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1. Uncovering insecure designs of cellular emergency services (911)

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3495243.3560534  

   Hu, Yiwen ; Chen, Min-Yue Chen ; Tu, Guan-Hua ; Li, Chi-Yu ; Wang, Sihan ; Shi, Jingwen ; Xie, Tian ; Xiao, Li ; Peng, Chunyi ; Tan, Zhaowei ; et al ( October 2022 , MobiCom '22: Proceedings of the 28th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing And Networking)

   Cellular networks that offer ubiquitous connectivity have been the major medium for delivering emergency services. In the U.S., mobile users can dial an emergency call with 911 for emergency uses in cellular networks, and the call can be forwarded to public safety answer points (PSAPs), which deal with emergency service requests. According to regulatory authority requirements for the cellular emergency services, anonymous user equipment (UE), which does not have a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card or a valid mobile subscription, is allowed to access them. Such support of emergency services for anonymous UEs requires different operations from conventional cellular services, and can therefore increase the attack surface of the cellular infrastructure. In this work, we are thus motivated to study the insecurity of the cellular emergency services and then discover four security vulnerabilities from them. Threateningly, they can be exploited to launch not only free data service attacks against cellular carriers, but also data DoS/overcharge and denial of cellular emergency service (DoCES) attacks against mobile users. All vulnerabilities and attacks have been validated experimentally as practical security issues in the networks of three major U.S. carriers. We finally propose and prototype standard-compliant remedies to mitigate the vulnerabilities. 

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2. Dynamic cost-effective emergency network provision

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3152896.3152904  

   Sriramulu, Roop K. ; Park, Younghee ; Chang, Sang-Yoon ; Liu, Kaikai ( January 2017 , I-TENDER '17 Proceedings of the First CoNEXT Workshop on ICT Tools for Emergency Networks and DisastEr Relief)

   The importance to our society of emergency network communications cannot be underestimated. The loss of communication and network systems in a state of emergency denies victims of disaster and city emergency response teams critical information about the crisis. It is essential to restore communication systems and service in order to ensure continuous and efficient emergency operations. This paper presents a cloud-based cost-effective emergency network management system to provide dynamic network services. We have developed a network application to enable users to access the Internet during an emergency. The application is ready to immediately restore lost connectivity through economical embedded systems and UAVs. We implement our prototypes based on Resin.io, a framework that utilizes Linux containers on IoT(Internet of Things) devices to deploy applications. We evaluate our systems on Raspberry Pi, a popular embedded system. We demonstrate the feasibility of our proposed system, showing that it is an economical infrastructure that it can successfully be used for an emergency network to replace a demolished network infrastructure. 

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3. Judicious QoS using Cloud Overlays

   Haq, Osama ; Doucette, Cody ; Byers, John W. ; Dogar, Fahad ( December 2020 , Computer communication review)

   We revisit the long-standing problem of providing network QoS to applications, and propose the concept of judicious QoS -- combining the cheaper, best effort IP service with the cloud, which offers a highly reliable infrastructure and the ability to add in-network services, albeit at higher cost. Our proposed J-QoS framework offers a range of reliability services with different cost vs. delay trade-offs, including: i) a forwarding service that forwards packets over the cloud overlay, ii) a caching service, which stores packets inside the cloud and allows them to be pulled in case of packet loss or disruption on the Internet, and iii) a novel coding service that provides the least expensive packet recovery option by combining packets of multiple application streams and sending a small number of coded packets across the more expensive cloud paths. We demonstrate the feasibility of these services using measurements from RIPE Atlas and a live deployment on PlanetLab. We also consider case studies on how J-QoS works with services up and down the network stack, including Skype video conferencing, TCP-based web transfers and cellular access networks. 

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4. "Discrete Event Simulation to Evaluate Shelter Capacity Expansion Options for LGBTQ+ Homeless Youth

   Kaya, Yaren ; Mantell, Sophia ; Maass, Kayse Lee ; Konrad, Renata ; Trapp, Andrew C. ; Dimas, Geri L. ; Dank, Meredith ( December 2022 , Proceedings Winter Simulation Conference)

   The New York City (NYC) youth shelter system provides housing, counseling, and other support services to runaway and homeless youth and young adults (RHY). These resources reduce RHY's vulnerability to human trafficking, yet most shelters are unable to meet demand. This paper presents a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) model of a crisis-emergency and drop-in center for LGBTQ+ youth in NYC, which aims to analyze the current operations and test potential capacity expansion interventions. The model uses data from publicly available resources and interviews with service providers and key stakeholders. The simulated shelter has 66 crisis-emergency beds, offers five different support services, and serves on average 1,399 LGBTQ+ RHY per year. The capacity expansion interventions examined in this paper are adding crisis-emergency beds and psychiatric therapists. This application of DES serves as a tool to communicate with policymakers, funders, and service providers-potentially having a strong humanitarian impact. 

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5. Analysis of Orange County 311 System service requests during the COVID-19 pandemic

   Pamukcu, D. ; Zobel, C.W. ; Ge, Y. ( May 2021 , Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management)

   null (Ed.)

   Orange County, Florida is intimately familiar with impacts of natural disasters because of the yearly threat of hurricanes in the southeastern United States. One of the tools that has aided them in their efforts to monitor and manage such disasters is their 311 non-emergency call system, through which local residents can issue requests to the municipality for disaster-related information or other services. This paper provides a preliminary examination of the potential for the Orange County 311 system to provide actionable information to them in support of their efforts to manage a different type of disaster: the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential of the system to support the County in this context is illustrated through several preliminary analyses of the complete set of service requests that were registered in the first ten months of 2020. 

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