Publications

Hayi MY, Chouiref Z, Moumen H. Towards Intelligent Road Traffic Management Over a Weighted Large Graphs Hybrid Meta-Heuristic-Based Approach. Journal of Cases on Information Technology (JCIT) [Internet]. 2022;24 (3) :1-18. Publisher's VersionAbstract

This paper introduces a new approach of hybrid meta-heuristics based optimization technique for decreasing the computation time of the shortest paths algorithm. The problem of finding the shortest paths is a combinatorial optimization problem which has been well studied from various fields. The number of vehicles on the road has increased incredibly. Therefore, traffic management has become a major problem. We study the traffic network in large scale routing problems as a field of application. The meta-heuristic we propose introduces new hybrid genetic algorithm named IOGA. The problem consists of finding the k optimal paths that minimizes a metric such as distance, time, etc. Testing was performed using an exact algorithm and meta-heuristic algorithm on random generated network instances. Experimental analyses demonstrate the efficiency of our proposed approach in terms of runtime and quality of the result. Empirical results obtained show that the proposed algorithm outperforms some of the existing technique in term of the optimal solution in every generation.

Benreguia B, Moumen H. Some Consistency Rules for Graph Matching. SN Computer Science [Internet]. 2022;3 (2) :1-16. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Graph matching is a comparison process of two objects represented as graphs through finding a correspondence between vertices and edges. This process allows defining a similarity degree (or dissimilarity) between the graphs. Generally, graph matching is used for extracting, finding and retrieving any information or sub-information that can be represented by graphs. In this paper, a new consistency rule is proposed to tackle with various problems of graph matching. After, using the proposed rule as a necessary and sufficient condition for the graph isomorphism, we generalize it for subgraph isomorphism, homomorphism and for an example of inexact graph matching. To determine whether there is a matching or not, a backtracking algorithm called CRGI2 is presented who checks the consistency rule by exploring the overall search space. The tree-search is consolidated with a tree pruning technique that eliminates the unfruitful branches as early as possible. Experimental results show that our algorithm is efficient and applicable for a real case application in the information retrieval field. On the efficiency side, due to the ability of the proposed rule to eliminate as early as possible the incorrect solutions, our algorithm outperforms the existing algorithms in the literature. For the application side, the algorithm has been successfully tested for querying a real dataset that contains a large set of e-mail messages.

Noui L. Security limitations of Shamir’s secret sharing. Journal of Discrete Mathematical Sciences and Cryptography [Internet]. 2022 :1-13. Publisher's VersionAbstract

The security is so important for both storing and transmitting the digital data, the choice of parameters is critical for a security system, that is, a weak parameter will make the scheme very vulnerable to attacks, for example the use of supersingular curves or anomalous curves leads to weaknesses in elliptic curve cryptosystems, for RSA cryptosystem there are some attacks for low public exponent or small private exponent. In certain circumstances the secret sharing scheme is required to decentralize the risk. In the context of the security of secret sharing schemes, it is known that for the scheme of Shamir, an unqualified set of shares cannot leak any information about the secret. This paper aims to show that the well-known Shamir’s secret sharing is not always perfect and that the uniform randomization before sharing is insufficient to obtain a secure scheme. The second purpose of this paper is to give an explicit construction of weak polynomials for which the Shamir’s (k, n) threshold scheme is insecure in the sense that there exist a fewer than k shares which can reconstruct the secret. Particular attention is given to the scheme whose threshold is less than or equal to 6. It also showed that for certain threshold k, the secret can be calculated by a pair of shares with the probability of 1/2. Finally, in order to address the mentioned vulnerabilities, several classes of polynomials should be avoided.

Mezzoudj S. A parallel content-based image retrieval system using spark and tachyon frameworks. Journal of King Saud University - Computer and Information Sciences [Internet]. 2021;33 (2) :141-149. Publisher's VersionAbstract

With the huge increase of large-scale multimedia over Internet, especially images, building Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems for large-scale images has become a big challenge. One of the drawbacks associated with CBIR is the very long execution time. In this article, we propose a fast Content-Based Image Retrieval system using Spark (CBIR-S) targeting large-scale images. Our system is composed of two steps. (i) image indexation step, in which we use MapReduce distributed model on Spark in order to speed up the indexation process. We also use a memory-centric distributed storage system, called Tachyon, to enhance the write operation (ii) image retrieving step which we speed up by using a parallel k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) search method based on MapReduce model implemented under Apache Spark, in addition to exploiting the cache method of spark framework. We have showed, through a wide set of experiments, the effectiveness of our approach in terms of processing time.

Aouadj W, Abdessemed M-R. A Reliable Behavioral Model: Optimizing Energy Consumption and Object Clustering Quality by Naïve Robots. International Journal of Swarm Intelligence Research (IJSIR) [Internet]. 2021;12 (4). Publisher's VersionAbstract

This study concerns a swarm of autonomous reactive mobile robots, qualified of naïve because of their simple constitution, having the mission of gathering objects randomly distributed while respecting two contradictory objectives: maximizing quality of the emergent heap-formation and minimizing energy consumed by aforesaid robots. This problem poses two challenges: it is a multi-objective optimization problem and it is a hard problem. To solve it, one of renowned multi-objective evolutionary algorithms is used. Obtained solution, via a simulation process, unveils a close relationship between behavioral-rules and consumed energy; it represents the sought behavioral model, optimizing the grouping quality and energy consumption. Its reliability is shown by evaluating its robustness, scalability, and flexibility. Also, it is compared with a single-objective behavioral model. Results' analysis proves its high robustness, its superiority in terms of scalability and flexibility, and its longevity measured based on the activity time of the robotic system that it integrates.

Idir A, Saber B, Laid K, Okba K. A Multi-Population Genetic Algorithm for Adaptive QoS-Aware Service Composition in FogIoT Healthcare Environment. The International Arab Journal of Information Technology [Internet]. 2021;18 (2). Publisher's VersionAbstract

The growth of Internet of Thing (IoT) implies the availability of a very large number of services which may be similar or the same, managing the Quality of Service (QoS) helps to differentiate one service from another. The service composition provides the ability to perform complex activities by combining the functionality of several services within a single process. Very few works have presented an adaptive service composition solution managing QoS attributes, moreover in the field of healthcare, which is one of the most difficult and delicate as it concerns the precious human life.In this paper, we will present an adaptive QoS-Aware Service Composition Approach (P-MPGA) based on multi-population genetic algorithm in Fog-IoT healthcare environment. To enhance Cloud-IoT architecture, we introduce a Fog-IoT 5-layared architecture. Secondly, we implement a QoS-Aware Multi-Population Genetic Algorithm (P-MPGA), we considered 12 QoS dimensions, i.e., Availability (A), Cost (C), Documentation (D), Location (L), Memory Resources (M), Precision (P), Reliability (R), Response time (Rt), Reputation (Rp), Security (S), Service Classification (Sc), Success rate (Sr), Throughput (T). Our P-MPGA algorithm implements a smart selection method which allows us to select the right service. Also, P-MPGA implements a monitoring system that monitors services to manage dynamic change of IoT environments. Experimental results show the excellent results of P-MPGA in terms of execution time, average fitness values and execution time / best fitness value ratio despite the increase in population. P-MPGA can quickly achieve a composite service satisfying user’s QoS needs, which makes it suitable for a large scale IoT environment.

Taguelmimt R, Beghdad R. DS-kNN: An Intrusion Detection System Based on a Distance Sum-Based K-Nearest Neighbors. International Journal of Information Security and Privacy (IJISP) [Internet]. 2021;15 (2) :131-144. Publisher's VersionAbstract

On one hand, there are many proposed intrusion detection systems (IDSs) in the literature. On the other hand, many studies try to deduce the important features that can best detect attacks. This paper presents a new and an easy-to-implement approach to intrusion detection, named distance sum-based k-nearest neighbors (DS-kNN), which is an improved version of k-NN classifier. Given a data sample to classify, DS-kNN computes the distance sum of the k-nearest neighbors of the data sample in each of the possible classes of the dataset. Then, the data sample is assigned to the class having the smallest sum. The experimental results show that the DS-kNN classifier performs better than the original k-NN algorithm in terms of accuracy, detection rate, false positive, and attacks classification. The authors mainly compare DS-kNN to CANN, but also to SVM, S-NDAE, and DBN. The obtained results also show that the approach is very competitive.

Ledmi M, Moumen H, Siam A, Haouassi H, Azizi N. A Discrete Crow Search Algorithm for Mining Quantitative Association Rules. International Journal of Swarm Intelligence Research (IJSIR) [Internet]. 2021;12 (4) :101-124. Publisher's VersionAbstract


Association rules are the specific data mining methods aiming to discover explicit relations between the different attributes in a large dataset. However, in reality, several datasets may contain both numeric and categorical attributes. Recently, many meta-heuristic algorithms that mimic the nature are developed for solving continuous problems. This article proposes a new algorithm, DCSA-QAR, for mining quantitative association rules based on crow search algorithm (CSA). To accomplish this, new operators are defined to increase the ability to explore the searching space and ensure the transition from the continuous to the discrete version of CSA. Moreover, a new discretization algorithm is adopted for numerical attributes taking into account dependencies probably that exist between attributes. Finally, to evaluate the performance, DCSA-QAR is compared with particle swarm optimization and mono and multi-objective evolutionary approaches for mining association rules. The results obtained over real-world datasets show the outstanding performance of DCSA-QAR in terms of quality measures.

Meissa M, Benharzallah S, Kahloul L, Kazar O. A Personalized Recommendation for Web API Discovery in Social Web of Things. INTERNATIONAL ARAB JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY [Internet]. 2021;18 (3 A) :438-445. Publisher's VersionAbstract

With the explosive growth of Web of Things (WoT) and social web, it is becoming hard for device owners and users to find suitable web Application Programming Interface (API) that meet their needs among a large amount of web APIs. Socialaware and collaborative filtering-based recommender systems are widely applied to recommend personalized web APIs to users and to face the problem of information overload. However, most of the current solutions suffer from the dilemma of accuracydiversity where the prediction accuracy gains are typically accompanied by losses in the diversity of the recommended APIs due to the influence of popularity factor on the final score of APIs (e.g., high rated or high-invoked APIs). To address this problem, the purpose of this paper is developing an improved recommendation model called (Personalized Web API Recommendation) PWR, which enables to discover APIs and provide personalized suggestions for users without sacrificing the recommendation accuracy. To validate the performance of our model, seven variant algorithms of different approaches (popularity-based, userbased and item-based) are compared using MovieLens 20M dataset. The experiments show that our model improves the recommendation accuracy by 12% increase with the highest score among compared methods. Additionally it outperforms the compared models in diversity over all lengths of recommendation lists. It is envisaged that the proposed model is useful to accurately recommend personalized web API for users.

Belazoui A, Telli A, Arar C. Web-Based Learning Under Tacit Mining of Various Data Sources. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning [Internet]. 2021;16 (16). Publisher's VersionAbstract

Nowadays, many platforms provide open educational resources to learners. So, they must browse and explore several suggested contents to better assimilate their courses. To facilitate the selecting task of these resources, the present paper proposes an intelligent tutoring system that can access teaching contents available on the web automatically and offers them to learners as additional information sources. In doing so, the authors highlight the description logic approach and its knowledge representation strength that underwrites the modulization, inference, and querying about a web ontology language, and enhanced traditional tutoring systems architecture using ontologies and description logic to enable them to access various data sources on the web. Finally, this article concludes that the combination of machine learning with the semantic web has provided a supportive study environment and enhanced the schooling conditions within open and distance learning.

Arar C, Belazoui A, Telli A. Adoption of social robots as pedagogical aids for efficient learning of second language vocabulary to children. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society [Internet]. 2021;17 (3) :119-126. Publisher's VersionAbstract

In this digital age embracing robotics across various areas of life, especially intellectual ones, have reaped great benefits owing to this modern technology. Therefore, the learning field has not remained unchanged given current evolutions as the schooling conditions have been improved through these smart devices. However, teachers still face some difficulties when choosing pedagogical methods and means for effective language learning for children. Thus, this paper aims to measure the effectiveness of social robots in facilitating children’s learning of a second language (L2). For this purpose, the term L2 learning and its subordinate concepts have been distinguished, and then the different methods of language learning were discussed. The latest research regarding social robots in the educational context was also discussed when reviewing the literature. An experimental study conducted on a sample of children illustrated that the use of the social robot significantly helped them in the L2 learning regarding the assimilation fast, retention, and correct pronunciation of its vocabulary. Finally, this study concludes that the social robot would be a good solution and recommends their widespread use in education given its role in improving the schooling conditions of children.

Zroug S, Kahloul L, Benharzallah S, Djouani K. A hierarchical formal method for performance evaluation of WSNs protocol. Computing [Internet]. 2021;103 (6) :1183-1208. Publisher's VersionAbstract

The design and the evaluation of communication protocols in WSNs is a crucial issue. Generally, researchers use simulation methods to evaluate them. However, formal modelling and analysis techniques are an efficient alternative to simulation methods. Indeed, these techniques allow performance evaluation and model verification. In this paper, a formal approach is proposed to modelling and to evaluating the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) MAC protocol with a star topology. Moreover, the proposed approach deals with some properties that are not stated in most existing works. The approach uses Hierarchical Timed Coloured Petri Nets (HTCPNs) formalism to model the protocol and exploits the CPN-Tools to analyse the generated models. HTCPNs provide timed aspect which facilitates the consideration of time constraints inherent to the CSMA/CA protocol.

Hmidi Z, Kahloul L, Benharzallah S, Hamani N. Performance evaluation of ODMAC protocol for WSNs powered by ambient energy. International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling [Internet]. 2021;17 (1) :67-78. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Designing a good MAC protocol remains a challenge. Such a protocol has to guarantee access to the medium while reducing energy consumption. With the appearance of energy harvesting-wireless sensor networks (EH-WSNs), energy is no longer a problem but the challenge now is that each sensor remains in its energetically sustainable state as much as possible. This paper proposes a formal study of on demand MAC (ODMAC) one of the well-known protocols proposed for EH-WSNs. An analysis through statistical model checking is made where properties that guarantee the protocol's correctness are verified and a performance evaluation of important aspects is achieved.

Aoudia I, Benharzallah S, Kahloul L, Kazar O. A Multi-Population Genetic Algorithm for Adaptive QoS-Aware Service Composition in Fog-IoT Healthcare Environment. Int. Arab. J. Inf. Technol [Internet]. 2021;18 :464-475. Publisher's VersionAbstract

The growth of Internet of Thing (IoT) implies the availability of a very large number of services which may be similar or the same, managing the Quality of Service (QoS) helps to differentiate one service from another. The service composition provides the ability to perform complex activities by combining the functionality of several services within a single process. Very few works have presented an adaptive service composition solution managing QoS attributes, moreover in the field of healthcare, which is one of the most difficult and delicate as it concerns the precious human life.In this paper, we will present an adaptive QoS-Aware Service Composition Approach (P-MPGA) based on multi-population genetic algorithm in Fog-IoT healthcare environment. To enhance Cloud-IoT architecture, we introduce a Fog-IoT 5-layared architecture. Secondly, we implement a QoS-Aware Multi-Population Genetic Algorithm (P-MPGA), we considered 12 QoS dimensions, i.e., Availability (A), Cost (C), Documentation (D), Location (L), Memory Resources (M), Precision (P), Reliability (R), Response time (Rt), Reputation (Rp), Security (S), Service Classification (Sc), Success rate (Sr), Throughput (T). Our P-MPGA algorithm implements a smart selection method which allows us to select the right service. Also, P-MPGA implements a monitoring system that monitors services to manage dynamic change of IoT environments. Experimental results show the excellent results of P-MPGA in terms of execution time, average fitness values and execution time / best fitness value ratio despite the increase in population. P-MPGA can quickly achieve a composite service satisfying user’s QoS needs, which makes it suitable for a large scale IoT environment

Djebaili K, Melkemi L. A Different Encryption System Based on the Integer Factorization Problem. Malaysian Journal of Computing and Applied Mathematics [Internet]. 2020;3 (1) :50-54. Publisher's VersionAbstract

We present a new computational problem in this paper, namely the order of a group element problem which is based on the factorization problem, and we analyze its applications in cryptography. We present a new one-way function and from this function we propose a homomorphic probabilistic scheme for encryption. Our scheme, provably secure under the new computational problem in the standard model.

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