BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:EventsCalendar PRODID:-//hacksw/handcal//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York LAST-MODIFIED:20240422T053451Z TZURL:https://www.tzurl.org/zoneinfo-outlook/America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZNAME:EDT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:19700308T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZNAME:EST TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:19701101T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:College of Engineering,Lectures and Seminars,Thesis/Dissertation s DESCRIPTION:Topic:  An efficient and secure messaging protocol (ESMP) for interacting with microcontrollers over MQTT - A framework for creating dyn amic IoT hardware  Abstract: While the Internet of Things (IoT) is set to grow to 40 billion connected devices by 2030, developing an IoT product i s still incredibly complex. The process of developing a single IoT product requires a person (or team) to have expertise spanning firmware developme nt, hardware development, and web development. Due to the complexity durin g the development process, IoT products are often single purpose, communic ate using proprietary protocols to servers in unknown locations, and their functionality cannot be extended by a user after deployment. Research int o creating frameworks that allow machine to machine (M2M) communication an d simplified development, such as Firmata and ASIP, face limitations in ef ficiency, extensibility, and security.  This thesis proposes ESMP, an Eff icient and Secure Messaging Protocol. ESMP is designed for bi-directional M2M communication, where both the server and the microcontroller use a com mon language to communicate. To do this, ESMP is combining Google’s Prot ocol Buffer format, the MQTT protocol, and security at the transport-layer .  ESMP messages use a “super message” design which wraps all sub-mes sages into a single schema to reduce the number of managed MQTT subscripti ons. It comprises a network architecture using MQTT where the embedded dev ice shares the same set of protocol buffer schemas with the MQTT broker. S ecurity at the application layer is approached using username/password aut hentication; unique client identification, and packet data is SSL-encrypte d. Whereas regular embedded firmware has predefined hardware behavior as p art of its firmware, the ESMP client is a “blank slate” that receives commands from the ESMP broker. Using a RPC-like action mechanism, an ESMP client allows a ESMP broker to dynamically control its hardware. An open-s ource GUI tool allows users to visually construct and send protocol buffer messages to an ESMP client.  An overhead evaluation of the payload showe d ESMP’s protocol buffer schema produced the smallest payload size when compared to XML, JSON, and plain-text data encoding. The latency evaluatio n showed ESMP’s RTT latency to be slower than the ASIP baseline, but wit h this trade-off justified because the device communicates over WiFI rathe r than wired Ethernet, allowing it to be deployed anywhere in the field. T he viability of ESMP was proven by using ESMP to construct a real-world Io T application, a door sensor which sends its status to the ESMP broker whe n it is open. Finally, the extensibility of ESMP was validated by adding n ew functionality to ESMP with minimal impact to device flash/RAM utilizati on.  ESMP demonstrates a viable solution for efficient and secure M2M com munication for the IoT. It presents a way to extend the functionality of a n IoT product without compromising security or data efficiency. The feasib ility of this solution has been validated by its adoption into Adafruit’ s WipperSnapper firmware, an open source IoT firmware deployed on thousand s of devices, enabling users to build IoT products and projects without pr ogramming.  Advisor(s): Dr. Hong Liu, Commonwealth Professor, Dept. of El ectrical & Computer Engineering, UMass Dartmouth  Committee Members: Dr. Ruolin Zhou, Associate Professor, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineeri ng, UMass Dartmouth; Dr. Limor Fried, Founder & Engineer, Adafruit Industr ies Note: All ECE Graduate Students are encouraged to attend. All interest ed parties are invited to attend. Open to the public. For further informat ion, please contact Dr. Hong Liu email at hliu@umassd.edu Zoom Link:  htt ps://umassd.zoom.us/j/93281343753Meeting ID: 932 8134 3753 Passcode: 51824 7\nEvent page: https://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/cpe-master-of-science-the sis-defense-by-brent-rubell---ece-department.php\nEvent link: https://umas sd.zoom.us/j/93281343753 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Topic:  An efficient and secur e messaging protocol (ESMP) for interacting with microcontrollers over MQT T - A framework for creating dynamic IoT hardware 

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Abstract: Whil e the Internet of Things (IoT) is set to grow to 40 billion connected devi ces by 2030\, developing an IoT product is still incredibly complex. The p rocess of developing a single IoT product requires a person (or team) to h ave expertise spanning firmware development\, hardware development\, and w eb development. Due to the complexity during the development process\, IoT products are often single purpose\, communicate using proprietary protoco ls to servers in unknown locations\, and their functionality cannot be ext ended by a user after deployment. Research into creating frameworks that a llow machine to machine (M2M) communication and simplified development\, s uch as Firmata and ASIP\, face limitations in efficiency\, extensibility\, and security. 

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This thesis proposes ESMP\, an Efficient and Secu re Messaging Protocol. ESMP is designed for bi-directional M2M communicati on\, where both the server and the microcontroller use a common language t o communicate. To do this\, ESMP is combining Google’s Protocol Buffer f ormat\, the MQTT protocol\, and security at the transport-layer. 

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ESMP messages use a “super message” design which wraps all sub-messag es into a single schema to reduce the number of managed MQTT subscriptions . It comprises a network architecture using MQTT where the embedded device shares the same set of protocol buffer schemas with the MQTT broker. Secu rity at the application layer is approached using username/password authen tication\; unique client identification\, and packet data is SSL-encrypted . Whereas regular embedded firmware has predefined hardware behavior as pa rt of its firmware\, the ESMP client is a “blank slate” that receives commands from the ESMP broker. Using a RPC-like action mechanism\, an ESMP client allows a ESMP broker to dynamically control its hardware. An open- source GUI tool allows users to visually construct and send protocol buffe r messages to an ESMP client. 

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An overhead evaluation of the payl oad showed ESMP’s protocol buffer schema produced the smallest payload s ize when compared to XML\, JSON\, and plain-text data encoding. The latenc y evaluation showed ESMP’s RTT latency to be slower than the ASIP baseli ne\, but with this trade-off justified because the device communicates ove r WiFI rather than wired Ethernet\, allowing it to be deployed anywhere in the field. The viability of ESMP was proven by using ESMP to construct a real-world IoT application\, a door sensor which sends its status to the E SMP broker when it is open. Finally\, the extensibility of ESMP was valida ted by adding new functionality to ESMP with minimal impact to device flas h/RAM utilization. 

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ESMP demonstrates a viable solution for effic ient and secure M2M communication for the IoT. It presents a way to extend the functionality of an IoT product without compromising security or data efficiency. The feasibility of this solution has been validated by its ad option into Adafruit’s WipperSnapper firmware\, an open source IoT firmw are deployed on thousands of devices\, enabling users to build IoT product s and projects without programming. 

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Advisor(s): Dr. Hong Liu\, C ommonwealth Professor\, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering\, UMass Dartmouth 

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Committee Members:
Dr. Ruolin Zhou\, Associate Professor\, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering\, UMass Dartmouth\;
Dr. Limor Fried\, Founder & Engineer\, Adafruit Industries

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Note: All ECE Graduate Students are encouraged to attend. All interested parties are invited to attend. Open to the public.

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For further information\, please contact Dr. Hong Liu email at hliu@umassd.edu

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Zoom Link:  https://umassd.zoom.us/j/93281343753< /a>
Meeting ID: 932 8134 3753
Passcode: 518247

Event page : https://www.umassd.edu/event s/cms/cpe-master-of-science-thesis-defense-by-brent-rubell---ece-departmen t.php
Event link: ht tps://umassd.zoom.us/j/93281343753

DTSTAMP:20260422T230528 DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260506T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260506T130000 LOCATION:Lester W. Cory Conference Room, Science & Engineering Building (SENG), Room 213A SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:CPE Master of Science Thesis Defense by Brent Rubell - ECE Department UID:7c0f5d0c3c3a0dc85f9332bd2ce7a36e@www.umassd.edu END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR