Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is a new emerging concept and is an extended notion of Vehicular Ad-hoc networks (VANETs). In IoV the vehicles (nodes) are connected to the internet and able to transmit information. However, due to resources constraint nature of vehicles, they may not want to cooperate in order to save its own resources such as memory, energy, and buffer, etc. This behavior may lead to poor system performance. IoV needs an efficient solution to motivate the nodes in terms of cooperation to avoid selfish behavior. A novel mechanism Incentive and Punishment Scheme (IPS) has been proposed in this article where vehicles with higher weight and cooperation are elected as Heads during the election process. Vickrey, Clarke, and Groves (VCG) model has been used to scrutinize the weight of these heads. Vehicle participating in the election process can increase its incentives (reputation) by active participation (forwarding data). Vehicles with repeated selfish behavior are punished. The monitoring nodes monitor the performance of their neighbor nodes after the election process. A mathematical model and algorithms has been developed for the election, monitoring and incentive processes. The proposed approach has been simulated through VDTNSim environment to analyze the performance of the proposed IPS. The performance results demonstrate that the proposed schemes outperform the existing schemes in terms of packet delivery ratio, average delivery delay, average cost, and overhead.

The main problem for both the utility companies and the end-used is to efficiently schedule the home appliances using energy management to optimize energy consumption. The microgrid, macro grid, and Smart Grid (SG) are state-of-the-art technology that is user and environment-friendly, reliable, flexible, and controllable. Both utility companies and end-users are interested in effectively utilizing different heuristic optimization techniques to address demand-supply management efficiently based on consumption patterns. Similarly, the end-user has a greater concern with the electricity bills, how to minimize electricity bills, and how to reduce the Peak to Average Ratio (PAR). The Home Energy Management Controller (HEMC) is integrated into the smart grid, by providing many benefits to the end-user as well to the utility. In this research paper, we design an efficient HEMC system by using different heuristic optimization techniques such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO), and Wind Driven Optimization (WDO), to address the problem stated above. We consider a typical home, to have a large number of appliances and an on-site renewable energy generation and storage system. As a key contribution, here we focus on incentive-based programs such as Demand Response (DR) and Time of Use (ToU) pricing schemes which restrict the end-user energy consumption during peak demands. From the results figures, it is clear that our HEMC not only schedules all the appliances but also generates optimal patterns for energy consumption based on the ToU pricing scheme. As a secondary contribution, deploying an efficient ToU scheme benefits the end-user by paying minimum electricity bills, while considering user comfort, at the same time benefiting utilities by reducing the peak demand. From the graphs, it is clear that HEMC using GA shows better results than WDO and BPSO, in energy consumption and electricity cost, while BPSO is more prominent than WDO and GA by calculating PAR.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are low-cost, special-purpose networks introduced to resolve various daily life domestic, industrial, and strategic problems. These networks are deployed in such places where the repairments, in most cases, become difficult. The nodes in WSNs, due to their vulnerable nature, are always prone to various potential threats. The deployed environment of WSNs is noncentral, unattended, and administrativeless; therefore, malicious attacks such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks can easily be commenced by the attackers. Most of the DDoS detection systems rely on the analysis of the flow of traffic, ultimately with a conclusion that high traffic may be due to the DDoS attack. On the other hand, legitimate users may produce a larger amount of traffic known, as the flash crowd (FC). Both DDOS and FC are considered abnormal traffic in communication networks. The detection of such abnormal traffic and then separation of DDoS attacks from FC is also a focused challenge. This paper introduces a novel mechanism based on a Bayesian model to detect abnormal data traffic and discriminate DDoS attacks from FC in it. The simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism, compared with the existing systems.

Various operational communication models are using Delay-Tolerant Network as a communication tool in recent times. In such a communication paradigm, sometimes there are disconnections and interferences as well as high delays like vehicle Ad hoc networks (VANETs). A new research mechanism, namely, the vehicle Delay-tolerant network (VDTN), is introduced due to several similar characteristics. The store-carry-forward mechanism in VDTNs is beneficial in forwarding the messages to the destination without end-to-end connectivity. To accomplish this task, the cooperation of nodes is needed to forward messages to the destination. However, we cannot be sure that all the nodes in the network will cooperate and contribute their computing resources for message forwarding without any reward. Furthermore, there are some selfish nodes in the network which may not cooperate to forward the messages, and are inclined to increase their own resources. This is one of the major challenges in VDTNs and incentive mechanisms are used as a major solution. This paper presents a detailed study of the recently proposed incentive schemes for VDTNs. This paper also gives some open challenges and future directions for interested researchers in the future.

Smart devices in smart cities face the dual challenge of requiring real-time data processing and storing that data permanently on the cloud for future use. This creates a significant conflict between the need for immediate responsiveness and the demands of long-term storage. While Cloud Computing (CC) offers a viable platform for processing and storing this data, it introduces delays, longer response times, and network congestion issues. Internet of Things (IoT) devices require real-time responses, but their data must also be available for subsequent analysis and decision-making. Although edge and fog computing paradigms have been developed to address these issues, they suffer from limited resources and scalability challenges, making them inadequate for the above needs. A hybrid paradigm is often proposed to address the limitations of both cloud and edge computing. However, synchronization between cloud and edge can introduce delays, negatively affecting overall performance. The proposed framework, Regional Computing (RC), addresses big data challenges in smart cities by providing an intermediate solution between edge (limited power) and cloud (distant) computing. rc manages data during peak hours, alleviating congestion on the public network. The collected data is subsequently offloaded to cloud servers for long-term storage and detailed analysis. Preliminary findings are very encouraging, indicating substantial enhancements in reducing network congestion, minimizing delays, and lowering costs.

In ad hoc networks, the communication is usually made through multiple hops by establishing an environment of cooperation and coordination among self-operated nodes. Such nodes typically operate with a set of finite and scarce energy, processing, bandwidth, and storage resources. Due to the cooperative environment in such networks, nodes may consume additional resources by giving relaying services to other nodes. This aspect in such networks coined the situation of noncooperative behavior by some or all the nodes. Moreover, nodes sometimes do not cooperate with others due to their social likeness or their mobility. Noncooperative or selfish nodes can last for a longer time by preserving their resources for their own operations. However, such nodes can degrade the network's overall performance in terms of lower data gathering and information exchange rates, unbalanced work distribution, and higher end-to-end delays. This work surveys the main roots for motivating nodes to adapt selfish behavior and the solutions for handling such nodes. Different schemes are introduced to handle selfish nodes in wireless ad hoc networks. Various types of routing techniques have been introduced to target different types of ad hoc networks having support for keeping misbehaving or selfish nodes. The major solutions for such scenarios can be trust-, punishment-, and stimulation-based mechanisms. Some key protocols are simulated and analyzed for getting their performance metrics to compare their effectiveness.