Waqas Aman

• PhD
• Post-Doctoral Researcher at Hamad bin Khalifa University

We present a first detailed survey that focuses on the security challenges faced by the underwater and air-water (A-W) wireless communication networks (WCNs), as well as the countermeasures proposed to date. Specifically, we provide a detailed literature review of the various kinds of active and passive attacks which hamper the confidentiality, int...

We consider futuristic, intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS)-aided communication between a base station (BS) and a user equipment (UE) for two distinct scenarios: a single-input, single-output (SISO) system whereby the BS has a single antenna, and a multi-input, single-output (MISO) system whereby the BS has multiple antennas. For the considered I...

In this paper, we consider an eavesdropping attack on a multi-hop, underwater acoustic sensor network (UWASN) that consists of M + 1 underwater sensors which report their sensed data via orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme to a sink node on the water surface. Furthermore , due to the presence of a passive malicious node in near...

This manuscript presents a novel mechanism (at the physical layer) for authentication and transmitter identification in a body-centric nanoscale communication system operating in the terahertz (THz) band. The unique characteristics of the propagation medium in the THz band renders the existing techniques (say for impersonation detection in cellular...

The sixth generation of wireless networks defined several key performance indicators (KPIs) for assessing its networks, mainly in terms of reliability, coverage, and sensing. In this regard, remarkable attention has been paid recently to the integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) paradigm as an enabler for efficiently and jointly performing co...

Typical magnetic induction (MI) communication is commonly considered a secure underwater wireless communication (UWC) technology due to its non-audible and non-visible nature compared to acoustic and optical UWC technologies. However, vulnerabilities in communication systems inevitably exist and may lead to different types of attacks. In this paper...

Autonomously controlling the position of Remotely Operated underwater Vehicles (ROVs) is of crucial importance for a wide range of underwater engineering applications, such as in the inspection and maintenance of underwater industrial structures. Consequently, studying vision-based underwater robot navigation and control has recently gained increas...

Underwater communication networks are increasingly popularized by various important maritime applications. However, this also leads to an increased threat landscape. This letter presents the first study that considers jamming attacks by random jammers present in the surroundings of legitimate transceivers in underwater acoustic communication system...

This letter provides a stochastic geometry (SG)-based coverage probability (CP) analysis of an indoor terahertz (THz) downlink assisted by a single reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) panel. Specifically, multiple access points (AP) deployed on the ceiling of a hall (each equipped with multiple antennas) need to serve multiple user equipment (...

In post-covid19 world, radio frequency (RF)-based non-contact methods, e.g., software-defined radios (SDR)-based methods have emerged as promising candidates for intelligent remote sensing of human vitals, and could help in containment of contagious viruses like covid19. To this end, this work utilizes the universal software radio peripherals (USRP...

Vehicular communication networks are rapidly emerging as vehicles become smarter. However, these networks are increasingly susceptible to various attacks. The situation is exacerbated by the rise in automated vehicles complicates, emphasizing the need for security and authentication measures to ensure safe and effective traffic management. In this...

This paper reports the findings of an experimental study on the problem of line-of-sight (LOS)/non-line-of-sight (NLOS) classification in an indoor environment. Specifically, we deploy a pair of NI 2901 USRP software-defined radios (SDR) in a large hall. The transmit SDR emits an unmodulated tone of frequency 10 KHz, on a center frequency of 2.4 GH...

The colossal evolution of wireless communication technologies over the past few years has driven increased interest in its integration in a variety of less-explored environments, such as the underwater medium. In this magazine paper, we present a comprehensive discussion on a novel concept of routing protocol known as cross-media routing, incorpora...

This paper considers an Internet of Things (IoT) blockchain wireless network consisting of a leader node and various follower nodes which together implement the RAFT consensus protocol to verify a blockchain transaction, as requested by a blockchain client. Further, two kinds of active attacks, i.e., jamming and impersonation, are considered on the...

Research in underwater communication is rapidly becoming attractive due to its various modern applications. An efficient mechanism to secure such communication is via physical layer security. In this paper, we propose a novel physical layer authentication (PLA) mechanism in underwater acoustic communication networks where we exploit the position/lo...

This letter provides a stochastic geometry (SG)-based coverage probability (CP) analysis of an indoor terahertz (THz) downlink assisted by a single reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) panel. Specifically, multiple access points (AP) deployed on the ceiling of a hall (each equipped with multiple antennas) need to serve multiple user equipment (...

The technologies used in underwater and air-water (A-W) wireless communication are increasingly attracting attention due to numerous modern applications. However, for practical implementations of these modern applications, the security of the communication networks needs to be ensured beforehand. The main focus of this survey is to systematically d...

Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) or energy disaggregation is an inverse problem whereby the goal is to extract the load profiles of individual appliances, given an aggregate load profile of the mains of a home. NILM could help identify the power usage patterns of individual appliances in a home, and thus, could help realize novel energy conserv...

The pervasiveness of commercial Internet of Things (IoT) around the globe is expected to reach significant levels with the upcoming sixth generation of mobile networks (6G). Throughout the past years, wireless standardization units worldwide have been prominently active in the deployment and performance optimization of such IoT networks and fusing...

In post-covid19 world, radio frequency (RF)-based non-contact methods, e.g., software-defined radios (SDR)-based methods have emerged as promising candidates for intelligent remote sensing of human vitals, and could help in containment of contagious viruses like covid19. To this end, this work utilizes the universal software radio peripherals (USRP...

This paper considers an Internet of Thing (IoT) blockchain network consisting of a leader node and various follower nodes which together implement the RAFT consensus protocol to verify a blockchain transaction, as requested by a blockchain client. Further, two kinds of active attacks, i.e., jamming and impersonation, are considered on the IoT block...

We present a first detailed survey that focuses on the security challenges faced by the underwater and air-water (A-W) wireless communication networks (WCNs), as well as the countermeasures proposed to date. Specifically, we provide a detailed literature review of the various kinds of active and passive attacks which hamper the confidentiality, int...

Device-to-device (D2D) communication is a promising technique to enhance the spectral efficiency for 5G and beyond cellular networks. Traditionally, D2D communication was considered solely as communication directly between two closely-located devices, without any support from the available network infrastructure; however, this understanding limits...

In this article, we consider an eavesdropping attack on a multihop, underwater acoustic sensor network that consists of M + 1 underwater sensors which report their sensed data via orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme to a sink node on the water surface. Furthermore, due to the presence of a passive malicious node in nearby vicin...

This work considers identity attack on a radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based backscatter communication system. Specifically, we consider a single-reader, single-tag RFID system whereby the reader and the tag undergo two-way signaling which enables the reader to extract the tag ID in order to authenticate the legitimate tag (L-tag). We then...

This work considers identity attack on a radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based backscatter communication system. Specifically, we consider a single-reader, single-tag RFID system whereby the reader and the tag undergo two-way signaling which enables the reader to extract the tag ID in order to authenticate the legitimate tag (L-tag). We then...

Nanoscale communication systems operating in Ter-ahertz (THz) band are anticipated to revolutionise the healthcaresystems of the future. Global wireless data traffic is undergoinga rapid growth. However, wireless systems, due to their broad-casting nature, are vulnerable to malicious security breaches. Inaddition, advances in quantum computing pose...

This paper provides the effective capacity (EC)analysis in futuristic intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS) assistedwireless communication. We investigate the two widely deployedsetups for mobile wireless communication: single input singleoutput (SISO) and multi-input and single output (MISO) in thecontext of IRS for EC. We derive the distributions...

This paper investigates the impact of authentication on effective capacity (EC) of an underwater acoustic (UWA) channel. Specifically, the UWA channel is under impersonation attack by a malicious node (Eve) present in the close vicinity of the legitimate node pair (Alice and Bob); Eve tries to inject its malicious data into the system by making Bob...

Consider impersonation attack by an active malicious nano node (Eve) on a diffusion based molecular communication (DbMC) system---Eve transmits during the idle slots to deceive the nano receiver (Bob) that she is indeed the legitimate nano transmitter (Alice). To this end, this work exploits the 3-dimensional (3D) channel impulse response (CIR) wit...

This work presents a novel method to generate secret keys shared between a legitimate node pair (Alice and Bob) to safeguard the communication between them from an unauthorized node (Eve). To this end, we exploit the {\it reciprocal carrier frequency offset} (CFO) between the legitimate node pair to extract common randomness out of it to generate s...

This paper considers a line-of-sight underwater acoustic (UWA) sensor network consisting of $M$ underwater sensor nodes randomly deployed according to uniform distribution within a vertical half-disc (the so-called trusted zone). The sensor nodes report their sensed data to a sink node on water surface on a shared UWA reporting channel in a time-d...

Consider an OFDM based, multi-hop underwater acoustic sensor network with $M+1$ underwater sensing nodes that report their sensed data to a sink node (on the water surface). A malicious node Eve attempts to eavesdrop the ongoing communication between a sensor node and the sink node. To this end, this work performs joint optimal node selection for d...

This work addresses the problem of impersonation detection in an underwater acoustic sensor network (UWASN). We consider a UWASN consisting of $M$ underwater sensor nodes randomly deployed according to uniform distribution within a vertical half-disc (the so-called trusted zone). The sensor nodes report their sensed data to a sink node on water sur...

In this paper, we study the physical layer security (PLS) problem in the dual hop orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based wireless communication system. First, we consider a single user single relay system and study a joint power optimization problem at the source and relay subject to individual power constraint at the two nodes. Th...

In this paper, we study the physical layer security (PLS) problem in the dual hop orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based wireless communication system. First, we consider a single user single relay system and study a joint power optimization problem at the source and relay subject to individual power constraint at the two nodes. Th...

In this preliminary work, we study the problem of {\it distributed} authentication in wireless networks. Specifically, we consider a system where multiple Bob (sensor) nodes listen to a channel and report their {\it correlated} measurements to a Fusion Center (FC) which makes the ultimate authentication decision. For the feature-based authenticatio...

In this paper, we consider the Physical Layer Security(PLS) problem in orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) based dual-hop system which consists of multiple users, multiple amplify and forward relays, and an eavesdropper. The aim is to enhance PLS of the entire system by maximizing sum secrecy rate of secret users through optimal r...

Large propagation delay, high error rate, low bandwidth and limited energy in Underwater Sensor Networks (UWSNs) attract the attention of most researchers. In UWSNs, efficient utilization of energy is one of the major issue, as the replacement of energy sources in such environment is very expensive. In this paper, we have proposed a Cluster Depth B...