Dr. Hitesh Tewari

Summary

With the advent of low-cost wireless hardware (e.g. Wi-Fi and WiMax), anyone with the right equipment and a high-speed connection to the Internet has the ability to establish a low-cost, independent pico- or microcellular network. These next-generation operators will provide high-speed network Internet access to large numbers of roaming mobile users and will be required to generate revenue for services rendered. However traditional telecoms based accounting and billing solutions will not be suitable in such dynamic environments. This proposal aims to implement a prototype electronic payment infrastructure that will allow next-generation mobile network operators to be paid in "real time" for service provision to roaming mobile users, without the need for long-lived trust and billing relationships with such users.

Funding Agency

Enterprise Ireland

Programme

Research Commercialization

Project Type

Proof of Concept (PoC)

Person Months

12

Summary

As part of this project we aim to develop a highly flexible and scalable electronic payment infrastructure that will allow a user to pay any WISP and subsequently a VoIP provider of his choosing without the need for long-lived trust and billing relationships with them. The WISP and VoIP provider will be paid in "real-time" for service provision and will be guaranteed payment once they have signed up to accept tokens from a payment broker. For the purposes of this proposal, we shall call the payment tokens "Metakoins" that can represent a quantum of time or money depending on the deployment scenario. The micropayment technology employed in this project makes use of a one-way hash function. The use of lightweight cryptographically protected micropayment tokens means that we can pay the WISP and VoIP provider for very short access periods e.g. a few minutes. Also, the use of micropayments eliminates the need for Call Detail Records (CDRs) to be generated and exchanged between the various entities in the system. This greatly reduces the possibility of dispute between the various parties post service provision, as the payment tokens can only be generated by the mobile users device, and once released to the operator or service provider act as a payment guarantee. This proposal will endeavour to deliver an electronic payment infrastructure that will spur the growth of independent network operators and service providers. This in turn will give end users greater roaming capabilities and choice of WISPs and VoIP providers. In terms of existing operators and service providers it will bring in new customers and increase their revenue streams. Our solution will enhance the user experience by simplifying the overall payment process. A user will be able to load his mobile device with prepaid tokens and pay all parties involved in the call using a single payment method (as is the case in cellular networks today) with the added ability to choose his WISP and VoIP provider independently based on criteria such as cost and quality of service.

Funding Agency

Enterprise Ireland

Programme

Research Commercialization

Project Type

Technology Development

Person Months

24

Summary

The project aims to investigate both public-key encryption schemes and signature schemes based on mathematical primitives that facilitate highly-efficient implementation, are resistant to quantum cryptanalysis, and can be formally proved secure in the standard model.

Funding Agency

IRCSET

Programme

PhD Research

Person Months

48

Summary

NDRC sponsored project to commercialize research carried out in the areas of Personal Identity Management (PIM) and secure Cloud Computing. The project aims to leverage the ubiquitous mobile phone to securely store and distribute authentication data and encryption keys while transacting online.

Funding Agency

NDRC

Programme

Feasibility Study

Project Type

Commercialization

Person Months

6

Summary

The CipherDocs technology that allows a user to seamlessly encrypt their cloud documents. One of the immediate applications for cloud computing is software as a service, whereby companies are looking to hosted services as a means of reducing their operational expenditure. However an important drawback is that users are required to delegate trust of their data to third parties. The CipherDocs browser plug-in makes use of a number of novel cryptographic techniques to encrypt in real-time user data that is being transmitted to the cloud.

Funding Agency

Enterprise Ireland

Programme

Technology Development

Person Months

12