NEWSLETTER

January 2009

• The challenge of wireless secu-

rity: Prof. Jean-Pierre Hubaux, from
EPF Lausanne, explains how secu-
rity has become an important issue
within the MICS Center.

Pages 2&3

• Moritz Köhler and Philipp Bolliger

have received support by the MICS
Spinfund for kicking off their Kou-
bachi venture. Their idea is to use a
wireless smart plant pot to enable
people to interact with their plants
in a completely new way.
Pages 4&5

• Shockfish has improved its Ti-

nyNode platform. Find out more
about it...
Page 6

• Meet with Nesime Tatbul, an assis-

tant professor of computer science
at ETH Zurich.
Pages 7&8
page  | January 2009 MICS NEWSLETTER

THE CHALLENGE
OF WIRELESS SECURITY
Securing wireless networks is an
ongoing process that requires
greater effort than that required
for other networks and systems.
Prof. Jean-Pierre Hubaux, from
EPF Lausanne, explains how secu-
rity has become an important is-
sue within the MICS Center.
- When the NCCR MICS started,
was wireless security already a
concern?
At the beginning, MICS was fo-
cused primarily on mobile ad hoc
networks (used for person to per-
son communication). Security has
been a major challenge from the
beginning, because of the high
vulnerability of those networks. In
classical wireless networks such as
cellular networks, most of the secu-
rity operations (including user au-
thentication) involve the local base
station. In mobile ad hoc networks,
this assumption cannot be made,
because by definition there is no
base station.
- What were your goals when the
MICS Center started?
We designed security solutions for
fully self-organized mobile ad hoc
networks, namely ad hoc networks
in which there is no central author-
ity (not even a certification author-
ity). In particular, we have shown
that, in contrast with intuition, mo-
bility can facilitate security mecha-
nisms such as the establishment of
security associations.
- Are the risks inherent in wireless
technology greater than for wired
networks?
Absolutely. Perhaps the most sig-
nificant source of risks in wireless
networks is that the underlying
communications medium, the ra-
dio wave, is open to intruders. Loss
of confidentiality and integrity as
well as the threat of denial of ser-
vice attacks are risks that are par-
ticularly difficult to thwart in wire-
less communications. All sensors,
cellular phones and similar equip-
ment communicate through radio
waves.

- Where do we stand as far as MICS

is concerned?
Since the beginning of MICS, the
understanding on security has well
progressed. The VerSePro project
led by Prof. David Basin, from ETH
Zurich, and myself, was launched in
2005 to provide MICS with a set of
correctly proved security protocols
along with methods and tool sup-
Wormhole attack: the adversary sets up two nodes connected by an out-of-band link, re- port for such verification.
laying messages between two parts of the network. As a result, a large fraction of the Some of the challenges we are
routes traverse the wormhole, giving the adversary control over a significant portion of the addressing include secure neigh-
network traffic. bor discovery and secure distance
page  | January 2009 MICS NEWSLETTER
bounding (to securely estimate the
distance between two nodes).
The progress is concrete. Today we
can formally prove properties of
the above-mentioned protocols.
Furthermore, a new generation of
specialists is born. For example,
former MICS PhD students such as
Srdjan Čapkun, Levente Buttyan,
and Mario Čagalj are now all in fac-
ulty positions.
- Is securing a network expensive?
Yes it is. We are investigating opti-
mized techniques that reduce the
costs. This can be achieved by more
light-weight cryptographic algo-
rithms, by reducing the number of
crypto-related bits to be pushed
over the air, or by avoiding redun-
dant security mechanisms.
- Do you interact with other proj-
ects?
Yes, for example, with the Ultra
Wide Band Communication project,
led by Prof. Jean-Yves Le Boudec,
for which we aim to strengthen the
secure ranging protocol against at-
tacks.
We also contribute to the develop-
ment of the Transportation Center,
at EPFL. It involves all aspects of mo-
bility of people and goods. Modern
transportation systems rely heavily
on information and communica-
tion technologies. Therefore, secu-
rity has an important part to play in
such a center.
Relay attack. Normal operation: a legitimate reader recognizes a legitimate card and grants
access. Attack: the adversary uses a fake card and a fake reader to relay messages between
the legitimate reader and card. As a result, the reader grants access to the adversary.
We are also partner of a European For more information:
project on “Secure vehicle commu-
nication” (SeVeCom). Vehicle com- - on the activities based on secure
munication aims to improve road neighbor discovery:
safety and to optimize the traffic
through co-operative systems. http://wiki.epfl.ch/snd
These communications are clearly
highly vulnerable to attacks, and - on the relation between mali-
SeVeCom is a response to this chal- cious and selfish behavior in wire-
lenge. less networks:
What are the plans for the future? http://secowinet.epfl.ch
The work will concentrate on rein-
forcing protocols formalization. We - on the European project focused
will also continue to look for solu- on secure vehicular communica-
tions that have an acceptable over- tions :
head.
In parallel with our MICS activi- http://www.sevecom.org
ties, we will continue investigating
selfish behavior in security mecha- - on EPFL activities related to se-
nisms. cure vehicular communications:
Interview by
Florence Luy http://ivc.epfl.ch.
page  | January 2009 MICS NEWSLETTER

SMART PLANTS
FOR THE SMART HOME
Moritz Köhler and Philipp Bol-
liger have received support by
the MICS Spinfund for kicking
off their Koubachi venture. The
company the two are founding
is an official ETH spin-off com-
ing out of the Distributed Sys-
tems Group led by Prof. Mattern.
smart home of the future. With Kou-
bachi, our customers will be able to
see on their cell-phone or on the
Web, how their plants are doing. It
is similar to the well-known Tama-
gotchi, except that it is about real
living plants”, explains Philipp Bol-
liger, who will be Koubachi’s tech-
nical lead. “Our main technical chal-
lenge will be to turn sensor values
into information people can un-
years, we are currently in the pro-
cess of filing a number of patents
in several countries for our sensor
node and the service platform be-
hind it. Our core business will be
the management of the data that
comes from the Koubachi sensor
nodes, and goes to our custom-
ers. That is where we are coming
from, it is what we know best”,
says Moritz Köhler. “Initially we
will focus on the German speak-
ing markets, but we are already
planning the expansion to further
European countries and the US.”

SENSOR DATA DISTRIBUTION

Their service platform allows them

Philipp Bolliger (left) and Moritz Köhler
“Koubachi is a wireless smart plant derstand. By incorporating a com-
pot which enables people to inter- munity-based learning approach,
act with their plants in a completely we will be able to provide better
new way. It will be one of the first results overt time”, Philipp adds.
entertainment products for the “Following our research of the past
to receive, process, and store a wide
range of sensor data, which then
can be made available to other
systems such as Web-applications
through light-weight Web-services.
“Our core competency is to process
and distribute sensor data. It is a
fundamental part of Koubachi. But
we are already thinking about of-
fering this competency to our part-
ners, allowing them to build sensor
based applications in the domains
of entertainment, security, energy
management, and health care. Due
to our focus, we are still looking for
a partner, who can provide an af-
fordable sink, possibly a ZigBee to
Ethernet bridge”, the two explain.
“We hope to get in fruitful contact
with other start-ups in the MICS en-
page  | January 2009 MICS NEWSLETTER
vironment that focus on the smart
home. Maybe this can be the start of
a wide range of innovations for the
smart home made in Switzerland”.
Their expectations for the Spin-
fund period are to finalize IP pro-
tection, get in touch with part-
ners and customers, and to build
a production-ready prototype.
After this time the two plan to ac-
quire additional funding and to
expand their business activities
with the goal to generate posi-
tive cash-flow as soon as possible.
Both founders have already previ-
ous entrepreneurial experience.
Moritz started his first company
in Munich at the age of 21. Back
then his business focused on the
implementation of ERP systems for
large industrial companies. Philipp
founded his first company at the
age of 18 which provided IT sup-
port for SMEs as well as individuals.
Florence Luy
For more information:
www.koubachi.com
Contacts:
bolligph@inf.ethz.ch and
mkoehler@ethz.ch
A MICS Spinfund
goes to “sreee!”
Under the project name «sreee!»,
ETH Zurich and MICS research-
ers Dr. Steffen P. Walz and Thom-
as Seibert have been granted a
MICS Spinfund.Thomas and Stef-
fen are hosted by Prof. Hovestadt
(CAAD group at the ETH Zurich)
and will prepare the start-up
“sreee!” in the coming months.
“sreee!” evaluates the merging of
social networks and emerging mo-
bility patterns and seeks to com-
bine these with game mechanics
in order to achieve critical mass
with the intended target audience.
During their funding period, Steffen
and Thomas will create a business
plan and conceptualize an architec-
tural draft of the platform’s engine.
At the end of the funding phase,
an architectural prototype will al-
leviate understanding of business
value for interested VC investors.
FL
Nepomuk,
the social semantic
desktop
“Technology Review” recently had
a story looking at Nepomuk - the
semantic tool that is bundled with
the latest version of KDE. It seems
that some Semantic Web research-
ers believe the tool will prove a
breakthrough for semantic tech-
nology. By encouraging people to
add semantic meta-data to the in-
formation stored on their machines
they hope it could succeed where
other semantic tools have failed.
Nepomuk brings together research-
ers, industrial software developers,
and representative industrial users,
to develop a comprehensive so-
lution for extending the personal
desktop into a collaboration envi-
ronment which supports both the
personal information management
and the sharing and exchange across
social and organizational relations.
In the past, the project did ex-
ploit many P2P developments
(P-Grid, Gridvine) that had oc-
curred at the MICS Center.
FL
page  | January 2009 MICS NEWSLETTER
TinyNode184:
Even lower consumption!
Shockfish SA develops and sells
the TinyNode platform that is ide-
al for research projects and whose
modules are ready to be “plugged”
into industrial applications.
Shockfish SA is an industrial partner
for the MICS program and is sup-
porting various projects that are
using Tinynode modules, mainly
in the area of environmental moni-
toring: Sensorscope (sensorscope.
epfl.ch), Permasense (cn.cs.unibas.
ch/projects/permasense/), Com-
monSense (commonsense.epfl.ch)
to name a few. These deployments
gather valuable data from the en-
vironment through different local
sensors, which are then routed to a
central station for further analysis.
In November 2008, Shockfish SA
has launched TinyNode184, a new
module that is fully compatible to
the existing TinyNode584. With its
SX1211 radio chip from Semtech in
combination with its MSP430F2417
microcontroller from TI, it offers an
exceptionally low receive power
consumption of only 3mA. This
new module targets applications
that require sophisticated 2-way
protocols with battery lifetimes of
over 10 years. Sleep mode current
is reduced to 2uA typically and the
module can be operated down to
1.8V.
The TinyNode184 features extreme-
ly low power consumption of only
3mA in full
receive mode
and 25mA
in transmit
mode at
+10dBm out-
put power.
The receiv-
ers sensitiv-
ity level is
at -104dBm
with 25kbps
which translates into a LOS com-
munication range of about 150m,
using its built-in antenna. It fea-
tures a packet handling mode with
automatic CRC generation and data
whitening. The bitrates can be pro-
grammed from 1.56 to 200kbps. For
external antennas, SMA connector
footprints that are compatible with
the TinyNode584 are present. Both
US (915MHz) and EU (868MHz) ver-
sions are available.
On the TinyNode184, Shockfish
added an on-board 8-Pin interface
with 2 ADC channels, one interrupt
pin, one UART channel and a power
supply, which allows interfacing
low-complexity sensor or actuators
without any additional hardware.
For more complex prototypes and
sensor boards, as well as for pro-
gramming and debugging the
module, the Tinynode184 is com-
patible with the Standard Exten-
sion Board (SEB) for PC connectivity
through RS232/USB. Also, it can be
plugged on a
Mamaboard
that can act
as a bridge
to GSM/
GPRS or to
LAN/WLAN
networks.
The Ti-
nyNode584
is still the
best choice
for a various number of applica-
tions requiring long range com-
munication. The new TinyNode184
is complementary, offering lower
power consumption at the cost
of reduced sensitivity and shorter
range. It is the natural choice for
denser networks.
The TinyNode184 is fully TinyOS-
2.x compatible. All the applications
provided in the TinyOS distribu-
tion work smoothly, without any
code changes. Migration of exist-
ing TinyNode584 code to the Ti-
nyNode184 platform can be done
with minimum effort.
Roger Meier
More information on:
www.tinynode.com
page  | January 2009 MICS NEWSLETTER

«THE RESEARCH WORLD

IS FULL OF OPPORTUNITIES»
Nesime Tatbul is an assistant pro-
fessor of computer science at ETH
Zurich. She is involved in a few
data stream processing projects
in MICS, including XTream, Up-
Stream, and DejaVu. Interview
with a young scientist who likes
Switzerland and its mountains...
a PhD study also in the same field.
My PhD work at Brown University
was on data stream management
systems, more specifically on the
performance aspects.
At Brown, I was involved in the de-
sign and implementation of the
Aurora/Borealis projects, closely
collaborating with a cast of re-
searchers from Brandeis University
demonstration award at ACM SIG-
MOD’05, etc.) and a start-up com-
pany in the Boston area (Stream-
Base Systems, Inc.). In addition to
my PhD work, I also spent a sum-
mer at the IBM Almaden Research
Center as a research intern working
on database caching, and worked
as a consultant for the U.S. Army
Research Institute of Environmen-
tal Medicine, on data management

- Kindly introduce yourself...

I am originally from Devrek/Turkey,
a small town near the coast of west-
ern Black Sea (about 200km north
of Ankara and 400km east of Istan-
bul). I had my high school education
at TED Private High School in Zon-
guldak, and then studied computer
engineering at METU (Middle East
Technical University) in Ankara.
After that, I went to USA for my
graduate studies in Computer Sci-
ence. I chose to study computer
engineering after high school since
I thought that this field was becom-
ing more and more important into
the future. Then I also liked the fact
that it supports and is very essential
in developments in almost all other
fields of life and science as well.

- What is your academic back-

ground? and MIT. It was a large-scale effort in personal area sensor networks.
After doing my senior project and that resulted in successful research Since early 2007, I have been an as-
master thesis on data manage- results (e.g., numerous highly-cited sistant professor of computer sci-
ment systems, I decided to pursue VLDB/SIGMOD papers, best system ence at ETH Zurich.
page  | January 2009 MICS NEWSLETTER

- What is your involvement in research environment at ETH Zur- Jean-Pierre Hubaux

MICS? ich is full of opportunities to make becomes an IEEE Fellow
I got involved in a couple of MICS both of these happen. As examples,
projects shortly after I arrived in being part of the MICS program is The world’s leading
Switzerland, all in the field of data one of them. Getting access to professional asso-
stream processing. First, with col- industry collaborations through ciation for the ad-
leagues from the ETH Zurich Sys- structures such as the ETH Zurich vancement of tech-
tems Group, we are working on the Enterprise Computing Center (ECC) nology has named
XTream project, where our goal is is another. 302 IEEE Senior
to develop a global-scale exten- among which Jean-Pierre Hubaux
sible data stream management sys- for his contributions to wireless se-
tem for pervasive applications. curity. For this MICS member and
Interview by Florence Luy professor at the EPFL, this nomi-
Additionally, I am leading two other nation confirms the value of his
MICS projects: UpStream and Deja- work. The Fellow title is the high-
Vu. In UpStream, we are developing est distinction given by the IEEE.
storage-centric load management
techniques for high-speed data
streams with update semantics.
CEREMONY FOR INTERNET GIRLS
In DejaVu, we are building a com-
plex event processing system that
integrates pattern matching over
live and archived event streams
behind a uniform, declarative in-
terface. Applications of these sys-
tems include financial market data
analysis, RFID-based asset tracking,
more general sensor-based moni-
toring, and so forth. More informa-
tion about these projects can be
found on the research pages under
http://www.systems.ethz.ch/.

- What are your expectations re-

garding your career?
I would like my research to have On January 10th, a new group of young ladies received their certificate for the course
high impact in academia as well “Internet for girls” from the hands of Prof. Giorgio Margaritondo, Vice-President for
as in practical life. I think that the Academic Affairs at EPFL. © Alain Herzog
page  | January 2009 MICS NEWSLETTER
Towards a 3rd phase
for the NCCR MICS
The SNF has made a preliminary
decision to support MICS in phase
3 with 50% of the phase 2 budget.
This reflects the high appreciation
of the excellent work done within
in the centre over many years.
We are therefore invited to make
a final proposal, due in July 2009,
based on this budget. More infor-
mation will be provided soon in or-
der to finalize this document.
Thank you very much to all those
who are collaborating to this ef-
fort!
Jacques Bovay
NEW PUBLICATIONS
Journal papers:
• Zhou, Yongluan; Ooi, Beng Chin;
Tan, Kian-Lee, Disseminating
Streaming Data in a Dynamic En-
vironment: an Adaptive and Cost-
Based Approach, The VLDB Journal,
Volume 17, Number 6, nov 2008.
Conference papers:
• Shantanu Das, Matúš Mihalák,
Rastislav Šrámek, Elias Vicari, Peter
Widmayer, Rendezvous of Mobile
Agents when Tokens Fail Anytime,
12th International Conference On
Principles Of Distributed Systems
(OPODIS), Luxor, 15-18 Dec 08.
• Lochmatter, Thomas; Martinoli, Al-
cherio, Simulation Experiments with
Bio-Inspired Algorithms for Odor
Source Localization in Laminar Wind
Flow, 7th International Conference
on Machine Learning and Applica-
tions (ICMLA 2008); San Diego, CA,
USA, December 11-13, 2008, p. 437-
443.
• Poturalski, Marcin; Papadimitra-
tos, Panos; Hubaux, Jean-Pierre,
Towards Provable Secure Neighbor
Discovery in Wireless Networks, 6th
ACM Workshop on Formal Methods
in Security Engineering; Alexandria,
VA, October 27, 2008, p. 31-42.
• Jan S. Rellermeyer, Oriana Riva,
Gustavo Alonso, AlfredO: An Archi-
tecture for Flexible Interaction with
Electronic Devices, 9th ACM/IFIP/
USENIX International Middleware
Conference (Middleware), Leuven,
01-05 Dec 08.
• Lochmatter, Thomas; Martinoli, Al-
cherio, Understanding the Potential
Impact of Multiple Robots in Odor
Source Localization, 9th Symposium
on Distributed Autonomous Robot-
ic Systems (DARS 2008); Tsukuba,
Japan, November 17-19, 2008.
• A. Meier, M. Weise, J. Beutel, L.
Thiele, Poster Abstract: NoSE: Neigh-
bor Search and Link Estimation for
a Fast and Energy Efficient Initial-
ization of WSNs, 6th ACM Conf. on
Embedded Networked Sensor Sys-
tems (SenSys 2008), Raleigh, 5-7
Nov 2008.
• Barrenetxea, Guillermo; Ingelrest,
François; Schaefer, Gunnar; Vetterli,
Martin, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to
Successful Wireless Sensor Network
Deployments, 6th ACM Conference
on Embedded Networked Sensor
Systems (SenSys 2008); Raleigh, NC,
USA, 5-7 November 2008.
• A. Meier, M. Motani, H. Siquan,
S. Künzli, DiMo: Distributed Node
Monitoring in Wireless Sensor Net-
works, 11th ACM International Con-
ference on Modeling, Analysis and
Simulation of Wireless and Mobile
Systems (MSWiM 2008), Vancouver,
27-31 Oct 08.
• Jurca, Oana; Michel, Sebastian;
Herrmann, Alexandre; Aberer, Karl,
Query Driven Operator Placement
for Complex Event Detection over
Data Streams, 3rd IEEE European
Conference on Smart Sensing and
Context (EuroSSC); Zurich, Switzer-
page 10 | January 2009 MICS NEWSLETTER
land, October 29-31, 2008.
• Jan S. Rellermeyer, Michael Duller,
Gustavo Alonso, Consistently Ap-
plying Updates to Compositions of
Distributed OSGi Modules, ACM SIG-
PLAN 1st Workshop on Hot Topics
in Software Updates (HotSWUp),
Nashville, 20 Oct 08.
Upcoming
conferences
• 6th European Conference on Wire-
less Sensor Networks, Cork (Ireland),
11-13 February 2009.
• 8th ACM/IEEE International Con-
ference on Information Processing
in Sensor Networks, San Francisco
(USA), 13-16 April 2009.
• 7th International Conference on
Pervasive Computing, Nara (Japan),
11-14 May 2009.
• 10th International Conference
on Mobile Data Management: Sys-
tems, Services and Middleware, Tai-
pei (Taiwan), 18-21 May 2009.
• MICS Workshop, Lausanne, sec-
ond week of June 2009.
• International Conference on Wire-
less Algorithms Systems and Appli-
cations, Boston (USA), 16-18 August
2009.
ACM SenSys 2010 in Zurich
The ACM Conference on Embed-
ded Networked Sensor Systems
(SenSys) is the premier single-track
and highly selective forum on the
design, implementation, and appli-
cation of systems issues in the area
of embedded, networked sensors.
After touring the US for a number
of years and one visit to Australia,
ACM SenSys is finally coming to Editor : Florence Luy
Europe in 2010. With generous sup- Mail : florence.luy@epfl.ch
port by the NCCR MICS backing the
candidacy and motivated by the The National Centres of Competence
large and active sensor networks in Research are a research instrument
community in Switzerland, ETH Zu- of the Swiss National Science Foundation
rich was selected among four can-
didate cities for hosting this presti-
gious event.
The 8th ACM Conference on Em-
bedded Networked Sensor Systems
will take place at ETH Zurich on No-
vember 3-5, 2010 (general chair Jan EPFL IC NCCR MICS
Beutel). Station 14
CH-1015 Lausanne
Tel +41 (0)21 693 8106
Fax +41 (0)21 693 8140
www.mics.org | nccr-mics@epfl.ch