Omer F. Rana

Cardiff University | CU · School of Computer Science and Informatics

Geo-distributed web-applications (GWA) can be deployed across multiple geographically separated datacenters to reduce the latency of access for users. Finding a suitable deployment for a GWA is challenging due to the requirement to consider a number of different parameters, such as host configurations across a federated infrastructure. The ability...

Open Data Observatories refer to online platforms that provide real-time and historical data for a particular application context, e.g., urban/non-urban environments or a specific application domain. They are generally developed to facilitate collaboration within one or more communities through reusable datasets, analysis tools, and interactive vis...

Quantum computing is poised to revolutionize computational performance and capabilities, offering unprecedented efficiency in solving complex problems that surpasses classical approaches. This potential is particularly evident in fields such as optimization and AI. This chapter delves into critical priority areas in quantum computing, including the...

Blockchain technology is acclaimed for eliminating the need for a central authority while ensuring stability, security, and immutability. However, its integration into Internet of Things (IoT) environments is hampered by the limited computational resources of IoT devices. Consensus algorithms, vital for blockchain safety and efficiency, often requi...

Despite the recent broad adoption of Large Language Models (LLMs) across various domains, their potential for enriching information systems in extracting and exploring Linked Data (LD) and Resource Description Framework (RDF) triplestores has not been extensively explored. This paper examines the integration of LLMs within existing systems, emphasi...

Internet of Things applications (IoT) have the potential to derive sensitive user data, necessitating adherence to privacy and data protection laws. However, developers often struggle with privacy issues, resulting in personal data misuse. Despite the proposed Privacy by Design (PbD) approach, criticism arises due to its ambiguity and lack of pract...

The use of blockchain technology has been proposed to provide auditable access control for individual resources. Unlike the case where all resources are owned by a single organization, this work focuses on distributed applications such as business processes and distributed workflows. These applications are often composed of multiple resources/servi...

As connected and autonomous vehicles proliferate, the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus has become the predominant communication standard for in-vehicle networks due to its speed and efficiency. However, the CAN bus lacks basic security measures such as authentication and encryption, making it highly vulnerable to cyberattacks. To ensure in-vehicle...

This paper introduces the Forest Query Builder (ForestQB), an innovative toolkit designed to enhance the exploration and application of observational Linked Data (LD) within the field of wildlife research and conservation. Addressing the challenges faced by non-experts in navigating Resource Description Framework (RDF) triplestores and executing SP...

Rapid advancements in connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) are fueled by breakthroughs in machine learning, yet they encounter significant risks from adversarial attacks. This study explores the vulnerabilities of machine learning-based intrusion detection systems (IDSs) within in-vehicle networks (IVNs) to adversarial attacks, shifting focus f...

The Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as smart speakers can collect sensitive user data, necessitating the need for users to manage their privacy preferences. However, configuring these preferences presents users with multiple challenges. Existing privacy controls often lack transparency, are hard to understand, and do not provide meaningful c...

People are increasingly bringing Internet of Things (IoT) devices into their homes without understanding how their data is gathered, processed, and used. We describe PrivacyCube, a novel data physicalization designed to increase privacy awareness within smart home environments. PrivacyCube visualizes IoT data consumption by displaying privacy-relat...

Industrial cyber-physical systems (ICPS) are widely employed in supervising and controlling critical infrastructures (CIs), with manufacturing systems that incorporate industrial robotic arms being a prominent example. The increasing adoption of ubiquitous computing technologies in these systems has led to benefits such as real-time monitoring, red...

Effectively and securely retrieving data from various blockchain networks remains a critical challenge. We propose a novel framework that provides enhanced capabilities for authenticated data retrieval, empowering users and regulatory bodies. Our framework provides a scalable solution for information verification across diverse blockchain systems,...

Multi-access edge computing systems (MECs) bring the capabilities of cloud computing closer to the radio access network (RAN), in the context of 4G and 5G telecommunication systems, and converge with existing radio access technologies like satellite or WiFi. An MEC is a cloud server that runs at the mobile network's edge and is installed and execut...

Precision horticulture is evolving due to scalable sensor deployment and machine learning integration. These advancements boost the operational efficiency of individual farms, balancing the benefits of analytics with autonomy requirements. However, given concerns that affect wide geographic regions (e.g., climate change), there is a need to apply m...

The growing complexity of construction supply chains and the significant impact of the construction industry on the environment demand an understanding of how to reuse and repurpose materials. In response to this critical challenge, research gaps that are significant in promoting material circularity are described. Despite its potential, the use of...

Over the past six decades, the computing systems field has experienced significant transformations, profoundly impacting society with transformational developments, such as the Internet and the commodification of computing. Underpinned by technological advancements, computer systems, far from being static, have been continuously evolving and adapti...

Internet of Things (IoT) applications (apps) are challenging to design because of the heterogeneous systems on which they are deployed. IoT devices and apps may collect and analyse sensitive personal data, which is often protected by data privacy laws, some within highly regulated domains such as healthcare. Privacy-by-design (PbD) schemes can be u...

This study explores the effectiveness and user experience of different interaction methods used by individuals with dysarthria when engaging with Smart Virtual Assistants (SVAs). It focuses on three primary modalities: direct speech commands through Alexa, non-verbal voice cues via the Daria system, and eye gaze control. The objective is to assess...

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has gained increasing attentions by both academic and industrial communities, due to its flexible deployment and efficient line-of-sight communication. Recently, UAVs equipped with base stations have been envisioned as a key technology to provide 5G network services for mobile users. In this paper, we provide timely se...

The number of cameras utilised in smart city domains is increasingly prominent and notable for monitoring outdoor urban and rural areas such as farms and forests to deter thefts of farming machinery and livestock, as well as monitoring workers to guarantee their safety. However, anomaly detection tasks become much more challenging in environments w...

Effective data management is crucial to ensure the security, integrity, and efficiency of blockchain systems. This study proposes a detailed data management taxonomy specifically designed for blockchain technology. The taxonomy provides a structured framework to categorize and address various aspects of data management in blockchain networks. It co...

Sensor applications have become ubiquitous in modern society as the digital age continues to advance. AI-based techniques (e.g., machine learning) are effective at extracting actionable information from large amounts of data. An example would be an automated water irrigation system that uses AI-based techniques on soil quality data to decide how to...

With the development of new sensor technologies, Internet of Things (IoT)-based healthcare applications have gained momentum in recent years. However, IoT devices have limited resources, making them incapable of executing large computational operations. To solve this problem, the serverless paradigm, with its advantages such as dynamic scalability...

Wildlife and preservation research activities in the tropical forest of Sabah, Malaysia, can generate a wide variety of data. However, each research activity manages its data independently. Since these data are disparate, gaining unified access to them remains a challenge. We propose the Forest Observatory Ontology (FOO) as a basis for integrating...

Serverless computing has seen rapid growth, thanks to its adaptability, elasticity, and deployment agility, embraced by both cloud providers and users. However, this surge in serverless adoption has prompted a reevaluation of security concerns and thus, searchable encryption has emerged as a crucial technology. This paper explores the Searchable En...

Material reuse and recycling plays a key role in reducing carbon emissions in the architecture and construction sector. A “Material Passport” (MP) is a record describing how a material is used throughout its lifetime, from genesis to termination, recording operations carried out on the material. The granularity of information recorded in a MP can v...

People with speech impairments usually use assistive technology devices to assist them with communication and daily tasks. These devices can be controlled using different modalities, such as touch, eye gaze, gestures, and others. This article proposes a standardized methodology for designing non-verbal voice cue interactive systems that enable peop...

Dispelling the confusion around serverless computing by capturing its essential and conceptual characteristics.

Current Internet of Things (IoT) devices provide a diverse range of functionalities, ranging from measurement and dissemination of sensory data observation, to computation services for real-time data stream processing. In extreme situations such as emergencies, a significant benefit of IoT devices is that they can help gain a more complete situatio...

Cities are increasingly getting augmented with sensors through public, private, and academic sector initiatives. Most of the time, these sensors are deployed with a primary purpose (objective) in mind (e.g., deploy sensors to understand noise pollution) by a sensor owner (i.e., the organization that invests in sensing hardware, for example, a city...

Provisioning services for Internet of Things (IoT) devices leads to several challenges: heterogeneity of IoT devices, varying Quality of Services requirements, and increasing availability of both Cloud and Fog resources. The last of these is most significant to cope with Cloud infrastructure providers (CIPs) limitations for latency-sensitive servic...

Existing Cloud systems involve large volumes of data streams being sent to a centralised data centre for monitoring, storage and analytics. However, migrating all the data to the cloud is often not feasible due to cost, privacy, and performance concerns. However, Machine Learning (ML) algorithms typically require significant computational resources...

ChatGPT, an AI-based chatbot, was released to provide coherent and useful replies based on analysis of large volumes of data. In this article, leading scientists, researchers and engineers discuss the transformative effects of ChatGPT on modern education. This research seeks to improve our knowledge of ChatGPT capabilities and its use in the educat...

The balance between protecting user privacy while providing cost-effective devices that are functional and usable is a key challenge in the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT). While in traditional desktop and mobile contexts, the primary user interface is a screen, in IoT devices, screens are rare or very small, invalidating many existing approach...

Accurate identification of weeds plays a crucial role in helping farmers achieve efficient agricultural practices. The utilisation of edge-cloud infrastructure can provide efficient resources for weed detection in resource-constrained rural areas. However, deployed applications in these areas often face challenges such as connectivity failures, net...

Wildlife and preservation research activities in the tropical forest of Sabah, Malaysia, can generate a wide variety of data. However, each research activity manages its data independently. Since these data are disparate, gaining unified access to them remains a challenge. We propose the Forest Observatory Ontology (FOO) as a basis for integrating...

Serverless computing offers opportunities for auto-scaling, a pay-for-use cost model, quicker deployment and faster updates to support computing services. Apache OpenWhisk is one such open-source, distributed serverless platform that can be used to execute user functions in a stateless manner. We conduct a performance analysis of OpenWhisk on an ed...

Increasingly, buildings are being fitted with sensors for the needs of different sectors, such as education, industry and business. Using Internet of Things (IoT) devices combined with analysis of data being generated by these devices, it is possible to infer a number of metrics, e.g. building occupancy and activities of occupants. The information...

Serverless computing offers opportunities for auto-scaling, a pay-for-use cost model, quicker deployment and faster updates to support computing services. Apache OpenWhisk is one such open-source, distributed serverless platform that can be used to execute user functions in a stateless manner. We conduct a performance analysis of OpenWhisk on an ed...

Federated learning has shown enormous promise as a way of training ML models in distributed environments while reducing communication costs and protecting data privacy. However, the rise of complex cyber-physical systems, such as the Internet-of-Things, presents new challenges that are not met with traditional FL methods. Hierarchical Federated Lea...

Resource management in computing is a very challenging problem that involves making sequential decisions. Resource limitations, resource heterogeneity, dynamic and diverse nature of workload, and the unpredictability of fog/edge computing environments have made resource management even more challenging to be considered in the fog landscape. Recentl...

Internet of Things (IoT) applications typically collect and analyse personal data that is categorised as sensitive or special category of personal data. These data are subject to a higher degree of protection under data privacy laws. Regardless of legal requirements to support privacy practices, such as in Privacy by Design (PbD) schemes, these pra...

The recognition of capabilities supplied by cloud systems is presently growing up. Collecting or sharing healthcare data and sensitive information especially during Covid-19 pandemic has motivated organizations and enterprises to leverage the upsides coming from cloud-based applications. However, the privacy of electronic data in such applications...

Provisioning services for Internet of Things (IoT) devices leads to severalchallenges: heterogeneity of IoT devices, varying Quality of Services (QoS)requirements, and increasing availability of both Cloud and Fog resources. Thelast of these is most significant to cope with the limitations of Cloud infrastructureproviders (CIPs) for latency-sensiti...

Purpose The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a big impact on organisations globally, leaving organisations with no choice but to adapt to the new reality of remote work to ensure business continuity. Such an unexpected reality created the conditions for testing new applications of smart home technology whilst working from home....

As Internet of Things (IoT) technologies become more widespread in everyday life, privacy issues are becoming more prominent. The aim of this research is to develop a personal assistant that can answer software engineers’ questions about Privacy by Design (PbD) practices during the design phase of IoT system development. Semantic web technologies a...

Performance interference can occur when various services are executed over the same physical infrastructure in a cloud system. This can lead to performance degradation compared to the execution of services in isolation. This work proposes a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)-based model to estimate performance interference across containers, caused...

To unveil the hidden value in the datasets of user equipments (UEs) while preserving user privacy, federated learning (FL) is emerging as a promising technique to train a machine learning model using the datasets of UEs locally without uploading the datasets to a central location. Customers require to train machine learning models based on differen...

Federated continual learning (FCL) is emerging as a key technology for time-sensitive applications in highly adaptive environments including autonomous driving and industrial digital twin. Each FCL trains machine learning models using newly-generated datasets as soon as possible, to obtain a highly accurate machine learning model for new event pred...

Data centers today host a number of computational resources to support the increasing demand for computation and storage. Understanding how these physical and virtual machines transition between different states of operation (referred to as machine lifecycle) enables more efficient data center operation management. Furthermore, it helps data center...