Mobile social and spontaneous
networks
Sheikh Omer Tariq – 6898271
stari076@uottawa.ca
Submitted to
Professor Ivan Stojmenovic in the partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the course Wireless networks and mobile
computing - CSI5169
Agenda
Introduction
Types
Architecture
Security
Applications
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Introduction
•
Social network should be defined as group of people with
some pattern of contacts and interaction between them
forming social relationships
•
Social Networks have attracted billions of active users
under major online social network (OSN) systems such as
Facebook, etc.
•
These systems allow people with common interests to
come together and form virtual communities.
•
Nowadays these online social networks are increasingly
used on mobile devices thus forming a new field of
mobile social networks.
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Mobile social network
•
Mobile social networks has been introduced by
combining concepts from two disciplines social network
and mobile communications.
•
Due to the availability of smart phones mobile social
network can fully take advantage of human interaction
by delivering efficient and effective data delivery
services .
•
A mobile social network can be established on any
existing centralized or distributed mobile network.
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Types of mobile social network
There are broadly classified into two types
1. WEB- based MSN:
 The mobile users can communicate with a web based application through internet
provided by wireless connectivity.
 Generally web based MSN is based on a centralized communication structure.
 There are numerous web based MSN application such as “iPhone Facebook App”
2. Decentralized MSN:
 In a decentralized MSN a group of mobile users is formed to disseminate data among
them without connecting to a centralized server.
 Such connectivity is best defined where users exchange and share information when
they come in contact using wireless technologies such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
 “Eye Vibe” is a video and chat community on mobile devices where users can share or
transfer videos with the mobile community.
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Components of mobile social network
Mobile devices are the ones that users carry to
access the content from social groups, present in
centralized, Distributed and Hybrid MSN.
Network Infrastructure includes cellular network
base stations and access points providing
communication between source and destination it
is also present in all types of MSN.
Content Providers servers used for storing and
distributing the social content using network
infrastructure to make it available for mobile
users .They are only present in centralized and
hybrid MSN
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Architecture
•
•
•
•
•
Centralized MSN:
Centralized server is used to share ,exchange
and deliver data between content provider
and mobile users.
This is a client server structure in which mobile
user is client and centralized server of content
provider is the server.
Most of the mobile applications used to access
online social networking websites are based
on centralized architecture.
Centralized architecture is an example of web
based MSN.
The main advantage include simplicity of
implementation and high efficiency centralized
control.
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Architecture
Distributed MSN:
•
In distributed MSN architecture the mobile
users communicate using existing network
technologies (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth).
•
There is no centralized server present in
distributed architecture .
•
The mobile users interact with each other on
the basis of interest and thus forming groups.
•
The data flow will be through other mobile
devices or access points .
•
Middleware's are able to provide all necessary
functionalities such as identifying users,
sharing data and supports expanding of MSN.
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Architecture
Hybrid MSN:
•
It has the combination of centralized and
distributed architecture .
•
In hybrid architecture mobile users can access
data from content provider but also they can
communicate with each other as in distributed
architecture.
•
All the new mobile phone are equipped with
both i.e. (GSM antenna) and a short range (WiFi or Bluetooth) communication capabilities.
•
The cellular network provides data delivery
using an ad hoc network reduces the cost .
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Label Based Propagation Algorithm
For The k-clique is extracted by erasing all non diagonal elements smaller than k -1 and
erasing all diagonal elements smaller than k. The rest of the elements are replaced by
value of 1
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Security
Availability
Integrity
Authenticity
Data
confidentiality
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Attacks
External
Internal
Passive
Active
• Attack launched by a node that does not
belong to the network
• Attack Launched by a node belongs to
network
• Attack in which continues collection of data is
gathered to launch an active attack later.
• Attach launched by actively interacting with
victims.
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Sybil Attack
• In this type of attack the attacker attempt to
create many identities in order to gain larger
effect.
• This type of attack is usually carried out to
confuse neighboring nodes and to create
relationship with honest users.
• When the honest user is compromised the
attacker will gain special privileges .
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Sybil Attack
 PodNetSec framework could be used to
protect network against these types of attack.
 It has three types of channels namely Open ,
closed and restricted channels.
• Closed channel allow private and encrypted
dissemination of content in a limited group.
• Restricted channel only allow authorized
users to publish content
• Open channel allow everyone to consume
and create new content
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Black-Hole Attack
• It is a type of denial of service attack
which targets trust .
• In this type of attack a malicious node
sends a path reply packet to the source
node in reply of path request for route
discovery.
• The malicious nodes pretends to be a
destination node or an immediate
neighbor of the source node.
• As a result the source node will forward all
of its data packets to malicious node .
 Data
forwarding
protocols
comprehensive evaluation
for
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Location cheating attack
• Location cheating attack has the ability
to bypass the location verification
mechanism in MSN.
• The location cheater creates a fake
location and forces the server to reveal
that location .
• When the server connects to a falsified
location the connection between the
true location and the server is blocked .
 Access control
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Access control
• It uses Key management system and
policies that secure network nodes
when they attempt to access the
social network .
• Deployment in mobile network is a
challenge because when a user is
denied for security concern the
device is lost and affect the ability of
the customer to complete a task .
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Access control
This is an example of group based
access control.
• It divides the users into communities
to communicate safely.
• It uses pubic key cryptography.
• All communication is encrypted with
the public key of the receiver .
• Secure communication is provided
once the node ID of receiver is
known .
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Access control
• This access control uses an anonymous
identifier (AID).
• The AID is generated by a trusted server IS.
• Before a source node advertise itself to its
nearby node it contacts the IS to obtain AID.
• The IS generates AID and associates it with
mobile node .
• It establish connection on shared AID .
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Applications
Social Services
•
This is the most common category of mobile social networks applications.
•
They include web based social network platforms such as Facebook,
LinkedIn as well as purely mobile ones such as google latitude .
•
Social Services on mobile provides freedom of movement and ease of use
connection to social world.
•
All MSN services can be regarded as social services but the above
mentioned ones purely regards to social networking services.
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Applications
Healthcare Services
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Mobile social networks are also able to assist people with special needs .
•
People with severe mental illness, healthcare services can provide
continues support.
•
MSN is used to locate patients and help them to locate them if they are
lost.
•
Free web –based applications such as Patients LikeMe connect its members
to share information and learn from real world
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Applications
Wearable MSN
•
Wearable network comprises mobile devices which can be worn on the
body and it can be used in behavior modeling and entertainment
development .
•
“Hug shirt” can provide virtual hug by exerting pressure to a person
wearing to it . It has a sensor which interacts with normal Bluetooth
enabled mobile phones .
•
“Iband” is also a similar application in which two ibands exchange
information during a handshake .
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Applications
Location Based Services
•
Location based services is one of the prominent application of mobile social
networks .
•
It provides information specific to a location for mobile devices using GPS
or signal triangulation of cellular towers .
•
It helps to find location od friends, nearest banking cash machine or
restaurant.
•
Google latitude and foursquare are one of the popular location based
services .
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Question 1
Why Intrusion detection is a challenge to implement in mobile social networks ?
Answer:
 “Intrusion detection is a software implementation that monitors a system for
malicious activities and produces real time reports”.

It is difficult to implement because the mobile social networks are not fixed.
Intrusion detection depends on real time traffic for analysis and difficult to generate
reports due to mobility of user as compare to wired networks which are fixed and
traffic monitoring is done on routers ,switches and gateways .Secondly, slow links
compared to wired networks ,Limited bandwidth and battery power are also the
limitations that makes this implementation a challenge.
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Question 2
Why wormhole attack is called tunneling attack ?
Answer:
 It is one of the most sophisticated attack in which a malicious node captures the
packets from one location in a network and tunnels them through other out off band
channel to another malicious node located several hops away as shown in an
example below .
 The link between the malicious nodes is faster and the packets arrive more faster
then the regular network that’s why it is called tunneling attack.
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Question 3
Consider two mobile social networks. Compute and compare the delivery ratio for each network such that
in network “A” 50 packets has been sent from source while the destination receives 40 packets however in
network “B” destination node only receives 35 packets? What is the impact of increase in no of nodes in
network “B”?
Answer:
 Delivery ratio= Packets received/Packets sent
For network A
DR=40/50=0.8
For network B
DR=35/50=0.7
From the values above we conclude that packets in network “A” are arriving faster as compare to network
“B” .The lower the value of delivery ratio indicates the packet loss in a social network here in the above
example the value of network “B” is lower then network “A”. The low delivery ratio in network “B”
indicates that many packets are not arriving to their destinations which is due to increase in no of nodes,
more hops are needed for packets to reach destination as the no of nodes increases which also requires
high memory for computation.
The mobile social network is considered to be more efficient which has high delivery ratio and minimum
memory requirements.
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Reference

“Mobile Social Networks: Architectures, Social properties and Key research challenges”
by Nikolaos Vastardis, Student Member, IEEE and Kun Yang, Senior Member, IEEE
IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 15, NO. 3, THIRD QUARTER 2013
•
“Survey of Routing Attacks and Countermeasures in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks” by
Amara korba Abdelaziz, Mehdi Nafaa, Ghanemi Salim ,Networks and Systems
Laboratory University of Badji Mokhtar Annaba, Algeria -2013 UKSim 15th International
Conference on Computer Modelling and Simulation
•
“Applications, Architectures, and Protocol Design Issues for Mobile Social Networks: A
Survey” by N. Kayastha, D. Niyato, and P. Wang are with the Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore & E. Hossain is with the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Manitoba - Proceedings of the IEEE | Vol. 99, No. 12,
December 2011
“Safety Challenges and Solutions in Mobile Social Networks” by Yashar Najaflou,
Behrouz Jedari, Feng Xia, Senior Member, IEEE,Laurence T. Yang, and Mohammad S.
Obaidat, Fellow, IEEE- This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of
this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination
•
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169
Thanks !
Wireless networks and mobile computing CSI-5169