Title: Secure and Reconfigurable Network Design for Critical Information Dissemination in the Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT),
Abstract: The Internet of things (IoT) is revolutionizing the management and control of
automated systems leading to a paradigm shift in areas such as smart homes,
smart cities, health care, transportation, etc. The IoT technology is also
envisioned to play an important role in improving the effectiveness of military
operations in battlefields. The interconnection of combat equipment and other
battlefield resources for coordinated automated decisions is referred to as the
Internet of battlefield things (IoBT). IoBT networks are significantly
different from traditional IoT networks due to the battlefield specific
challenges such as the absence of communication infrastructure, and the
susceptibility of devices to cyber and physical attacks. The combat efficiency
and coordinated decision-making in war scenarios depends highly on real-time
data collection, which in turn relies on the connectivity of the network and
the information dissemination in the presence of adversaries. This work aims to
build the theoretical foundations of designing secure and reconfigurable IoBT
networks. Leveraging the theories of stochastic geometry and mathematical
epidemiology, we develop an integrated framework to study the communication of
mission-critical data among different types of network devices and consequently
design the network in a cost effective manner.