The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) couples IoT technologies with healthcare services in order to support real-time, remote patient monitoring and treatment. However, the interconnectivity of critical medical devices with other systems in various network layers creates new opportunities for remote adversaries. Since most of the communication protocols have not been specifically designed for the needs of connected medical devices, there is a need to classify the available IoT communication technologies in terms of security. In this paper we classify IoT communication protocols, with respect to their application in IoMT. Then we describe the main characteristics of IoT communication protocols used at the perception, network and application layer of medical devices. We examine the inherent security characteristics and limitations of IoMT-specific communication protocols. Based on realistic attacks we identify available mitigation controls that may be applied to secure IoMT communications, as well as existing research and implementation gaps.

The increased use of smart Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEV) opened a new area of research and development. The number of EV charging sites has considerably increased in residential as well as in public areas. Within these EV charging sites, various entities need to communicate in a secure and efficient way. The Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) offers a way to coordinate this communication and is already being used in many implementations. However, only the latest OCPP 2.0 version of the protocol includes certain security features. In this article, we present the entities that take part in an OCPP-based smart charging scenario, we identify security issues and threats and present solutions that have been proposed by scholars. We identify open security issues for OCPP and propose future research directions for the security enhancement of the protocol.

The LoRa radio technology is one of the most prominent choices in the Internet of Things Low-Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) industry due to its versatile and robust technical characteristics along with its ability to achieve long communication ranges combined with low energy consumption and reduced cost. One of the main issues in LoRa networks is how many end-devices can be reporting efficiently while meeting the requirements set by the application they support. This is known as the capacity metric and it is affected by many network parameters and various factors. A literature overview is presented in this work, studying works on LoRa-based networks, outlining their behavior and categorizing them based on their technological breakthroughs. Throughout this survey, a number of performance determinants that stand out are highlighted. These factors span five main categories that encompass physical layer characteristics, deployment and hardware features, end device transmission settings, LoRa MAC protocols, and application requirements. Discussion follows the presentation of each of the factors pinpointing the relevant research, and describing the impact of each one of them on the achieved network efficiency focusing especially on the capacity metric. Open issues and research directions are also highlighted for each of the five identified categories.

The wide utilization of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is obstructed by the severely limited energy constraints of the individual sensor nodes. This is the reason why a large part of the research in WSNs focuses on the development of energy efficient routing protocols. In this paper, a new protocol called Equalized Cluster Head Election Routing Protocol (ECHERP), which pursues energy conservation through balanced clustering, is proposed. ECHERP models the network as a linear system and, using the Gaussian elimination algorithm, calculates the combinations of nodes that can be chosen as cluster heads in order to extend the network lifetime. The performance evaluation of ECHERP is carried out through simulation tests, which evince the effectiveness of this protocol in terms of network energy efficiency when compared against other well-known protocols.

Lately, there has been a rising trend towards integrating sustainability issues and implementing sustainable development (SD) goals into higher education, especially in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) field. This paper presents the challenges of the introduction of education for sustainability in higher education institutions, analyzes how these challenges could be addressed, and records the essential principles that can guide the incorporation of SD education in higher education. At the same time, this paper advocates the concept of sustainability integration into undergraduate ICT curricula and provides indications for developing ICT curricula that integrate sustainability issues. This paper also examines the contribution of education to the environmental awareness of the students at a Greek University while it captures their perceptions regarding the necessity for the inclusion of sustainability in the ICT curricula. The results are based on the processing of two questionnaires (pre-test and post-test data) distributed during two lectures regarding sustainability at a two-week interval. The findings of the study prove that the direct effect of the educational intervention on the intention of the students to engage in sustainability is significant. Furthermore, it is observed that students show a positive attitude towards integrating sustainability issues into their ICT education. In addition, although students had a deficient level of understanding of the concept of SD goals before the intervention, they showed a significant increment in their previous knowledge regarding sustainability and the environmental impact of ICT studies. The research also reveals that the students are not satisfied with the engagement of the university towards sustainability, and they propose various awareness activities to support their engagement with sustainability issues in an inclusive manner.