Publications

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[ Inproceedings ]
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Article[ to top ]

Thinking in Categories: A Survey on Assessing the Quality for Time Series Synthesis. Stenger, Michael; Bauer, André; Prantl, Thomas; Leppich, Robert; Hudson, Nathaniel; Chard, Kyle; Foster, Ian; Kounev, Samuel; in J. Data and Information Quality (2024). 16(2)
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Time series data are widely used and provide a wealth of information for countless applications. However, some applications are faced with a limited amount of data, or the data cannot be used due to confidentiality concerns. To overcome these obstacles, time series can be generated synthetically. For example, electrocardiograms can be synthesized to make them available for building models to predict conditions such as cardiac arrhythmia without leaking patient information. Although many different approaches to time series synthesis have been proposed, evaluating the quality of synthetic time series data poses unique challenges and remains an open problem, as there is a lack of a clear definition of what constitutes a “good” synthesis. To this end, we present a comprehensive literature survey to identify different aspects of synthesis quality and their relationships. Based on this, we propose a definition of synthesis quality and a systematic evaluation procedure for assessing it. With this work, we aim to provide a common language and criteria for evaluating synthetic time series data. Our goal is to promote more rigorous and reproducible research in time series synthesis by enabling researchers and practitioners to generate high-quality synthetic time series data.

@article{10.1145/3666006, abstract = {Time series data are widely used and provide a wealth of information for countless applications. However, some applications are faced with a limited amount of data, or the data cannot be used due to confidentiality concerns. To overcome these obstacles, time series can be generated synthetically. For example, electrocardiograms can be synthesized to make them available for building models to predict conditions such as cardiac arrhythmia without leaking patient information. Although many different approaches to time series synthesis have been proposed, evaluating the quality of synthetic time series data poses unique challenges and remains an open problem, as there is a lack of a clear definition of what constitutes a “good” synthesis. To this end, we present a comprehensive literature survey to identify different aspects of synthesis quality and their relationships. Based on this, we propose a definition of synthesis quality and a systematic evaluation procedure for assessing it. With this work, we aim to provide a common language and criteria for evaluating synthetic time series data. Our goal is to promote more rigorous and reproducible research in time series synthesis by enabling researchers and practitioners to generate high-quality synthetic time series data.}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, author = {Stenger, Michael and Bauer, Andr\'{e} and Prantl, Thomas and Leppich, Robert and Hudson, Nathaniel and Chard, Kyle and Foster, Ian and Kounev, Samuel}, journal = {J. Data and Information Quality}, keywords = {t_journalmagazine}, month = {06}, number = 2, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {Thinking in Categories: A Survey on Assessing the Quality for Time Series Synthesis}, volume = 16, year = 2024 }
Benchmarking of Secure Group Communication schemes with Focus on IoT. Prantl, Thomas; Bauer, André; Engel, Simon; Horn, Lukas; Krupitzer, Christian; Iffl"ander, Lukas; Kounev, Samuel; in Discover Data (2024). 2(1)
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@article{PrBaEnHoKrIfKo_Discover_Data_2024, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Bauer, André and Engel, Simon and Horn, Lukas and Krupitzer, Christian and Iffl"{a}nder, Lukas and Kounev, Samuel}, journal = {Discover Data}, keywords = {t_journalmagazine}, month = {05}, number = 1, publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC}, title = {Benchmarking of Secure Group Communication schemes with Focus on IoT}, volume = 2, year = 2024 }
De Bello Homomorphico: Investigation of the extensibility of the OpenFHE library with basic mathematical functions by means of common approaches using the example of the CKKS cryptosystem. Prantl, Thomas; Horn, Lukas; Engel, Simon; Iffländer, Lukas; Beierlieb, Lukas; Krupitzer, Christian; Bauer, André; Sakarvadia, Mansi; Foster, Ian; Kounev, Samuel; in International Journal of Information Security (2023).
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@article{PrHoEnIfBeKrBaSaFoKo_IJoIS_SGC_Pareto, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Horn, Lukas and Engel, Simon and Iffl\"ander, Lukas and Beierlieb, Lukas and Krupitzer, Christian and Bauer, Andr\'e and Sakarvadia, Mansi and Foster, Ian and Kounev, Samuel}, journal = {International Journal of Information Security}, keywords = {t_journalmagazine}, month = 11, title = {De Bello Homomorphico: Investigation of the extensibility of the OpenFHE library with basic mathematical functions by means of common approaches using the example of the CKKS cryptosystem}, year = 2023 }
Recommendation of Secure Group Communication Schemes using Multi Objective Optimization. Prantl, Thomas; Bauer, André; Iffländer, Lukas; Krupitzer, Christian; Kounev, Samuel; in International Journal of Information Security (2023).
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@article{PrBaIfKrKo_IJoIS_SGC_Pareto, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Bauer, André and Iffländer, Lukas and Krupitzer, Christian and Kounev, Samuel}, journal = {International Journal of Information Security}, keywords = {t_journalmagazine}, title = {Recommendation of Secure Group Communication Schemes using Multi Objective Optimization}, year = 2023 }
Towards a Cryptography Encyclopedia: A Survey on Attribute-Based Encryption. Prantl, Thomas; Zeck, Timo; Horn, Lukas; Iffländer, Lukas; Bauer, André; Dmitrienko, Alexandra; Krupitzer, Christian; Kounev, Samuel; in Journal of Surveillance, Security and Safety (2023).
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@article{PrZeHoIfBaDmKrKo_ABESurvey, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Zeck, Timo and Horn, Lukas and Iffl\"ander, Lukas and Bauer, Andr\'e and Dmitrienko, Alexandra and Krupitzer, Christian and Kounev, Samuel}, journal = {Journal of Surveillance, Security and Safety}, keywords = {t_journalmagazine}, title = {Towards a Cryptography Encyclopedia: A Survey on Attribute-Based Encryption}, year = 2023 }
A Survey on Secure Group Communication Schemes with Focus on IoT Communication. Prantl, Thomas; Zeck, Timo; Bauer, André; Ten, Peter; Prantl, Dominik; Ben Yahya, Ala Eddine; Iffländer, Lukas; Dmitrienko, Alexandra; Krupitzer, Christian; Kounev, Samuel; in IEEE Access (2022).
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@article{PrZeBaTePrYaIfDmKrKo_IEEEAccess_SGCSurvey, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Zeck, Timo and Bauer, André and Ten, Peter and Prantl, Dominik and Ben Yahya, Ala Eddine and Iffländer, Lukas and Dmitrienko, Alexandra and Krupitzer, Christian and Kounev, Samuel}, journal = {IEEE Access}, keywords = {t_journalmagazine}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {A Survey on Secure Group Communication Schemes with Focus on IoT Communication}, year = 2022 }
An Overview of Design Patterns for Self-Adaptive Systems in the Context of the Internet of Things. Krupitzer, Christian; Temizer, Timur; Prantl, Thomas; Raibulet, Claudia; in IEEE Access (2020).
- [ Abstract ]
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The Internet of Things (IoT) requires the integration of all available, highly specialized, and heterogeneous devices, ranging from embedded sensor nodes to servers in the cloud. The self-adaptive research domain provides adaptive capabilities that can support the integration in IoT systems. However, developing such systems is a challenging, error-prone, and time-consuming task. In this context, design patterns propose already used and optimized solutions to speciﬁc problems in various contexts. Applying design patterns might help to reuse existing knowledge about similar development issues. However, so far, there is a lack of taxonomies on design patterns for self-adaptive systems. To tackle this issue, in this paper, we provide a taxonomy on design patterns for self-adaptive systems that can be transferred to support adaptivity in IoT systems. Besides describing the taxonomy and the design patterns, we discuss their applicability in an Industrial IoT case study.

@article{ieeeaccess2020:sasdesignpatterns, abstract = {The Internet of Things (IoT) requires the integration of all available, highly specialized, and heterogeneous devices, ranging from embedded sensor nodes to servers in the cloud. The self-adaptive research domain provides adaptive capabilities that can support the integration in IoT systems. However, developing such systems is a challenging, error-prone, and time-consuming task. In this context, design patterns propose already used and optimized solutions to speciﬁc problems in various contexts. Applying design patterns might help to reuse existing knowledge about similar development issues. However, so far, there is a lack of taxonomies on design patterns for self-adaptive systems. To tackle this issue, in this paper, we provide a taxonomy on design patterns for self-adaptive systems that can be transferred to support adaptivity in IoT systems. Besides describing the taxonomy and the design patterns, we discuss their applicability in an Industrial IoT case study.}, author = {Krupitzer, Christian and Temizer, Timur and Prantl, Thomas and Raibulet, Claudia}, journal = {IEEE Access}, keywords = {self-adaptive-systems}, title = {An Overview of Design Patterns for Self-Adaptive Systems in the Context of the Internet of Things}, year = 2020 }

Inproceedings[ to top ]

Security Analysis of a Decentralized, Revocable and Verifiable Attribute-Based Encryption Scheme. Prantl, Thomas; Lauer, Marco; Horn, Lukas; Engel, Simon; Dingel, David; Kounev, Samuel; Bauer, André; Krupitzer, Christian; in Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (2024).
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@inproceedings{ARES_2024_ABE, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Lauer, Marco and Horn, Lukas and Engel, Simon and Dingel, David and Kounev, Samuel and Bauer, André and Krupitzer, Christian}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security}, keywords = {descartes}, publisher = {ACM}, series = {ARES 2024}, title = {Security Analysis of a Decentralized, Revocable and Verifiable Attribute-Based Encryption Scheme}, year = 2024 }
Performance Impact Analysis of Homomorphic Encryption: A Case Study Using Linear Regression as an Example. Prantl, Thomas; Engel, Simon; Horn, Lukas; Kaiser, Dennis; Iffländer, Lukas; Bauer, André; Krupitzer, Christian; Kounev, Samuel; in Information Security Practice and Experience, W. Meng, Z. Yan, V. Piuri (Hrsg.) (2023). 284–298.
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In recent years, the trend has increasingly been to store and process data in the cloud. However, this is based on the premise that cloud providers treat the data in a trustworthy manner. One way of using the data in the cloud without the provider having access to it is homomorphic encryption. However, since this encryption has only recently become practicable, analysis of its for practical applications is still in its infancy. Therefore, we investigate the performance of homomorphic encryption using a real-world application, namely linear regression. Our main finding is that although the homomorphic computation of linear regression is in the range of minutes and thus slower than in the non-homomorphic case, linear regression can be computed homomorphic and is therefore suitable for use cases where data security is the top priority.

@inproceedings{PrEnHoDeIfBaKrKo_ISPEC_De_Bello, abstract = {In recent years, the trend has increasingly been to store and process data in the cloud. However, this is based on the premise that cloud providers treat the data in a trustworthy manner. One way of using the data in the cloud without the provider having access to it is homomorphic encryption. However, since this encryption has only recently become practicable, analysis of its for practical applications is still in its infancy. Therefore, we investigate the performance of homomorphic encryption using a real-world application, namely linear regression. Our main finding is that although the homomorphic computation of linear regression is in the range of minutes and thus slower than in the non-homomorphic case, linear regression can be computed homomorphic and is therefore suitable for use cases where data security is the top priority.}, address = {Singapore}, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Engel, Simon and Horn, Lukas and Kaiser, Dennis and Iffl\"ander, Lukas and Bauer, Andr\'e and Krupitzer, Christian and Kounev, Samuel}, booktitle = {Information Security Practice and Experience}, editor = {Meng, Weizhi and Yan, Zheng and Piuri, Vincenzo}, keywords = {descartes}, pages = {284–298}, publisher = {Springer Nature Singapore}, title = {Performance Impact Analysis of Homomorphic Encryption: A Case Study Using Linear Regression as an Example}, year = 2023 }
Towards a Cryptography Benchmark: A View on Attribute Based Encryption Schemes. Prantl, Thomas; Zeck, Timo; Iffländer, Lukas; Beierlieb, Lukas; Dmitrenko, Alexandra; Krupitzer, Christian; Kounev, Samuel; in 2022 5th Conference on Cloud and Internet of Things (CIoT) (2022).
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@inproceedings{PrZeIfBeDmKrKo2022-CIoT-ABEBenchmark, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Zeck, Timo and Iffländer, Lukas and Beierlieb, Lukas and Dmitrenko, Alexandra and Krupitzer, Christian and Kounev, Samuel}, booktitle = {2022 5th Conference on Cloud and Internet of Things (CIoT)}, keywords = {descartes}, organization = {IEEE}, title = {Towards a Cryptography Benchmark: A View on Attribute Based Encryption Schemes}, year = 2022 }
An Experience Report on the Suitability of a Distributed Group Encryption Scheme for an IoT Use Case. Prantl, Thomas; Engel, Simon; Bauer, Andre; Ben Yahya, Ala Eddine; Herrnleben, Stefan; Iffländer, Lukas; Dmitrienko, Alexandra; Kounev, Samuel; in 2022 IEEE 95th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2022) (2022).
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@inproceedings{PrEnBaAlHeIfDmKo2022-IoT/CPS-DistributedGroupEncryption, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Engel, Simon and Bauer, Andre and Ben Yahya, Ala Eddine and Herrnleben, Stefan and Iffländer, Lukas and Dmitrienko, Alexandra and Kounev, Samuel}, booktitle = {2022 IEEE 95th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2022)}, keywords = {t_workshop}, organization = {IEEE}, title = {An Experience Report on the Suitability of a Distributed Group Encryption Scheme for an IoT Use Case}, year = 2022 }
Investigating the Predictability of QoS Metrics in Cellular Networks. Herrnleben, Stefan; Grohmann, Johannes; Lesch, Veronika; Prantl, Thomas; Metzger, Florian; Hoßfeld, Tobias; Kounev, Samuel; in 2022 IEEE/ACM 30th International Symposium on Quality of Service (IWQoS) (2022). 1–10.
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@inproceedings{HeGrLePrMeHoKo-2022-IWQoS-QoS-Prediction-Cellular-Networks, author = {Herrnleben, Stefan and Grohmann, Johannes and Lesch, Veronika and Prantl, Thomas and Metzger, Florian and Hoßfeld, Tobias and Kounev, Samuel}, booktitle = {2022 IEEE/ACM 30th International Symposium on Quality of Service (IWQoS)}, keywords = {descartes}, pages = {1-10}, title = {{Investigating the Predictability of QoS Metrics in Cellular Networks}}, year = 2022 }
Measuring the Performance Impact of Branching Instructions. Beierlieb, Lukas; Iffländer, Lukas; Milenkoski, Aleksandar; Prantl, Thomas; Kounev, Samuel; in Proceedings of the 12th Symposium on Software Performance 2021 (SSP’21) (2021).
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@inproceedings{Beierlieb_2021_MeasuringthePerformanceImpactofBranchingInstructions., author = {Beierlieb, Lukas and Iffländer, Lukas and Milenkoski, Aleksandar and Prantl, Thomas and Kounev, Samuel}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 12th Symposium on Software Performance 2021 (SSP'21)}, keywords = {sys:relevantfor:se-group}, month = 11, title = {Measuring the Performance Impact of Branching Instructions}, year = 2021 }
Performance Impact Analysis of Securing MQTT Using TLS. Prantl, Thomas; Iffländer, Lukas; Herrnleben, Stefan; Engel, Simon; Kounev, Samuel; Krupitzer, Christian; in 2021 ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE) (2021).
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@inproceedings{PrTeIfHeDmKo2021-ICPE-MQTT_TLS, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Iffländer, Lukas and Herrnleben, Stefan and Engel, Simon and Kounev, Samuel and Krupitzer, Christian}, booktitle = {2021 ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE)}, keywords = {IoT}, month = {04}, series = {ICPE'21}, title = {Performance Impact Analysis of Securing MQTT Using TLS}, year = 2021 }
Towards a Group Encryption Scheme Benchmark: A View on Centralized Schemes with focus on IoT. Prantl, Thomas; Ten, Peter; Iffländer, Lukas; Herrnleben, Stefan; Dmitrenko, Alexandra; Kounev, Samuel; Krupitzer, Christian; in 2021 ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE) (2021).
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@inproceedings{PrTeIfHeDmKo2021-ICPE-GroupEncryptionCentralizedBenchmark, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Ten, Peter and Iffländer, Lukas and Herrnleben, Stefan and Dmitrenko, Alexandra and Kounev, Samuel and Krupitzer, Christian}, booktitle = {2021 ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE)}, keywords = {Group\_Encyrption\_Scheme}, month = {04}, series = {ICPE'21}, title = {Towards a Group Encryption Scheme Benchmark: A View on Centralized Schemes with focus on IoT}, year = 2021 }
Benchmarking of Pre- and Post-Quantum Group Encryption Schemes with Focus on IoT. Prantl, Thomas; Prantl, Dominik; Bauer, André; Iffländer, Lukas; Dmitrenko, Alexandra; Krupitzer, Christian; Kounev, Samuel; in 2021 IEEE 40th International Performance Computing and Communications Conference (IPCCC) (2021).
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@inproceedings{PrPrBaIfDmKrKo2021-IPCCC-QuantumGroupEncryption, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Prantl, Dominik and Bauer, André and Iffländer, Lukas and Dmitrenko, Alexandra and Krupitzer, Christian and Kounev, Samuel}, booktitle = {2021 IEEE 40th International Performance Computing and Communications Conference (IPCCC)}, keywords = {sss-group}, title = {Benchmarking of Pre- and Post-Quantum Group Encryption Schemes with Focus on IoT}, year = 2021 }
Teaching Software Testing Using Automated Grading. Beierlieb, Lukas; Iffländer, Lukas; Schneider, Tobias; Prantl, Thomas; Kounev, Samuel; in Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop "Automatische Bewertung von Programmieraufgaben" (ABP 2021),virtual event, October 28-29, 2021, A. Greubel, S. Strickroth, M. Striewe (Hrsg.) (2021).
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@inproceedings{Beierlieb_2021_TeachingSoftwareTestingUsingAutomatedGrading, author = {Beierlieb, Lukas and Iffländer, Lukas and Schneider, Tobias and Prantl, Thomas and Kounev, Samuel}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop "Automatische Bewertung von Programmieraufgaben" (ABP 2021),virtual event, October 28-29, 2021}, editor = {Greubel, André and Strickroth, Sven and Striewe, Michael}, keywords = {sys:relevantfor:se-group}, publisher = {Gesellschaft für Informatik}, title = {Teaching Software Testing Using Automated Grading}, year = 2021 }
Performance Evaluation of a Post-Quantum Public-Key Cryptosystem. Prantl, Thomas; Prantl, Dominik; Beierlieb, Lukas; Iffländer, Lukas; Dmitrienko, Alexandra; Krupitzer, Christian; Kounev, Samuel; in 2021 IEEE 40th International Performance Computing and Communications Conference (IPCCC) (2021).
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@inproceedings{PrPrBeIfDnKrKo2021-IPCCC-QuantumPublicKeyCryposystem, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Prantl, Dominik and Beierlieb, Lukas and Iffländer, Lukas and Dmitrienko, Alexandra and Krupitzer, Christian and Kounev, Samuel}, booktitle = {2021 IEEE 40th International Performance Computing and Communications Conference (IPCCC)}, keywords = {t_workshop}, organization = {IEEE}, title = {Performance Evaluation of a Post-Quantum Public-Key Cryptosystem}, year = 2021 }
ComBench: A Benchmarking Framework for Publish/Subscribe Communication Protocols Under Network Limitations. Herrnleben, Stefan; Leidinger, Maximilian; Lesch, Veronika; Prantl, Thomas; Grohmann, Johannes; Krupitzer, Christian; Kounev, Samuel; in Performance Evaluation Methodologies and Tools, Q. Zhao, L. Xia (Hrsg.) (2021). 72–92.
- [ Abstract ]
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Efficient and dependable communication is a highly relevant aspect for Internet of Things (IoT) systems in which tiny sensors, actuators, wearables, or other smart devices exchange messages. Various publish/subscribe protocols address the challenges of communication in IoT systems. The selection process of a suitable protocol should consider the communication behavior of the application, the protocol's performance, the resource requirements on the end device, and the network connection quality, as IoT environments often rely on wireless networks. Benchmarking is a common approach to evaluate and compare systems, considering the performance and aspects like dependability or security. In this paper, we present our IoT communication benchmarking framework ComBench for publish/subscribe protocols focusing on constrained networks with varying quality conditions. The benchmarking framework supports system designers, software engineers, and application developers to select and investigate the behavior of communication protocols. Our benchmarking framework contributes to (i) show the impact of fluctuating network quality on communication, (ii) compare multiple protocols, protocol features, and protocol implementations, and (iii) analyze scalability, robustness, and dependability of clients, networks, and brokers in different scenarios. Our case study demonstrates the applicability of our framework to support the decision for the best-suited protocol in various scenarios.

@inproceedings{10.1007/978-3-030-92511-6_5, abstract = {Efficient and dependable communication is a highly relevant aspect for Internet of Things (IoT) systems in which tiny sensors, actuators, wearables, or other smart devices exchange messages. Various publish/subscribe protocols address the challenges of communication in IoT systems. The selection process of a suitable protocol should consider the communication behavior of the application, the protocol's performance, the resource requirements on the end device, and the network connection quality, as IoT environments often rely on wireless networks. Benchmarking is a common approach to evaluate and compare systems, considering the performance and aspects like dependability or security. In this paper, we present our IoT communication benchmarking framework ComBench for publish/subscribe protocols focusing on constrained networks with varying quality conditions. The benchmarking framework supports system designers, software engineers, and application developers to select and investigate the behavior of communication protocols. Our benchmarking framework contributes to (i) show the impact of fluctuating network quality on communication, (ii) compare multiple protocols, protocol features, and protocol implementations, and (iii) analyze scalability, robustness, and dependability of clients, networks, and brokers in different scenarios. Our case study demonstrates the applicability of our framework to support the decision for the best-suited protocol in various scenarios.}, address = {Cham}, author = {Herrnleben, Stefan and Leidinger, Maximilian and Lesch, Veronika and Prantl, Thomas and Grohmann, Johannes and Krupitzer, Christian and Kounev, Samuel}, booktitle = {Performance Evaluation Methodologies and Tools}, editor = {Zhao, Qianchuan and Xia, Li}, keywords = {networking}, pages = {72–92}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, title = {ComBench: A Benchmarking Framework for Publish/Subscribe Communication Protocols Under Network Limitations}, year = 2021 }
Evaluating the Performance of a State-of-the-Art Group-oriented Encryption Scheme for Dynamic Groups in an IoT Scenario. Prantl, Thomas; Ten, Peter; Iffländer, Lukas; Dmitrenko, Alexandra; Kounev, Samuel; Krupitzer, Christian; in 2020 IEEE 28th International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems (MASCOTS) (2020).

Acceptance Rate: 27%
- [ Abstract ]
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New emerging technologies, such as autonomous driving, intelligent buildings, and smart cities, are promising to revolutionize user experience and offer new services. The world has to undergo large scale deployment of billions of things — cost-efficient intelligent sensors that will be interconnected into extensive networks and will collect and supply data to intelligent algorithms — to make it happen. To date, however, it is challenging to secure such an infrastructure for many-fold reasons, such as resource constraints of things, large scale deployment, manyto-many communication patterns, and dynamically changing communication groups. All these factors rule out most of the state-of-the-art encryption and key-management techniques. Group encryption algorithms are well-suitable for many-tomany communication patterns typical for IoT networks, and many of them can deal with dynamic groups. There are, however, very few constructions that could potentially fulfill the computational and storage constraints of IoT devices while providing sufficient scalability for large networks. The promising candidates, such as construction by Nishat et al. [1], were not evaluated using IoT platforms and under constraints typical for IoT networks. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap and present the evaluation of a state-of-the-art group-oriented encryption scheme by Nishat et al. to identify its applicability to IoT systems. In detail, we provide a measurement workflow, a revised version of the approach, and describe a reproducible hardware testbed. Using this evaluation environment, we analyze the performance of the encryption scheme in a typical IoT scenario from a group member perspective. The results show that all calculation times can be assumed to be constant and are always below 2 seconds. The memory requirement for permanent parameters can also be considered to be constant and are below 8.5 kbit in each case. However, the information that has to be stored temporarily for group updates has turned out to be the bottleneck of the scheme, since their memory requirements increase linearly with the group size.

@inproceedings{PrTeIfDmKo2020-MASCOTS-GroupEncryption, abstract = {New emerging technologies, such as autonomous driving, intelligent buildings, and smart cities, are promising to revolutionize user experience and offer new services. The world has to undergo large scale deployment of billions of things — cost-efficient intelligent sensors that will be interconnected into extensive networks and will collect and supply data to intelligent algorithms — to make it happen. To date, however, it is challenging to secure such an infrastructure for many-fold reasons, such as resource constraints of things, large scale deployment, manyto-many communication patterns, and dynamically changing communication groups. All these factors rule out most of the state-of-the-art encryption and key-management techniques. Group encryption algorithms are well-suitable for many-tomany communication patterns typical for IoT networks, and many of them can deal with dynamic groups. There are, however, very few constructions that could potentially fulfill the computational and storage constraints of IoT devices while providing sufficient scalability for large networks. The promising candidates, such as construction by Nishat et al. [1], were not evaluated using IoT platforms and under constraints typical for IoT networks. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap and present the evaluation of a state-of-the-art group-oriented encryption scheme by Nishat et al. to identify its applicability to IoT systems. In detail, we provide a measurement workflow, a revised version of the approach, and describe a reproducible hardware testbed. Using this evaluation environment, we analyze the performance of the encryption scheme in a typical IoT scenario from a group member perspective. The results show that all calculation times can be assumed to be constant and are always below 2 seconds. The memory requirement for permanent parameters can also be considered to be constant and are below 8.5 kbit in each case. However, the information that has to be stored temporarily for group updates has turned out to be the bottleneck of the scheme, since their memory requirements increase linearly with the group size.}, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Ten, Peter and Iffländer, Lukas and Dmitrenko, Alexandra and Kounev, Samuel and Krupitzer, Christian}, booktitle = {2020 IEEE 28th International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems (MASCOTS)}, keywords = {Performance_Evaluation}, month = 11, note = {Acceptance Rate: 27\%}, series = {MASCOTS '20}, title = {Evaluating the Performance of a State-of-the-Art Group-oriented Encryption Scheme for Dynamic Groups in an IoT Scenario}, year = 2020 }
An IoT Network Emulator for Analyzing the Influence of Varying Network Quality. Herrnleben, Stefan; Ailabouni, Rudy; Grohmann, Johannes; Prantl, Thomas; Krupitzer, Christian; Kounev, Samuel; in Proceedings of the 12th EAI International Conference on Simulation Tools and Techniques (SIMUtools) (2020).
- [ Abstract ]
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IoT devices often communicate over wireless or cellular networks with varying connection quality. These fluctuations are caused, among others, by the free-space path loss (FSPL), buildings, topological obstacles, weather, and mobility of the receiver. Varying signal quality affects bandwidth, transmission delays, packet loss, and jitter. Mobile IoT applications exposed to varying connection characteristics have to handle such variations and take them into account during development and testing. However, tests in real mobile networks are complex and challenging to reproduce. Therefore, network emulators can be used to simulate the behavior of real-world networks by adding artificial disturbance. However, existing network emulators often require a lot of technical knowledge and complex setup. Integrating such emulators into automated software testing pipelines could be a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a framework for emulating IoT networks with varying quality characteristics. An existing base emulator is used and integrated into our framework enabling the user to utilize it without extensive network expertise and configuration effort. The evaluation proves that our framework can simulate a variety of different network quality characteristics as well as emulating real-world network traces.

@inproceedings{HeAiGrPrKrKo2020-SIMUtools-IoT-Network-Emulator, abstract = {IoT devices often communicate over wireless or cellular networks with varying connection quality. These fluctuations are caused, among others, by the free-space path loss (FSPL), buildings, topological obstacles, weather, and mobility of the receiver. Varying signal quality affects bandwidth, transmission delays, packet loss, and jitter. Mobile IoT applications exposed to varying connection characteristics have to handle such variations and take them into account during development and testing. However, tests in real mobile networks are complex and challenging to reproduce. Therefore, network emulators can be used to simulate the behavior of real-world networks by adding artificial disturbance. However, existing network emulators often require a lot of technical knowledge and complex setup. Integrating such emulators into automated software testing pipelines could be a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a framework for emulating IoT networks with varying quality characteristics. An existing base emulator is used and integrated into our framework enabling the user to utilize it without extensive network expertise and configuration effort. The evaluation proves that our framework can simulate a variety of different network quality characteristics as well as emulating real-world network traces.}, author = {Herrnleben, Stefan and Ailabouni, Rudy and Grohmann, Johannes and Prantl, Thomas and Krupitzer, Christian and Kounev, Samuel}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 12th EAI International Conference on Simulation Tools and Techniques (SIMUtools)}, keywords = {networking}, month = {08}, series = {SIMUtools 2020}, title = {An IoT Network Emulator for Analyzing the Influence of Varying Network Quality}, year = 2020 }
SIMPL: Secure IoT Management Platform. Prantl, Thomas; Ben Yahya, Ala Eddine; Dmitrienko, Alexandra; Kounev, Samuel; Lipp, Fabian; Hock, David; Rathfelder, Christoph; Hofherr, Martin; in ITG Workshop on IT Security (ITSec) (2020).
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The proliferation of IoT devices is increasing at a fast pace, whether for private or business use. However,despite their growing popularity, their safe operation is often not guaranteed. To tackle the security challenges of modern IoT environments, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the SIMPL project in order to support research in this area. The contribution of this paper is to introduce the main goal, objectives, and key features of SIMPL

@inproceedings{PrYaDmKoLiHoRaHo2020-ITSec-SIMPL, abstract = {The proliferation of IoT devices is increasing at a fast pace, whether for private or business use. However,despite their growing popularity, their safe operation is often not guaranteed. To tackle the security challenges of modern IoT environments, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the SIMPL project in order to support research in this area. The contribution of this paper is to introduce the main goal, objectives, and key features of SIMPL}, author = {Prantl, Thomas and Ben Yahya, Ala Eddine and Dmitrienko, Alexandra and Kounev, Samuel and Lipp, Fabian and Hock, David and Rathfelder, Christoph and Hofherr, Martin}, booktitle = {ITG Workshop on IT Security (ITSec)}, keywords = {t_workshop}, title = {SIMPL: Secure IoT Management Platform}, year = 2020 }
Discrete-Time Analysis of the Blockchain Distributed Ledger Technology. Geissler, Stefan; Prantl, Thomas; Lange, Stanislav; Wamser, Florian; Hossfeld, Tobias; in Proceedings of the 31st International Teletraffic Congress (ITC) (2019).
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@inproceedings{GePrLaWaHo2019-ITC-Blockchain, author = {Geissler, Stefan and Prantl, Thomas and Lange, Stanislav and Wamser, Florian and Hossfeld, Tobias}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 31st International Teletraffic Congress (ITC)}, keywords = {descartes}, month = {08}, title = {Discrete-Time Analysis of the Blockchain Distributed Ledger Technology}, year = 2019 }

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SCRAPS: Scalable Collective Remote Attestation for Pub-Sub IoT Networks with Untrusted Proxy Verifier Petzi, Lukas; Ben Yahya, Ala Eddine; Dmitrienko, Alexandra; Tsudik, Gene; Prantl, Thomas; Kounev, Samuel; (2022). (Bd. USENIX Security ’22)

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- [ Abstract ]
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Remote Attestation (RA) is a basic security mechanism that detects malicious presence on various types of computing components, e.g., IoT devices. In a typical IoT setting, RA involves a trusted Verifier that sends a challenge to an untrusted remote Prover, which must in turn reply with a fresh and authentic evidence of being in a trustworthy state. However,most current RA schemes assume a central Verifier, which rep-resents a single point of failure. This feature is problematic when mutually suspicious stakeholders are involved. Furthermore, scalability issues arise as the number of IoT devices (Provers) grows. Although some RA schemes allow peer Provers to act as Verifiers, they involve unrealistic (for IoT devices) requirements, such as time synchronization and synchronous communication. Moreover, they incur heavy memory, computation,and communication burdens, while not considering sleeping or otherwise disconnected devices. Motivated by the need to address these limitations, we construct Scalable Collective Remote Attestation for Pub-Sub (SCRAPS), a novel collective RA scheme. It achieves scalability by outsourcing Verifier duties to a smart contract and mitigates DoS attacks against both Provers and Verifiers. It also removes the need for synchronous communication. Furthermore,RA evidence in SCRAPS is publicly verifiable, which significantly reduces the number of attestation evidence computations, thus lowering Prover burden. We report on a prototype of SCRAPS over Hyperledger Sawtooth (a blockchain geared for IoT use-cases) and evaluate its performance, scalability, and security aspects.

@proceedings{petzi2022scraps, abstract = {Remote Attestation (RA) is a basic security mechanism that detects malicious presence on various types of computing components, e.g., IoT devices. In a typical IoT setting, RA involves a trusted Verifier that sends a challenge to an untrusted remote Prover, which must in turn reply with a fresh and authentic evidence of being in a trustworthy state. However,most current RA schemes assume a central Verifier, which rep-resents a single point of failure. This feature is problematic when mutually suspicious stakeholders are involved. Furthermore, scalability issues arise as the number of IoT devices (Provers) grows. Although some RA schemes allow peer Provers to act as Verifiers, they involve unrealistic (for IoT devices) requirements, such as time synchronization and synchronous communication. Moreover, they incur heavy memory, computation,and communication burdens, while not considering sleeping or otherwise disconnected devices. Motivated by the need to address these limitations, we construct Scalable Collective Remote Attestation for Pub-Sub (SCRAPS), a novel collective RA scheme. It achieves scalability by outsourcing Verifier duties to a smart contract and mitigates DoS attacks against both Provers and Verifiers. It also removes the need for synchronous communication. Furthermore,RA evidence in SCRAPS is publicly verifiable, which significantly reduces the number of attestation evidence computations, thus lowering Prover burden. We report on a prototype of SCRAPS over Hyperledger Sawtooth (a blockchain geared for IoT use-cases) and evaluate its performance, scalability, and security aspects.}, author = {Petzi, Lukas and Ben Yahya, Ala Eddine and Dmitrienko, Alexandra and Tsudik, Gene and Prantl, Thomas and Kounev, Samuel}, keywords = {sss-group}, note = {Coming Soon}, title = {SCRAPS: Scalable Collective Remote Attestation for Pub-Sub IoT Networks with Untrusted Proxy Verifier}, volume = {USENIX Security '22}, year = 2022 }

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