S. Robles

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Autonomous University of Barcelona

Opportunistic networks (OppNets) leverage opportunistic contacts to flow data across an infrastructure-free network. As of yet, OppNets’ performance depends on applying the most suitable forwarding strategy based on the OppNet typology. On the other hand, software-defined networking (SDN) is a paradigm for wired networks that decouples the control...

We have designed a collection of scenarios, a corpus, for its use in the study and development of routing algorithms for opportunistic networks. To obtain these scenarios, we have followed a methodology based on characterizing the space and choosing the best exemplary items in such a way that the corpus as a whole was representative of all possible...

This paper introduces a methodology for the development of routing algorithms that takes into consideration opportunistic networking. The proposal focus on the rationale behind the methodology, and highlights its most important stages and components. It also discusses the importance of two core elements in the process of protocol designing: the sce...

In this paper, we present a broadcast dissemination protocol for messages in opportunistic networks (OppNet) that is efficient in terms of energy consumption and network capacity usage, while not increasing the number of excluded nodes (nodes not receiving messages). The majority of the OppNet broadcast delivery schemes proposed in the literature,...

This paper presents a new strategy to efficiently deliver messages to influencers in social opportunistic networks. An influencer node is an important node in the network with a high social centrality and, as a consequence, it can have some characteristics such as high reputation, trustfulness and credibility, that makes it an interesting recipient...

In the domain of opportunistic networking, just like in any other domain of computer science, the engineering process should span all stages between an original idea and the validation of its implementation in real conditions. Yet most researchers often stop halfway along this process: they rely on simulation to validate the protocols and distribut...

The students' lack of motivation is a usual problem. The students value more the obtention of the degree than the developing of competences and skills. In order to fight this, we developed a gamification's experience based on merits and leaderboards. The merits are linked to the attainment of skills and competences that students usually do not appr...

Real-life room-escape games are ludic activities in which participants enter a room in order to get out of it only after solving some riddles. In this paper, we explain a Room Escape teaching experience developed in the Engineering School at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. The goal of this activity is to increase student’s motivation and to impr...

In the context of Opportunistic Networking (OppNet), designing routing and delivery protocols is currently an open and active line of research. In some OppNet scenarios, destination addresses are not always known by sending applications. Profile-cast models solve this problem by allowing message destinations to be users or groups of users defined b...

Pro-active message's delay tolerant networks (DTNs) are based on the usage of mobile code to obtain messages that contain their own routing code. This architecture allows applications to use the same network in different ways. The keystone of this type of heterogeneous network is a collection of contextual and application-related information that i...

We present PrivHab, a privacy preserving georouting protocol that improves multiagent decision-making. PrivHab learns the mobility habits of the nodes of the network. Then, it uses this information to dynamically select to route an agent carrying a piece of data to reach its destination. PrivHab makes use of cryptographic techniques from secure mul...

In the context of Opportunistic Ad Hoc Networking paradigms, group communication schemes (Manycast) are difficult to conduct. In this article, we propose a general delivery scheme for Manycast group communications based on mobile code. Our proposal extends network addressing by moving from the static header field paradigm to a software code-based a...

We present PrivHab+, a secure geographic routing protocol that learns about the mobility habits of the nodes of the network and uses this information in a secure manner. PrivHab+ is designed to operate in areas that lack of network, using the store-carry-and-forward approach. PrivHab+ compares nodes and chooses the best choice to carry messages tow...

We present PrivHab, a georouting protocol that improves multiagent systems itinerary decision-making. PrivHab uses the mobility habits of the nodes of the network to select an itinerary for each agent carrying a piece of data. PrivHab makes use of cryptographic techniques to make the decisions while preserving nodes’ privacy. PrivHab uses a waypoin...

In this paper, we introduce software code to improve Delay and Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) performance. DTN is extremely useful when source and destination nodes are intermittently connected. DTN implementations use application-specific routing algorithms to overcome those limitations. However, current implementations do not support the co...

This paper describes an incentive scheme for promoting the cooperation, and, therefore, avoiding selfish behaviours, in Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN) by rewarding participant nodes with cryptographic keys that will be required for sending bundles. DTN are normally sparse, and there are few opportunistic contacts, so forwarding of other’s bundles ca...

PrivHab is a georouting protocol that improves multiagent systems itinerary decision-making. PrivHab learns the mobility habits of the nodes of the network by building a model of the habitat of every node. Then, it uses this information to select an itinerary for each agent carrying a piece of data to reach its destination. PrivHab makes use of cry...

We consider a realistic podcast distribution application in remote rural areas, where programs have to be recorded into a CD and distributed to the local radio stations. We use store-carry-and-forward approach, based on mobile agents, that is designed to operate in areas that lack network infrastructure. PrivHab is a georouting protocol that learns...

This article presents a general purpose, multi-application mobile node sensor network based on mobile code. This intelligent system can work in delay and disruption tolerant (DIN) scenarios. Mobile nodes host software mobile code with task missions and act as DTN routers following the store-carry-and-forward paradigm. Most similar proposals are una...

Most patients receive care from many health care providers, and consequently their health data is dispersed over many institutions' paper and EHR-based record systems. This reality leads to a fragmented system of storing and retrieving essential patient data that impedes optimal care leading to the coexistence of somewhat autistic systems. Providin...

Store-carry-and-forward DTN (Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking) protocols offer new possibilities in scenarios where there is intermittent connectivity, asymmetric bandwidths, long and variable latency and ambiguous mobility patterns. In this article we propose a new paradigm – store-carry-process-and-forward – based on mobile code to improve th...

In the original version, the fourth and fifth author names were missed in this chapter. The names are given below: Adrián Sánchez-Carmona1 and Joan Borrell1 1 Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici Q. Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain

This paper introduces the PROSES (network PROtocol for the Single European Sky) project, which is aimed at defining and developing a communication protocol integrated in the future air connectivity scenarios providing high performance in environments where connectivity is degraded or intermittent, for its integration in the SESAR (SES ATM Research)...

This paper introduces a double multiagent architecture allowing the triage of victims in emergency scenarios and the automatic update of their medical condition. Gathering updated information about the medical condition of victims is critical for designing an optimal evacuation strategy that minimizes the number of casualties in the aftermath of an...

From the first steps of the mobile agent technology, the main concerns have been its security and interoperability. At the contrary, its performance has been usually relegated to a second place.The main contribution of this article is the proposal of a new agent transfer protocol, called Fragment Transfer Protocol (FrTP), for the Inter-Platform Mob...

In the context of grid computing, the more resources there are the more difficult it gets to manage them and their associated services. We continue working on the concept of relative information to enhance grid services. Resource relative information is information that is not only gathered from the resource itself but also that takes into account...

The information in healthcare institutions is generally managed by computer applications deployed in medical centers. Usually, each organization has its own system, which is normally proprietary and makes it difficult the exchange of information with other institutions. This chapter discusses the use of mobile agent technology [51,7] as an enabler...

In this paper, we present a software architecture and a development environment for the implementation of applications based on secure mobile agents. Recent breakthroughs in mobile agent security have unblocked this technology, but there is still one important issue to overcome: the complexity of programming applications using these security soluti...

Mobile agents (MAs) are autonomous computing entities that dwell in agent platforms and have the ability to move to different locations as needed. They are typically composed of code, data, and a state. The performance of MA migrations is always penalized by the need of carrying these components to each visited location. In contrast to the agent da...

Desde mayo del año 2004, un grupo de profesores de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ha llevado a cabo distintas experiencias docentes en educación superior enfocadas a los nuevos planes piloto definidos en el marco del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) basadas en la utilización del wiki, con el fin de mejorar el proceso de enseñanza-...

The existence of heterogeneous mobile agent systems hinders the interoperability of mobile agents. Several solutions exist, but they are limited in some aspects. This article proposes a full interoperability solution, in the context of the IEEE-FIPA agent standards, composed of three parts. The first part is a simple language-independent agent inte...

Quick response is critical during an emergency situation. This paper describes a system based on mobile electronic triage tags that makes victim information available at the base of operations as soon as possible, thus allowing an early medical resource allocation and immediate action. The cornerstone of the system is mobile agent technology, which...

Mobile agents are autonomous software entities driven by a set of goals and tasks. Reactivity, social ability, autonomy, the ability to move to different network locations, and the weak agent notion of proactiveness, allow for autonomous processing of distributed information according to their environment (context awareness).Although agent mobility...

This paper presents a protocol for the protection of mobile agents against external replay attacks. This kind of attacks are performed by malicious platforms when dispatching an agent multiple times to a remote host, thus making it reexecute part of its itinerary. Current proposals aiming to address this problem are based on storing agent identifie...

Lacking medical information about a victim in the aftermath of an emergency makes the early treatment and the efficient allocation of resources difficult. On the other hand, communication infrastructures are normally disrupted in these situations, thus hindering the gathering of the required information. This paper presents a new application of mob...

Grid computing is consolidated as a technology capable of solving scientific projects of our century. These projects’ needs include complex computational and large data storage resources. The goal of grid Computing is to share these resources among different institutes and virtual organizations across high-speed networks. The more resources there a...

In this paper we present a novel mechanism for the protection of dynamic itineraries for mobile agent applications. Itineraries that are decided as the agent goes are essential in complex applications based on mobile agents, but no approach has been presented until now to protect them. We have conceived a cryptographic scheme for shielding dynamic...

En este artículo presentamos un análisis del diseño, y su posterior implementación, de un esquema de seguridad con el objetivo de crear un Historial Clínico Compartido (HCC) utilizando agentes móviles. La idea de un Historial Clínico Compartido (HCC) supondrá un gran avance en el sistema sanitario una vez esté implantada. Son muy claras la...

In this paper, we present a scheme for the design of mobile agents applications based on components. There is still a paramount issue to overcome in mobile agent technology to allow its popularization: the high programming complexity. The proposed scheme enables secure mobile agent creation by the composition of code components, significantly simpl...

This paper presents a proposal for a flexible agent mobility architecture based on IEEE-FIPA standards and intended to be one of them. This proposal is a first step towards interoperable mobility mechanisms, which are needed for future agent migration between different kinds of platforms. Our proposal is presented as a flexible and robust architect...

This paper presents a proposal for a flexible agent mobility architecture based on IEEE-FIPA standards and intended to be one of them. This proposal is a first step towards interoperable mobility mechanisms, which are needed for future agent migration between different kinds of platforms. Our proposal is presented as a flexible and robust architect...

A data-integration system and an information gathering system is described for securing integrated distributed, interinstitutional medical data using security-enhanced mobile agent technology. The VEPR system consists of stationary agents that integrate documents from multiple legacy departmental systems (DISs) within one institution. ICU provides...

Un wiki és un espai web col·laboratiu, fà cilment usable a nivell docent per implementar un sistema dinà mic d'avaluació per carpetes virtuals. Les experiències docents amb wikis van començar a la UAB el curs 2003/04 i fins l'actualitat els membres del grup GI-IDES:Wiki hem impulsat la seva utilització en prop de 50 assignatures de 13 titulac...

Mobile agent systems provide new perspectives for distributed e-commerce applications. These applications may present specific restrictions, making mobile agent systems a feasible solution. Even so, mobile agents present some security related problems. An important one is resource access control. The ability for mobile agents to provide a simple, s...

A typical pervasive computing scenario may consist of a wide range of devices interconnected through ad-hoc networks. One of the problems that pervasive computing introduces is the management and interaction between these devices, as well as the security implications of this management. We present in this paper an architecture, which provides initi...

A mobile agent’s itinerary describes the set of hosts visited during the agent’s travel, and must be protected against malicious entities trying to access and/or modify it for their own benefit. Protection mechanisms must be put in place, but we should avoid imposing unnecessary limitations on the agent’s ability to choose its itinerary in an as fl...

Mobile agent systems provide new perspectives for distributed e-commerce applications. Sea-of-Data (SoD) applications are those that need to process huge quantities of distributed data. They present specific restrictions, which make mobile agent systems one of the most feasible technologies to implement them. In this paper we propose a mechanism to...

Traditional approaches to mobile agent code protection rely on platform-based cryptographic services, often based on PKI solutions. In this paper, we discuss some of their shortcomings, and propose a new architecture for secure mobile agents that addresses two outstanding issues: inter-platform portability and agent code protection. Existing soluti...

In this paper, we present a new solution for the implementation of flexible protection mechanisms in the context of mobile agent systems, where security problems are currently a major issue. In our scheme, agents protect their code and data by carrying their own protection mechanisms. This approach improves traditional solutions, where protection w...

In this paper, we provide a solution for the implementation of protection mechanisms using platform services. Implementation of protection mechanisms is the main obstacle of secure mobile agent applications. A cryptographic service can allow agents to self protect their code and data. The implementation of such a service is far from trivial. We pro...

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of an inter- agency mobility (migration) mechanism for agents. This migration is based on FIPA ACL messages. We also evaluate the performance of this implementation Agent mobility is an essential requirement for some electronic commerce ap- plications, such as those in the Sea-of-Data (SOD) fa...

This paper introduces MARISM-A, an Architecture for Mobile Agents with Recursive Itinerary and Secure Migration. MARISM-A is a secure mobile agent platform providing complex security mechanisms to protect migration, confidentiality and integrity of agents. This is indeed one of the more novel features of this platform: itinerary, data and code of t...

Sea-of-Data (SoD) applications (those that need to process huge quan-tities of distributed data) present specific restrictions, which make mobile agent systems one of the most feasible technologies to implement them. On the other hand mobile agent technologies are in a hot research state, specially concerning security. We present an access control...

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A general trust model for secure electronic agent-based marketplaces is described. The trust is presented as a dimensional space covering from physical security to high level trust relationships. A specific scenario has been chosen to show an implementation of the trust model: a secure multi-agent marketplace designed to manage resources in future...

Chapter six builds on the fact that different mechanisms for purchasing bandwidth from competing service providers are beginning to be offered to the customers of communication networks. Taking a typical business model, an open mechanism for integrating existing tariff structures into an open auction protocol is described. The different security pr...

This paper discusses an architecture for efficient, scalable and robust real time control of 3G mobile systems in the context of realistic business models of network providers, service providers and customers and the relationships between these actors. The aim is to bring financial benefits to mobile users through improved efficiency; extensions to...

A general trust model and security framework for a multi- agent system designed to manage resources in future mobile communications networks is described. The multi- agent system is being developed as part of the IST SHUFFLE project [1]. A business model appropriate for selling of bandwidth resource and services is investigated and mechanisms to ac...

Agent technology clearly enhances electronic commerce. This somewhat sweeping assertion is easily proved by analyzing new e-commerce agent-based applications: user can trade off-line, use long-term commerce strategies, decide founded on huge quantity of remote information, etc. A problem that arises from using agent technology is security, as it ca...

We propose a cryptographic solution to protect the itinerary of mobile agents. We consider real-life applications, where hosts do not act independently but are included in a hierarchical structure. In this structure, at least one trusted authority exists: the certification authority that provides hosts with the necessary cryptographic keys to estab...

Mobility offers important advantages to information agent applications, specially those related to information retrieval. However, problems like security and interoperability are important barriers to the adoption of this technology. This paper focuses its attention to interoperability. Over the years, several solutions for mobile agents have been...

This chapter gathers a global view of trust and security in multiagent systems. Sharing a common rationale, each section tackles a different aspect of this area, ranging from the cryptographic protection of agents to the formalization and modeling of trust and reputation. Practical issues such as applications and the designing of testbeds are also...

A wiki is a software used for the collective creation of a compilation of highly interconnected documents. It can be easily adapted to be used as a teaching methodology. This paper presents a number of tools that have introduced in the system to improve the teaching possibilities of the wiki. These tools are used for user and group management, wiki...

We present an access control method for mobile agent sys- tems. It is based in role-based access control and trust man- agement and provides a ∞exible and scalable method to con- trol the access to resources. It uses roles and allows the delegation of authorizations to mobile agents. The method uses SPKI to implement the role system and the delegat...