International Journal of Web and Grid Services (6 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Smart and adaptive website navigation recommendations based on reinforcement learning  
  by I-Hsien Ting, Ying-Ling Tang, Kazunori Minetaki 
  Abstract: Improving website structures is the main task of a website designer. In recent years, numerous web engineering researchers have investigated navigation recommendation systems. Page recommendation systems are critical for mobile website navigation. Accordingly, we propose a smart and adaptive navigation recommendation system based on reinforcement learning. In this system, user navigation history is used as the input for reinforcement learning model. The model calculates a surf value for each page of the website; this value is used to rank the pages. On the basis of this ranking, the website structure is modified to shorten the user navigation path length. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed system. The results revealed that user navigation paths could be decreased by up to 50% with training on 12 months of data, indicating that users could more easily find a target web page with the help of the proposed adaptive navigation recommendation system.
  Keywords: web usage mining; adaptive website; navigation recommendation; reinforcement learning.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJWGS.2024.10062988
   
  
• DeFog: dynamic micro-service placement in hybrid cloud-fog-edge infrastructures  
  by Athanasios Prountzos, Euripides G.M. Petrakis 
  Abstract: DeFog is an innovative microservice placement and load balancing approach for distributed multi-cluster cloud-fog-edge architectures to minimise application response times. The architecture is modelled as a three-layered hierarchy. Each layer consists of one or more clusters of machines, with resource constraints increasing towards lower layers. Applications are modelled as service oriented architectures (SOA) comprising multiple interconnected microservices. As many applications can be run simultaneously, and as the resources of the edge and the fog are limited, choosing among services to run on the edge or the fog is the problem this work is dealing with. DeFog focuses on dynamic (i.e., adaptive) decentralised service placement within each cluster with zero downtime, eliminating the need for coordination between clusters. To assess the effectiveness of DeFog, two realistic applications based on microservices are deployed, and several placement policies are tested to select the one that reduces application latency. Least frequently used (LFU) is the reference service placement strategy. The experimental results reveal that a replacement policy that uses individual microservice latency as the crucial factor affecting service placement outperformed LFU by at least 10% in application response time.
  Keywords: cloud; edge; fog; microservices; service placement.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJWGS.2024.10064387
   
  
• An architectural view of VANETs cloud: its models, services, applications and challenges  
  by Farhana Ajaz, Mohd. Naseem, Mohammad Shabaz, Muhammad Attique Khan 
  Abstract: This research explores vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) and their extensive applications, such as enhancing traffic efficiency, infotainment, and passenger safety. Despite significant study, widespread deployment of VANETs has been hindered by security and privacy concerns. Challenges in implementation, including scalability, flexibility, poor connection, and insufficient intelligence, have further complicated VANETs. This study proposes leveraging cloud computing to address these challenges, marking a paradigm shift. Cloud computing, recognised for its cost-efficiency and virtualisation, is integrated with VANETs. The paper details the nomenclature, architecture, models, services, applications, and challenges of VANET-based cloud computing. Three architectures for VANET clouds - vehicular clouds (VCs), vehicles utilising clouds (VuCs), and hybrid vehicular clouds (HVCs) - are discussed in detail. The research provides an overview, delves into related work, and explores VANET cloud computing's architectural frameworks, models, and cloud services. It concludes with insights into future work and a comprehensive conclusion.
  Keywords: cloud architecture; cloud services; roadside units; RSU; cloud computing; architectural design.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJWGS.2024.10063636
   
  
• A feature-based model selection approach using web traffic for tourism data  
  by Ali Abdul Karim, Eric Pardede, Scott Mann 
  Abstract: The increased volume of accessible internet data creates an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to improve time series forecasting for many indicators. In our study, we assess the value of web traffic data in forecasting the number of short-term visitors travelling to Australia. We propose a feature-based model selection framework which combines random forest with feature ranking process to select the best performing model using limited and informative number of features extracted from web traffic data. The data was obtained for several tourist attraction and tourism information websites that could be visited by potential tourists to find out more about their destinations. The results of random forest models were evaluated over 3- and 12-month forecasting horizon. Features from web traffic data appears in the final model for short term forecasting. Further, the model with additional data performs better on unseen data post the COVID19 pandemic. Our study shows that web traffic data adds value to tourism forecasting and can assist tourist destination site managers and decision makers in forming timely decisions to prepare for changes in tourism demand.
  Keywords: tourism demand forecasting; web traffic data; random forest; feature ranking; time series forecasting.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJWGS.2024.10064054
   
  
• An efficient edge swap mechanism for enhancement of robustness in scale-free networks in healthcare systems  
  by Syed Minhal Abbas, Nadeem Javaid, Nabil Alrajeh, Safdar Hussain Bouk 
  Abstract: This paper presents a sequential edge swap (SQES) mechanism to design a robust network for a healthcare system utilising energy and communication range of nodes. Two operations: sequential degree difference operation (SQDDO) and sequential angle sum operation (SQASO) are performed to enhance the robustness of network. With equivalent degrees of nodes from the network's centre to its periphery, these operations build a robust network structure. Disaster attacks that have a substantial impact on the network are carried out using the network information. To identify a link between the malicious and disaster attacks, the Pearson coefficient is employed. SQES creates a robust network structure as a single objective optimisation solution by changing the connections of nodes based on the positive correlation of these attacks. SQES beats the current methods, according to simulation results. When compared to hill-climbing algorithm, simulated annealing, and ROSE, respectively, the robustness of SQES is improved by roughly 26%, 19% and 12%.
  Keywords: edge swap; healthcare systems; HCS; malicious attacks; robustness; scale-free networks; wireless sensor networks; WSNs.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJWGS.2024.10064266
   
  

Special Issue on: Security for Cloud Computing

• Searchable Symmetric Encryption Based on the Inner Product for Cloud Storage
  by Jun Yang, Shujuan Li, Xiaodan Yan, Baihui Zhang, Baojiang Cui 
  Abstract: Searchable encryption enables the data owner to store their own data after encrypting them in the cloud. Searchable encryption also allows the client to search over the data without leaking any information about it. In this paper, we rst introduce a searchable symmetric encryption scheme based on the inner product: it is more ecient to compute the inner product of two vectors. In our construction, the parties can be Data Owners, Clients or the Cloud Server. The three parties communicate with each other through the inner product to achieve the goal that the client can search the data in the cloud without leaking any information on the data the owner stored in the cloud. We then perform a security analysis and performance evaluation, which show that our algorithm and construction are secure and ecient.
  Keywords: Searchable Encryption; Searchable Symmetric Encryption; Inner Product; the Cloud Server; Security.