Proxy re-encryption (PRE) provides a promising solution for applications requiring efficient and secure ciphertext conversion, such as secure cloud data sharing. While the one with the function of ciphertext evolution is more desirable for some long-term schemes involving key update. Recently, Yao et al. constructed an identity-based conditional proxy re-encryption scheme simultaneously supporting authorization and ciphertext evolution. However, its delegated ciphertext can be re-authorized, which may cause the authorization to exceed the original delegator’s expectation. In contrast, the single-hop PRE authorization scheme may be more appropriate for systems requiring better control over authorization. In this paper, an identity-based proxy re-encryption scheme with single-hop conditional delegation and multi-hop ciphertext evolution (IBPRE-SHCD-MHCE) is proposed. Also, its description, construction, and security analysis are given. The analysis and experimental comparison results show that the proposed scheme has improved the computational efficiency and storage consumption compared with the two underlying schemes.

Data/tasks of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are extremely private and valuable to computing. Edge computing facilitates IIoT services by offering platforms of supportive facilities and functionalities. However, the convergence of intelligent edge computing and IIoT platforms has been held back by the need to develop systems for maintaining security and privacy. In this article, we propose a new framework for securely and confidentially sending, storing, and computing IIoT tasks. This framework employs a lightweight encryption scheme alongside modified ElGamal encryption and digital signature schemes. We analyzed the robustness of this framework in terms of security and privacy, and assessed its performance through simulations. Ultimately, the proposed framework outperformed the existing models in terms of time complexity, latency, and energy consumption.

In order to solve the challenges of user data security in the cloud computing (storage) environment, many encryption solutions with different features have been presented. Among them, proxy reencryption (PRE) based on public-key infrastructure (PKI) is a promising technology for secure cloud sharing. And identity-based proxy reencryption (IBPRE), which uses identity as the public key, eliminates burdensome certificate management and is, therefore, more preferable. However, most of the current IBPRE schemes only focus on the processing of data sharing while overlooking the functions of authorization revocation and ciphertext update, which are more closely related to the security of data itself. Moreover, the few existing schemes that involve ciphertext update turn out to be impractical because the length of ciphertext increases with the reencryption of ciphertext. In this paper, an improved IBPRE scheme, which provides improvements on the inadequacies of the scheme proposed by Ateniese et al. especially in terms of collusion safety and ciphertext evolution, is proposed. To the best of our knowledge, this is a practical IBPRE scheme integrating the functions of access authorization, delegation revocation, ciphertext update, reauthorization, and conditional reservation delegation. The proposed technique has high practicability in the scenario where a large number of ciphertexts need to be updated synchronously. Lastly, the comparative analysis and simulation results show that the two reencryption algorithms in the proposed scheme have the shortest computing time than other schemes.

Improving quality of service (QoS) of low power and lossy networks (LLNs) in Internet of things (IoT) is a major challenge. Cluster-based routing technique is an effective approach to achieve this goal. This paper proposes a QoS-aware clustering-based routing (QACR) mechanism for LLNs in Fog-enabled IoT which provides a clustering, a cluster head (CH) election, and a routing path selection technique. The clustering adopts the community detection algorithm that partitions the network into clusters with available nodes' connectivity. The CH election and relay node selection both are weighted by the rank of the nodes which take node's energy, received signal strength, link quality, and number of cluster members into consideration as the ranking metrics. The number of CHs in a cluster is adaptive and varied according to a cluster state to balance the energy consumption of nodes. Besides, the protocol uses the CH role handover technique during CH election that decreases the control messages for the periodic election and cluster formation in detail. An evaluation of the QACR has performed through simulations for various scenarios. The obtained results show that the QACR improves the QoS in terms of packet delivery ratio, latency, and network lifetime compared to the existing protocols.

In a resource-limited wireless communication environment, various approaches to meet the ever growing application requirements in an efficient and transparent manner, are being researched and developed. Amongst many approaches, cross layer technique is by far one of the significant contributions that has undoubtedly revolutionized the way conventional layered architecture is perceived. In this paper, we propose a Cross Layer Framework based on vertical layer architecture. The primary contribution of this paper is the functional architecture of the vertical layer which is primarily responsible for cross layer interaction management and optimization. The second contribution is the use of optimization cycle that comprises awareness parameters collection, mapping, classification and the analysis phases. The third contribution of the paper is the decomposition of the parameters into local and global network perspective for opportunistic optimization. We have shown through simulations how parameters' variations can represent local and global views of the network and how we can set local and global thresholds to perform opportunistic optimization. Finally, we conclude and highlight future challenges associated with the proposed framework.

Ad hoc wireless networks operate without any infrastructure where a node can be a source and a router at the same time. This indispensably requires high throughput and low delay performance throughout the wireless network coverage span, particularly under heavy traffic conditions. Recent research on using multiple antennas in beam-forming or multiplexing modes over a wireless channel has shown promising results in terms of high throughput and low delay. Directional antennas have shown to increase spatial reuse by allowing multiple transmitters and receivers to communicate using directional beams as long as they do not significantly interfere with each other. However, directional antenna performance asymptotically approaches the omni-directional performance in a high density ad hoc network. Simulation results in QualNet validate that average throughput and packet corruption ratio of directional antenna approach omni-directional performance.