Dabaghchian Awarded $300K for Internet-of-Things Research
Monireh Dabaghchian, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, has won a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to carry out her project, “Research Initiation Award: Secure Spectrum Sharing for Intelligent Internet-of-Things (IoT) Wireless Communication Networks.” The project aims to help address the increasing demand for wireless spectrum bandwidth introduced by the quickly growing number of internet-connected devices.
IoT devices such as smart watches, smartphones, smart door locks, smart bike trackers, smart vehicles and many more are becoming increasingly common. These devices establish wireless connections for communication for by using wireless spectrum bandwidth, but as more devices use a shared spectrum, the chances of interference and communication failures increase. With the proliferation of IoT deices, demand for spectrum bandwidth grows exponentially. To overcome the spectrum shortage problem, spectrum sharing mechanisms have been developed. Despite the significant advantages introduced by these methods, IoT networks are vulnerable to wireless attacks which disrupt the IoT communications.
The existence of such threats creates an urgent need for innovative and effective defense mechanisms to secure IoT communications. Despite recent advances, existing defense strategies are hindered by the practical limitations of IoT devices (such as limited battery power) and have not capitalized on the individual and collective potential of IoT devices to employ artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to defend against attacks. Dr. Dabaghchian's project aims to help address these deficiencies by developing a novel class of smart, secure, resilient, and effective spectrum sharing frameworks for intelligent IoT networks. The NSF award provides a total of $299,999 in support over the period of June 1, 2021 to May 31, 2024.
This article was published by the School of Computer, Mathematical & Natural Sciences at Morgan State University.
