TC: Small: Collaborative Research: Mathematics of Infection Diffusion in Wireless Networks

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Abstract The spread of malware has the potential to slow down or cripple wireless services. It poses a particularly inimical threat to a multitude of activities ranging across an entire spectrum from social interaction and gaming, to the flow of commerce and informational services, and, at the largest scale, to national security. Current countermeasures are mostly ad hoc and reactive in that they are used to fend off threats as they arrive or are preemptively discovered. This project aims to develop theoretical foundations for malware control and counter-measure design in wireless networks by drawing from epidemiological analogues in containment or quarantining strategies for limiting the spread of infectious diseases in human society, and game-theoretic models for interactions among opponents. Optimal power control quarantining strategies that curtail and regulate the spread of contagion by exploiting the broadcast property of the wireless medium will be designed, validated analytically and experimentally, and incorporated in networking protocols. This work will facilitate the development of new wireless paradigms where a plethora of devices need to securely communicate with each other and with other entities on the Internet. The research will not only draw from, but also contribute to, disparate disciplines such as epidemiology, game theory, optimal control and communication networks, and may eventually lead to new disciplines at the interfaces of these areas. Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained at the participating universities through supervision of doctoral and masters level dissertations and senior design projects.