Glenford Mapp

As smart cities evolve, the demand for real-time, secure, and adaptive network monitoring, continues to grow. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) offers a centralized approach to managing network flows; However, anomaly detection within SDN environments remains a significant challenge, particularly at the intelligent edge. This paper presents a conceptual Kafka-enabled ML framework for scalable, real-time analytics in SDN environments, supported by offline evaluation and a prototype streaming demonstration. A range of supervised ML models covering traditional methods and ensemble approaches (Random Forest, Linear Regression & XGBoost) were trained and validated using the InSDN intrusion detection dataset. These models were tested against multiple cyber threats, including botnets, dos, ddos, network reconnaissance, brute force, and web attacks, achieving up to 99% accuracy for ensemble classifiers under offline conditions. A Dockerized prototype demonstrates Kafka’s role in offline data ingestion, processing, and visualization through PostgreSQL and Grafana. While full ML pipeline integration into Kafka remains part of future work, the proposed architecture establishes a foundation for secure and intelligent Software-Defined Vehicular Networking (SDVN) infrastructure in smart cities.

Intelligent transport systems are a major component of smart cities because their deployment should result in reduced journey times, less traffic congestion and a significant reduction in road deaths, which will greatly improve the quality of life of their citizens. New technologies such as vehicular networks allow more information be available in realtime, and this information can be used with new analytical models to obtain more accurate estimates of journey times. This would be extremely useful to drivers and will also enable transport authorities to optimise the transport network. This paper addresses these issues using a model-based approach to provide a new way of estimating the delay along specified routes. A journey is defined as the traversal of several road links and junctions from source to destination. The delay at the junctions is analysed using the zero-server Markov chain technique. This is then combined with the Jackson network to analyse the delay across multiple junctions. The delay at road links is analysed using an M/M/K/K model. The results were validated using two simulators: SUMO and VISSIM. A real scenario is also examined to determine the best route. The preliminary results of this model-based analysis look promising but more work is needed to make it useful for wide-scale deployment.

Edge and fog computing have enhanced traditional client-server computing. However, the emergence of Smart Cities is rapidly changing this outlook because they must provide essential services, including ubiquitous communications, intelligent transport systems, advanced medical platforms, and urban infrastructure management. This demands a secure and resilient low-latency, high-bandwidth environment to provide a sustainable Quality of Service to applications and services. To meet this challenge, a new computing and networking ecosystem must be developed in which servers are managed and run from the edge of the Internet rather than from the centre as they currently are. This ecosystem is called the Intelligent Edge Environment (IEE) and is seen as the next major evolutionary step for the Internet. This journal article explores the development of this new paradigm. Firstly, the Reference Model for the IEE is detailed. Then, new mechanisms needed to build an Implementation Model of the IEE are discussed. The paper then examines the design of a new Internet to meet the challenges of developing Smart Cities.

There is now a growing interest in the development of Smart Cities. These cities will provide ubiquitous communication, intelligent transport systems, advanced digital health platforms and urban and infrastructure management. Intelligent Transport Systems will be realised through the emergence and deployment of Satellite Navigation Systems, Vehicular Networking and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, and should result in less congestion, shorter journey times and a significantly reduced number of road deaths. These new systems allow much more information about vehicles in transit to become available in real-time, including the source and destination of a journey, measurements from vehicles, and the state of the road infrastructure. Such detailed information will allow better analysis of journeys and routes. What is needed are new analytical models to use this information to build more accurate journey times. This paper addresses these issues. A journey is defined as the traversal of several road links and junctions from the source to the destination. The delay at junctions is analysed using the Zero-Server Markov Chain technique. This is then combined with the Jackson Network to analyse the delay across multiple junctions. The delay on road links is analysed using an M/M/K/K model. This approach was used to analyse a real scenario, and the results were validated using a SUMO simulation. The increased accuracy of this model will lead to much better traffic congestion algorithms for Intelligent Transport Systems for Smart Cities.

Interoperability has become crucial in the world of electronic health records, allowing for seamless data exchange and integration across diverse settings. It facilitates the integration of disparate systems, ensures that patient records are accessible, and enhances the care-delivery process. The current interoperability landscape of electronic health records is saddled with challenges hindering efficient interoperability. Existing interoperability frameworks have not adequately addressed many of the challenges relating to data exchange, security and privacy. To address these challenges, the TASIPPS (Technical and Semantic Interoperability, Preserving Privacy and Security) framework is proposed as a comprehensive approach to achieving efficient interoperability. The TASIPPS framework integrates robust security and privacy measures, providing real-time access to electronic health records that enable precise diagnoses, timely treatment plans and improved patient outcomes. The TASIPPS framework offers a holistic and effective solution to healthcare interoperability challenges. A comparison of the framework with existing frameworks showed that the TASIPPS framework addresses key limitations in privacy, security, and scalability, while providing enhanced interoperability across distinct healthcare systems, positioning it as a more comprehensive solution for modern healthcare needs.

The surge in big data and analytics has catalysed the proliferation of cybercrime, largely driven by organisations’ intensified focus on gathering and processing personal data for profit while often overlooking security considerations. Hadoop and its derivatives are prominent platforms for managing big data; however, investigating security incidents within Hadoop environments poses intricate challenges due to scale, distribution, data diversity, replication, component complexity, and dynamicity. This paper proposes a big data digital forensics readiness framework and an incident response script for Linux–Hadoop environments, streamlining preliminary investigations. The framework offers a novel approach to digital forensics in the domains of big data and Hadoop environments. A prototype of the incident response script for Linux–Hadoop environments was developed and evaluated through comprehensive functionality and usability testing. The results demonstrated robust performance and efficacy.

In the future, smart cities will provide key services including seamless communication, intelligent transport systems, advanced healthcare platforms, urban and infrastructure management, and digital services for local and regional government. Therefore, a new service and networking paradigm, called the Intelligent Edge Environment, has been specified. As a key part of this system, a new secure service ecosystem must be developed to provide the secure real-time movement of services on different High-Performance Edge Cloud Systems. This paper explores these issues by introducing the following mechanisms: a Resource Allocation Algorithm, a Resource Allocation Secure Protocol and finally a Secure Service Protocol. These systems were integrated into the Basic Capability System Library and a multithreaded FUSE client connected to the Service Management Framework. Docker was used as the migration mechanism. A prototype was developed and implemented using a FUSE-Network Memory System in which the Network Memory Server was migrated as users moved around. The result shows that this approach was safe and could be used to develop new applications and services for smart cities.

Interoperability has become crucial in the world of electronic health records (EHR), allowing for seamless data exchange and integration across diverse settings. It facilitates the integration of disparate systems, ensures that patient records are accessible, and enhances the care delivery process. The current interoperability landscape for electronic health records is saddled with challenges hindering efficient interoperability. Existing interoperability frameworks for EHR have failed to properly address many of these challenges relating to data exchange, security and privacy. To address these challenges, the TASSIPS framework is proposed as a comprehensive approach to achieving efficient interoperability. TASSIPS integrates robust security and privacy measures, providing real-time access to electronic health records that enable precise diagnoses, timely treatment plans and improved patient outcomes. TASSIPS offers a holistic and effective solution to healthcare interoperability challenges. An evaluation of TASSIPS via comparison with exicting frameworks concluded that it is an advancement in framework design for interoperabil-ity of EHR.

Wireless medical networks are pivotal for chronic disease management, yet the sensitive Big Data they generate presents administration challenges and cyber vulnerability. This Big Data is valuable within both healthcare and legal contexts, serving as a resource for investigating medical malpractice, civil cases, criminal activities, and network-related incidents. However, the rapid evolution of network technologies and data creates complexities in digital forensics investigations and audits. To address these issues, this paper proposes a secure decentralised framework aimed at bolstering digital forensics readiness (DFR) in Big Data wireless medical networks by identifying security threats, complexities, and gaps in current research efforts. By improving the network's resilience to cyber threats and aiding in medical malpractice investigations, this framework significantly advances digital forensics, wireless networks, and healthcare. It enhances digital forensics readiness, incident response, and the management of medical malpractice incidents in Big Data wireless medical networks. A real-world scenario-based evaluation demonstrated the framework's effectiveness in improving forensic readiness and response capabilities, validating its practical applicability and impact. A comparison of the proposed framework with existing frameworks concluded that it is an advancement in framework design for DFR, especially in regard to Big Data processing, decentralised DFR storage and scalability.

In the future, smart cities will provide key services including seamless communication, intelligent transport systems, advanced healthcare platforms, urban and infrastructure management, and digital services for local and regional government. Therefore, a new service and networking paradigm, called the Intelligent Edge Environment, has been specified. and is known as the Intelligent Edge Environment. As a key part of this system, a new secure service ecosystem must be developed to provide the secure realtime movement of services on different High-Performance Edge Cloud Systems. This paper explores these issues by introducing the following mechanisms: the Resource Allocation Algorithm, the Resource Allocation Secure Protocol and finally the Secure Service Protocols. These systems were integrated into the Basic Capabilities System Library and a multithreaded FUSE client connected to the Service Management Framework. Docker was used as a migration mechanism. A prototype was developed and implemented using a FUSE-Network Memory System in which the Network Memory Server was migrated as users move around. The result shows that this approach was safe and could be used to develop new applications and services for smart cities.