Research Problem and Purpose

Nowadays we are in the middle of a technological transformation, where most communicating devices in the physical world in all application areas are becoming smarter, more capable and more connected. Such Internet of Things (IoT) devices promise to improve efficiency in the smart and secure environment (SSE) such as smart cities, smart grids, smart farming, smart factories, military, connected vehicles, healthcare, the environment and creating new opportunities in homes. Most IoT devices are cloud-centric and characterised by device-to-device communication, device-to-cloud communication, and cloud analytics. IoT applications face numerous challenges in SSE such as poor bandwidth, poor connectivity, latency and not compatible with cloud-centric architectures.

Smart environments have many potential applications, for example, the elderly, infirm, and hearing disabled can live an independent life utilising a smart environment that supports the various Internet of Things devices and vicarious learning. The smart environment needs to be designed to exploit rich combinations of IoT devices and computational nodes to transport personalized services to the user when they want to exchange information and interact with each other and the environment. Within smart environments, a reliable cryptographic technique is needed for users to secure the communication networks and required data. A recent advance in networking, a smart environment is a region of the real world that is broadly equipped with Internet of Things devices, computing components, and sensors.

Themes
The purpose of the focus area is to develop a distributed framework for secure communications by developing a Smart and Secure Environment, and to develop secure applications required for education, the military, entertainment, agriculture, transportation, healthcare, etc. Further research in this area aims to develop novel techniques, viz., a modified AES algorithm, video communication over wireless networks, robust security, sensor network applications, a digital signature based on biometric identification, routing and QoS for optimization, and autonomous configuration.

• Smart Communication
  Introducing self-managing functions into smart and secure environments (wired, wireless, and so on) for self-adaptability and situation driven behaviour changes in services, devices, systems, or applications is one proposed solution to designing an acceptable architecture of computer communication networks to enable the operation of required autonomic behaviours of the network devices.
• Smart Transport
  Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been considered to be a promising form of communication whereby real-time information is shared among vehicles. Information can be shared either between vehicles or between Road Side Units (RSUs) and vehicles. The primary goal of this sub-theme is the development of the most efficient V2V protocol mechanism to enhance the performance of VANET in relations of system propagation delay and throughput.
• Smart Cities
  The aim of these subthemes is to develop smart computing and communication, functional interoperability for IoT devices, edge computing, QoS support, as well as to explore future research directions that address the challenges within the context of a local environment such as home, factory, vehicle, office or airport, etc.

Privacy and Security
The digital information age has brought about major changes in the way the Namibian society does business and communicates. The community has evolved to:

• Use social networking forums such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp as the main tool for communication.
• Depend on smartphones which avail the possibility for people in remote areas to use the telecommunication service to access the World Wide Web and social tools anytime.
• Incorporate business and social transactions over the efficient, smarter and advanced ICTs.
• Become part of the global village.
• Embrace the Internet of Everything (IOE) in every sphere of their lives.  With increased dependency on the insecure internet from businesses, society and government alike, cybercriminals have been availed with more easy targets and an efficient, unregulated medium for automating online crimes. It is of utmost importance that we avail solutions for resilient cyber systems, digital forensics, secure smart cities and usable information security tools.

IEEE Project (Number: P1931.1TM)
Sponsoring Society and Committee: IEEE Communications Society/Standards Development Board (COM/SDB): Faculty actively involved in the development of the IEEE Standard for an Architectural Framework for Real-time Onsite Operations Facilitation (ROOF) for the Internet of Things.

Contact:
Prof Dharm Singh Jat (dsingh@nust.na)
Prof Fungai Bhunu Shava (fbshava@nust.na)
Prof Guy-Alain Zodi Lusilao (gzodi@nust.na)
Prof Hippolyte N. Muyingi (hmuyingi@nust.na)

Dependable and Secure Advanced Network Systems - Prof Dharm Singh Jat

Faculty Members:

• Prof Dharm Singh Jat
• Prof Jose Quenum

Students:

Smart Communication Systems – Prof Zodi Lusilao and Prof Hippolyte N. MUYINGI

Project: Computer Science and Culture: Knowledge Interactivity Research Group – Prof Hippolyte N. MUYINGI

Faculty Members:

• Prof Hippolyte N. MUYINGI
• Mr Herman Kandjimi
• Ms Ndinelao Nashandi

Students:

Faculty Members:

• Prof Guy-Alain Zodi Lusilao
• Prof Hippolyte N. MUYINGI
• Prof Dharm Singh Jat

Students:

Digital Forensics and Information Security –Prof Fungai Bhunu Shava

Projects:

• Child online Protection Prof Fungai Bhunu Shava

• Digital Footprint Prof Fungai Bhunu Shava

• AU/NEPAD SANWATCE - WARFSA Dr Mercy Chitauro

• Neighbourhood Watch Prof Fungai Bhunu Shava

• Telecommunication Monetisation of IoT Applications Dr Attlee M. Gamundani

• IoT and AI application solutions development Dr Attlee M. Gamundani

Faculty Members:

• Prof Fungai Bhunu Shava
• Dr Attlee M. Gamundani
• Dr Mercy Chitauro
• Mr Shadreck Chitauro
• Mr Isaac Nhamu
• Mr Julius Silaa
• Mr Edward Nepolo
• Mr Gabriel Nhinda
• Ms Uakomba Mbasuva
• https://cybersecresearchers.org/

Students: