Projects

[NSF CCSS&SaTC] CCSS: Developing A Physical-Channel Lightweight Authentication System for Wireless Body Area Networks, PI: Dr. Honggang Wang

The proposed research aims at realizing physical layer security approaches for WBANs and developing innovative key agreement and message authentication mechanisms. Unlike existing approaches (e.g., biometric-based approaches), the proposed authentication system does not require additional hardware, error reconciliation process and bit synchronization, and thus is suitable for resource-constrained and capacity-limited medical sensor nodes in WBANs. The proposed research tasks include (1) theoretical studies; (2) design of key agreement schemes; (3) development of message authentication system; and (4) system implementation and validation. The theoretical studies focus on the connections between the channel reciprocity, channel dependency and key generation. Based on the results of theoretical studies, practical key agreement schemes that use a set of dynamic wireless channel features among the communication partners will be developed. The project will then design a lightweight authentication system that is adaptive to wireless channels for securing medical data transmission in WBANs. Finally, the project will implement the proposed physical layer security approach in a real resource-constrained WBANs system and investigate the practical system performance limit through experiments. The findings from the project can provide guidelines for physical-channel based security system design and deployment of WBAN applications.

[NSF IIS] SCH: EXP: Collaborative Research: Design of a wearable biosensor system with wireless network for the remote detection of life threatening events in neonates, PI, Dr. Honggang Wang; co-PI, Dr. Yong Kim

In the United States, one in eight infants is born prematurely. These high risk infants require specialized monitoring of their physiology not only in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) but also in home environments. They are prone to apnea (pause in breathing), bradycardia (slowness of heart) and hypoxia (oxygen de-saturation), which are life threatening. This project aims at developing a biosensor system with wireless network for the remote detection and anticipation of such life threatening events in infants. The proposed research goes beyond traditional health monitoring systems by incorporating body sensor networks (BSN) along with advanced signal processing approaches, tailored specifically to an individual infant's physiology, to accurately detect and anticipate precursors of life threatening events. The proposed research can have a significant impact on non-intrusive ambulatory health monitoring for infants through a wireless biosensor system that integrates lightweight sensor solutions into the sensing, communication, and computing for monitoring physiology. The system framework, theories, models, and code developed by this project can be used by researchers as well as engineers to evaluate the performance of infant monitoring applications. The project also includes: (1) disseminating the project information and knowledge to the academic community and industry; (2) engaging undergraduate, graduate and medical students, especially women and minorities, into the proposed research; and (3) developing new courses and revising the existing courses.