CAREER: The Home Area Networking Gateway Architecture (HANGAR)

Drexel University, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

Home Area Networks (HANs) are an emerging technology that is very likely to play a major role in future homes. Broad deployment of this technology, however, depends strongly on the achieved security and the policies used to allow unsophistcated users to express and communicate their security requirements. The key objective of this research is to investigate technologies and methodologies which can be deployed and used to protect home networks. The research contributions include (a) user-accessible security policies, (b) a framework for the safe and secure communication between devices in a Home Automation Network (HAN), and (c) the collection and analysis of empirical findings by deploying such devices in a home environment. Without the security components that this research will produce, wide deployment of HANs may have devastating consequences. The results of low security awareness coupled with "always-on" connectivity have been demonstrated by the problems caused by computer viruses. In addition, the proxy-based communication framework that will be implemented as part of this research, will also be applicable to self-reconfigurable networks that may be found in health monitoring systems, battlefield sensor networks, etc.