Wireless Networks: WiMAX, WPAN, and Energy Harvesting Analysis

This report delves into the realm of wireless networks, exploring three data encryption standards of WiMAX: DES, Triple DES, and RC2, providing insights into their functionalities and security levels. It then examines the security challenges inherent in two WPAN technologies, Bluetooth and ZigBee, detailing vulnerabilities such as Bluesnarfing, Bluejacking, physical attacks, and key attacks. The report concludes with a critical reflection on energy harvesting, discussing its potential to revolutionize wireless networks by enabling continuous energy acquisition for devices like wireless sensors. It highlights the benefits of energy harvesting, explores different energy sources (solar, thermal, kinetic), and addresses the challenges associated with its implementation, including energy intermittency, system design, and energy storage. The report emphasizes the importance of energy harvesting for the future of wireless sensor networks and discusses the role of various external and ambient energy sources in this context, along with the challenges and opportunities related to its development and deployment.

Running head: WIRELESS NETWORKS
Wireless Networks
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Table of Contents
Part 1- Three Data Encryption Standards of WIMAX........................................................2
Part 2- Security Challenges of two examples of WPAN technologies................................3
Part 3- Critical Reflection on Energy Harvest.....................................................................4
References............................................................................................................................7

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Part 1- Three Data Encryption Standards of WIMAX
The three standards of data encryption of WIMAX are:
DES: Data Encryption Standard or DES is considered to be a symmetric key algorithm.
The block cipher here is of 64 bits. It has the ability to encrypt exactly 64 bits of data at a single
time. Presently it is known as AES. The DES differs from stream cipher because it does not
encrypt single bit at one time. This is a symmetric cryptography (ISLAM & AZAD, 2014). A
cipher block called Fiestal block forms the basis of DES. The size of key in this encryption
standard is 56 bits but the actual key input is of 8 byte. It is known to be the main standard or
form of symmetric algorithm.
Triple DES: Triple DES is a variation of the Data Encryption Standard. It is also known
as EDE which means to encrypt then decrypt and again encrypt. Three DES applications are
used in triple DES (Barker & Barker, 2012). There are two DES keys that are independent in
nature. An effective key length is generated that is 168 bits long. The three keys are of size 168,
112 and 56 bits. The 56 bits key is used for first encryption, and then the 112 bits key is used for
decryption. At the end the 168 bits key is used for encryption again (Bhanot & Hans, 2015). This
is much more secured than the DES.
RC2: RC2 is considered to be a symmetric key block cipher that is of 64 bits. The keys
used vary in length. The block cipher is iterated and its computation is a function of plaintext.
There are two types of rounds present in RC2 (Alam & Khan, 2013). RC2 is the optimized
version of the DES. The cipher here is fast. The decryption and encryption operations are not
equal. The keys are public. And it is a symmetric algorithm unlike the symmetric block cipher of

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DES and triple DES. It is vulnerable to security threats. There are sixteen mixing round and two
mashing rounds.
Part 2- Security Challenges of two examples of WPAN technologies
The example of WPAN technologies considered here is Bluetooth and ZigBee.
Security Issues in Bluetooth: The Bluetooth network is vulnerable to several security
risks and threats. A process by which hacker attacks or hacks a Bluetooth network is known as
Bluesnarfing. This type of hacking accesses the detailed information present in the cell phones
and wireless devices like photographs, contacts and other sensitive data (Minar & Tarique,
2012). This occurs in a silent manner and the user is unable to understand. There are threats of
another hacking technique called backdoor hacking. Here a non trusted device can still access the
information present in another mobile device. Bluejacking is a major threat in the Bluetooth
technology and networks (Padgette, 2017). Here the attacker renames their own device and
during the process of pairing with another device it influences the victim’s device to pair it with
them. Suppose the name of the attacker device is “Click accept for winning $500”. Then in this
case the victim can click access. This allows the hacker to get access to the victim’s device.
There are also other risks like virus and worms attack. Malware can harm the mobile device.
Security Issues in ZigBee: ZigBee is considered to be a standard that is used for wireless
networking. There are various kinds of attacks associated with ZigBee. Consider a device
containing ZigBee radio in it and if an attacker who has huge knowledge about it is able to
access the device physically then it is known as the physical attack. Here the attacker targets the
encryption key of the device (Zillner & Strobl, 2015). Another category of threat is called key
attacks. Here the attacker tries to gain access to a device from a remote location. It also tries to

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obtain the encryption key. This attack can take place by imitating a node on the network of
ZigBee (Wang, Jiang & Zhang, 2014). There is another type of attack or threat where the attack
is on the key but it also uses the packet replay attack or injection attacks. It attempts to trick the
device in order to perform an unauthorized activity or action. These types of security issues are
present because of the protocols that are light weight in design.
Part 3- Critical Reflection on Energy Harvest
Harvesting of energy can be done from the natural resources like thermal energy, solar
energy as well as kinetic energy. After deriving the energy it is stored for the purpose of small
and wireless devices like the sensor networks that are wireless. This energy harvesting concept
helps to conserve energy and it utilizes or consumes small range of power for those electronics
that need low energy.
If the wireless devices are incorporated with the capability to harvest energy then it will
enable every node in the wireless networks to acquire energy in a continuous manner. This
energy harvesting concept will be responsible for a great future of wireless networks. A wireless
network that will harvest energy will introduce numerous changes in the concept and operation
of wireless networking (Ulukus et al., 2015). There are several benefits that are expected
because of the energy harvesting concept. The consumption of conventional energy will become
less. Wireless networks will be able to get deployed in remote locations like the rural and village
areas. The energy harvesting technologies are solar and indoor lighting along with
electromagnetic and thermal energies. Energy harvesting can be done from human made sources
where the energy transfer takes place among various nodes over wireless medium. This can be
done in a controlled procedure. Every technology involved has a different level of capability

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along with different level of efficiency. The concept of engineering has been used in order to
improve the mechanism of energy harvesting in a continuous manner. It also improves the
process of communication in a wireless network. New dimensions are added to the problems of
wireless communications. There is intermittency as well as randomness in the availability of
energy. There is also intermittency as well as randomness in the energy sharing possibility that
can take place in the nodes present in the wireless network. All these present a new dimension to
the protocols that are applied in the several layers like medium access, physical as well as
networking layer. The information theoretic concept of harvesting energy uses AWGN channel
and the concept of Guassian noise. The output of this concept is the addition of input X and noise
N. The problems of communication using energy harvesting can be solved by certain
communication theories as well as networking approaches. The single channel optimization faces
a constraint called energy casualty. The solution provided here aims at keeping the power
periods at the longest stretch in a continuous manner. In case of multiple access channel,
directional as well as generalized water-filling along with iterative water-filling techniques are
used in a combined manner in order to get a management scheme that is optimum. Devices that
have the capability to harvest energy can send packets of data based on the policy of
transmission (Yang & Ulukus, 2012). There are issues relating to code designs as well. There are
certain challenges in harvesting energy in wireless networks. There are chances of improvements
in the process of transferring energy. There are challenges regarding the understanding of the
interdisciplinary nature associated with wireless networks and energy harvesting concept. It
mainly focuses on the integration of devices and circuits that harvest as well as transfer energy.
Wireless Sensor Networks are gaining importance with time. The major drawback of this
technology is that only limited amount of energy is associated with it. This limitation is trying to

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be resolved by designing and developing high performance and energy efficient systems that are
used for the purpose of energy harvesting. There are two main sources of energy called the
external and ambient sources (Shaikh & Zeadally, 2016). Ambient sources are available in the
nature very easily and with least cost. Explicit sources are explicitly deployed for the purpose
harvesting energy. In the method of radio frequency harvesting, radio waves get transformed into
DC power (Lu et al., 2015). In the process of thermal harvesting technique, the heat energy is
transformed into electric energy. Other forms of ambient sources include solar, wind and hydro
energy. The use of solar energy would be very effective in case of solving the WSN issues and
problems. The moving water generates energy and it is an effective method of harvesting energy.
Wind energy is also very important for the purpose of resolving the issues in WSN. External
sources of energy consider certain methods like mechanical harvesting and human based
harvesting. The mechanical harvesting technique uses the electrostatic, piezoelectric as well as
the electromagnetic mechanisms for harvesting energy. The variations in the pressure are
converted into energy. To monitor the physiological nature of a human certain sensor nodes are
put inside or on the body of the human. These harvest energy from the locomotive movement of
the humans. Energy harvesting models can be designed by taking into consideration two main
factors like rate and amount of energy harvested. The characteristics of the models will differ
based on the sources of energy. There are certain challenges like energy generation from several
sources, prediction as well as designing reliable systems that are energy efficient. The storage of
energy is also another challenge. Energy harvesting is extremely important for the future
development and deployment of WSN. Every energy source is associated with a different
capability. Based on the capabilities, the harvesting models are designed. There are still many
challenges that are not identified.

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References
Alam, M. I., & Khan, M. R. (2013). Performance and efficiency analysis of different block
cipher algorithms of symmetric key cryptography. International Journal of Advanced
Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 3(10).
Barker, W. C., & Barker, E. B. (2012). SP 800-67 Rev. 1. Recommendation for the Triple Data
Encryption Algorithm (TDEA) Block Cipher.
Bhanot, R., & Hans, R. (2015). A review and comparative analysis of various encryption
algorithms. International Journal of Security and Its Applications, 9(4), 289-306.
ISLAM, E., & AZAD, S. (2014). data encryption standard. Practical Cryptography:
Algorithms and Implementations Using C++, 57.
Lu, X., Wang, P., Niyato, D., Kim, D. I., & Han, Z. (2015). Wireless networks with RF energy
harvesting: A contemporary survey. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 17(2),
757-789.
Minar, N. B. N. I., & Tarique, M. (2012). Bluetooth security threats and solutions: a
survey. International Journal of Distributed and Parallel Systems, 3(1), 127.
Padgette, J. (2017). Guide to bluetooth security. NIST Special Publication, 800, 121.
Shaikh, F. K., & Zeadally, S. (2016). Energy harvesting in wireless sensor networks: A
comprehensive review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 55, 1041-1054.

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Ulukus, S., Yener, A., Erkip, E., Simeone, O., Zorzi, M., Grover, P., & Huang, K. (2015).
Energy harvesting wireless communications: A review of recent advances. IEEE
Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 33(3), 360-381.
Wang, C., Jiang, T., & Zhang, Q. (Eds.). (2014). ZigBee® network protocols and applications.
CRC Press.
Yang, J., & Ulukus, S. (2012). Optimal packet scheduling in an energy harvesting
communication system. IEEE Transactions on Communications, 60(1), 220-230.
Zillner, T., & Strobl, S. (2015). ZigBee exploited: The good the bad and the ugly.