Disasters are crisis circumstances that put human life in jeopardy. During disasters, public communication infrastructure is particularly damaged, obstructing Search And Rescue (SAR) efforts, and it takes significant time and effort to re-establish functioning communication infrastructure. SAR is a critical component of mitigating human and environmental risks in disasters and harsh environments. As a result, there is an urgent need to construct communication networks swiftly to help SAR efforts exchange emergency data. UAV technology has the potential to provide key solutions to mitigate such disaster situations. UAVs can be used to provide an adaptable and reliable emergency communication backbone and to resolve major issues in disasters for SAR operations. In this paper, we evaluate the network performance of UAV-assisted intelligent edge computing to expedite SAR missions and functionality, as this technology can be deployed within a short time and can help to rescue most people during a disaster. We have considered network parameters such as delay, throughput, and traffic sent and received, as well as path loss for the proposed network. It is also demonstrated that with the proposed parameter optimization, network performance improves significantly, eventually leading to far more efficient SAR missions in disasters and harsh environments.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly being used in a high-computation paradigm enabled with smart applications in the Beyond Fifth Generation (B5G) wireless communication networks. These networks have an avenue for generating a considerable amount of heterogeneous data by the expanding number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in smart environments. However, storing and processing massive data with limited computational capability and energy availability at local nodes in the IoT network has been a significant difficulty, mainly when deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to extract discriminatory information from the massive amount of data for different tasks.Therefore, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) has evolved as a promising computing paradigm leveraged with efficient technology to improve the quality of services of edge devices and network performance better than cloud computing networks, addressing challenging problems of latency and computation-intensive offloading in a UAV-assisted framework. This paper provides a comprehensive review of intelligent UAV computing technology to enable 6G networks over smart environments. We highlight the utility of UAV computing and the critical role of Federated Learning (FL) in meeting the challenges related to energy, security, task offloading, and latency of IoT data in smart environments. We present the reader with an insight into UAV computing, advantages, applications, and challenges that can provide helpful guidance for future research.

The development of wearable sensor devices brings significant benefits to patients by offering real-time healthcare via wireless body area networks (WBANs). These wearable devices have gained significant traction due to advantageous features, including their lightweight nature, comfortable feel, stretchability, flexibility, low power consumption, and cost-effectiveness. Wearable devices play a pivotal role in healthcare, defence, sports, health monitoring, disease detection, and subject tracking. However, the irregular nature of the human body poses a significant challenge in the design of such wearable systems. This manuscript provides a comprehensive review of recent advancements in wearable and flexible smart sensor devices that can support the next generation of such sensor devices. Further, the development of direct ink writing (DIW) and direct writing (DW) methods has revolutionised new high-resolution integrated smart structures, enabling the design of next-generation soft, flexible, and stretchable wearable sensor devices. Recognising the importance of keeping academia and industry informed about cutting-edge technology and time-efficient fabrication tools, this manuscript also provides a thorough overview of the latest progress in various fabrication methods for wearable sensor devices utilised in WBAN and their evaluation using body phantoms. An overview of emerging challenges and future research directions is also discussed in the conclusion.

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a groundbreaking technology that has transformed network management significantly. By integrating data and control, SDN offers unparalleled flexibility and responsiveness, thereby overcoming the limitations of conventional network architectures. However, a centralized controller, which is a hallmark of SDN, is a double-edged security sword that offers easy control. This also becomes a dangerous point of failure for the entire network. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study to explore traditional-based, artificial intelligence (AI)-based, and moving target defense (MTD) approaches to securing SDN. The study begins with a survey of traditional security solutions for SDN, encompassing authentication, authorization, encryption, security protocols, firewalls, and flow verification, by addressing security threats and vulnerabilities in both data and control planes. The study then investigates the application of AI-based security solutions in an SDN environment, focusing on how Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) techniques are leveraged to address advanced security threats. Additionally, the survey examines MTD mechanisms within data and control plane security. Several in-depth techniques, including the randomization of Internet Protocol (IP) and Media Access Control (MAC) addresses, port numbers, and flow tables, and delving into the relationship between security threats, MTD strategies, and the specific controllers employed in experimental implementations. We utilized the widely recognized STRIDE cybersecurity framework to systematically identify and evaluate the potential threats to SDN security. Our analysis resulted in a comprehensive list of security challenges, and we propose future research directions aimed at addressing emerging threats in both the data and control planes.

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a promising solution for large-scale network management that offers extensive opportunities for optimization. However, the centralized control inherent in SDN also exposes networks to security threats, notably Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. To address these challenges, machine learning (ML) techniques have emerged as potent tools for anomaly detection and mitigation. This paper proposes a novel approach for traffic classification within SDN environments that distinguishes between benign and malicious traffic using supervised ML techniques. This study introduces a unique dataset tailored for DDoS attack detection, overcoming the limitations of existing datasets, such as unrealistic topologies and lack of public availability. Benchmarking against the CICDDoS2019 dataset validated the efficacy and relevance of the custom dataset. This research has significant implications for real-world applications, offering improved capabilities for detecting and mitigating DDoS attacks in SDN infrastructure. Experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed random forest model, achieving a remarkable accuracy of 98.97% and a minimal False Alarm Rate (FAR) of 0.023. These findings underscore the potential of ML-based approaches in enhancing network security and resilience against DDoS attacks in SDN environments, paving the way for future advancements in network-defense strategies.

Multibeam angle adaptive systems (MBAAS) have been shown to offer performance improvements over traditional spot-diffusing optical wireless systems. However, an increase in the computational cost is incurred. This paper introduces a method to speed up the adaptation process through efficient use of a divide and conquer algorithm by recursively breaking down the scanning process and focusing it into a smaller region in each iteration. The new, fast and efficient angle adaptation algorithm offers the advantages of optimizing the number and pattern (positions) of the spots so as to maximize the receiver's signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), regardless of the transmitter's position, the receiver's orientation and its field of view. It can also adapt to environmental changes, providing a robust link against shadowing and signal blockage. Furthermore, a beam delay adaptation method is used to reduce the effect of multipath dispersion and inter-symbol interference. The combination of angle and delay adaptation adds a degree of freedom to the link design, resulting in a compact impulse response and a system that is able to achieve higher data rates (15 Gbit/s). Significant improvements in the SNR, with optical wireless channel bandwidths of more than 15 GHz are obtained, and eye safety is considered while operating at 15 Gbit/s with full mobility in a realistic environment where shadowing exists.