing interdependent modules. Once the structure of the system is clear, the understanding of any system for proper maintenance can be achieved. We have proposed an automated clustering approach based on the principles of Evolution Strategies to search a large solution space consisting of modules and their relationships. Our approach tries to achieve near optimal decompositions consisting of independent subsystems, containing interdependent modules. We have compared our proposed approach with a widely used Genetic Algorithm based clustering technique and our approach worked better in all test cases. In this paper, we are highlighting one distinguishing feature of our approach: the consistency in results. For any optimization algorithm, exactly similar results in different executions of the algorithm on same data cannot be achieved. However, the results should remain in close proximity and should not change drastically. We have carried out a comparative study of our approach and the Genetic Algorithm based approach using a set of test systems. The results with our approach are always consistent than those produced by the Genetic Algorithm based approach.

This paper advocates the use of machine learning for complex network management tasks. Specifically, this paper describes a novel idea of using fuzzy logic for effective network management, as the use of imprecise and linguistic information for intelligent decision making, can reduce the overhead of extensive network measurements for management purpose. It also describes the distinguishing features of network management that makes fuzzy logic suitable to be used in this field. Among a huge number of possible applications of this idea in broad area of network management, this paper briefly discusses few options that we are planning to explore further. In addition, it discusses one such option in detail. ©2008 IEEE.

Effective life time of any software can be increased many folds by proper and up to date maintenance. Automated software module clustering is a method used by software professionals to recover high-level structure of the system by decomposing the system into smaller manageable subsystems, containing interdependent modules. Once the structure of the system is clear, the understanding of any system for proper maintenance can be achieved. We have proposed an automated clustering approach based on the principles of Evolution Strategies to search a large solution space consisting of modules and their relationships. Our approach tries to achieve near optimal decompositions consisting of independent subsystems, containing interdependent modules. We have compared our proposed approach with a widely used Genetic Algorithm based clustering technique and our approach worked better in all test cases. In this paper, we are highlighting one distinguishing feature of our approach: the consistency in results. For any optimization algorithm, exactly similar results in different executions of the algorithm on same data cannot be achieved. However, the results should remain in close proximity and should not change drastically. We have carried out a comparative study of our approach and the Genetic Algorithm based approach using a set of test systems. The results with our approach are always consistent than those produced by the Genetic Algorithm based approach. © 2008 IEEE.

This paper proposes a novel idea of using fuzzy logic for architectural and resource management aspects of the bandwidth broker. The scalability problem of bandwidth broker, being a centralised resource manager in a domain, can be solved by employing a distributed architecture. The decisions regarding the distributed architecture, namely, number and location of distributed entities can be best solved using computational intelligence. This paper focuses on the fuzzy logic based approach for resolving architectural issues of Bandwidth Broker. In addition, we also propose two phase resource allocation algorithm for bandwidth broker. In first phase, when large amount of resources are available, fuzzy logic is used for decision making to reduce processing overhead. In case of low resource availability, the resource allocation algorithm transitions to second phase, where crisp values are used for decision purpose.his paper proposes a novel idea of using fuzzy logic for architectural and resource management aspects of the bandwidth broker. The scalability problem of bandwidth broker, being a centralised resource manager in a domain, can be solved by employing a distributed architecture. The decisions regarding the distributed architecture, namely, number and location of distributed entities can be best solved using computational intelligence. This paper focuses on the fuzzy logic based approach for resolving architectural issues of Bandwidth Broker. In addition, we also propose two phase resource allocation algorithm for bandwidth broker. In first phase, when large amount of resources are available, fuzzy logic is used for decision making to reduce processing overhead. In case of low resource availability, the resource allocation algorithm transitions to second phase, where crisp values are used for decision purpose.T ©2008 IEEE.

On board IP networks are an effective mean to provide uninterrupted Internet access to public transport passengers. Such networks require optimal resource allocation due to the scarcity and high cost of network resources. The parallelized file transfer protocol (P-FTP) is a novel network resource aware parallel technique for improving file transfer performance for the clients connected with wired networks. An extension of P-FTP approach, Mobile P-FTP is an efficient file transfer technique for the users of on-board networks. The simulation study shows that by virtue of its self-tuning capability, such technique exhibit improved performance for on-board IP network users as compared to a tradition file transfer approach. ©2005 IEEE.

The parallelized file transfer protocol (P-FTP) is a novel network resource aware parallel technique for improving file transfer performance on the Internet. Before starting the parallel file transfer sessions, it considers the available resources in the network (available band-width) and at the file servers (memory and CPU utilization). The client dynamically changes the file portions being downloaded from different file servers by monitoring the FTP flows and detecting slow servers and congested links. Early experimentation on Planet-Lab [1] for a single P-FTP client suggests that the download time can be reduced by more than 50% for large files. In this paper, our goal is to evaluate whether P-FTP can be widely adopted within the Internet. To this end, we have carried out a simulation-based study to investigate the performance of P-FTP when it is adopted by a large user base. We find that, by virtue of its self-tuning capability, P-FTP continues to exhibit improved performance even with many simultaneous clients. Our results also demonstrate that introducing a large number of P-FTP users has no adverse effect on the performance perceived by users of the traditional single server file transfer. We attribute this improvement to the fact that P-FTP dynamically adapts the parallel sessions in response to changes in network state and server resources. This illustrates that P-FTP is highly scalable and is hence suitable for widespread deployment in the Internet. © 2005 IEEE.

Parallelized FTP (P-FTP) approach, attempts to solve the problem of slow downloads of large multimedia files while optimizing the utilization of mirror servers. The approach presented in this paper downloads a single file from multiple mirror servers simultaneously, where each mirror server transfers a portion of the file. P-FTP server calculates the optimum division of the file for efficient transfer. The dynamic monitoring ability of P-FTP maintains the file transfer process at the optimized level no matter how abruptly network and mirror server characteristics change.