Paula Fraga-Lamas

Paula Fraga-Lamas, Peio Lopez-Iturri, Mikel Celaya-Echarri et al.

Navantia, one of Europe's largest shipbuilders, is creating a fog computing-based Industrial Cyber-Physical System (ICPS) for remote monitoring in real-time of their pipe workshops. Such a monitoring process, which involves pipe traceability and tracking, is a unique industrial challenge, given their metallic content, massive quantity and heterogeneous typology, as well as to the number of complex processes involved. Pipe improved location, from production and through their lifetime, can provide significant productivity and safety benefits to shipyards and foster innovative applications in process planning. Bluetooth 5 represents a cost-effective opportunity to cope with this harsh environment, since it has been significantly enhanced in terms of low power consumption, range, speed and broadcasting capacity. Thus, this article proposes a Bluetooth 5 fog computing-based ICPS architecture that is designed to support physically-distributed and low-latency Industry 4.0 applications that off-load network traffic and computational resource consumption from the cloud. In order to validate the proposed ICPS design, one of Navantia's pipe workshops has been modeled through an in-house-developed 3D ray launching radio planning simulator that considers three main intrinsic characteristics: the number of pipes, the main working areas with their corresponding machines, and the daily workforce. The radio propagation results obtained by the simulation tool are validated through empirical measurements. These results aim to provide guidelines for ICPS developers, network operators and planners to investigate further complex industrial deployments based on Bluetooth 5.

Paula Fraga-Lamas, Tiago M. Fernández-Caramés

The rise of ubiquitous deepfakes, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda and post-truth, often referred to as fake news, raises concerns over the role of Internet and social media in modern democratic societies. Due to its rapid and widespread diffusion, digital deception has not only an individual or societal cost (e.g., to hamper the integrity of elections), but it can lead to significant economic losses (e.g., to affect stock market performance) or to risks to national security. Blockchain and other Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) guarantee the provenance, authenticity and traceability of data by providing a transparent, immutable and verifiable record of transactions while creating a peer-to-peer secure platform for storing and exchanging information. This overview aims to explore the potential of DLTs and blockchain to combat digital deception, reviewing initiatives that are currently under development and identifying their main current challenges. Moreover, some recommendations are enumerated to guide future researchers on issues that will have to be tackled to face fake news, disinformation and deepfakes, as an integral part of strengthening the resilience against cyber-threats on today's online media.

Tiago M. Fernandez-Carames, Paula Fraga-Lamas

Industry 4.0 is a concept devised for improving the way modern factories operate through the use of some of the latest technologies, like the ones used for creating Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), robotics or Big Data applications. One of such technologies is blockchain, which is able to add trust, security and decentralization to different industrial fields. This article focuses on analyzing the benefits and challenges that arise when using blockchain and smart contracts to develop Industry 4.0 applications. In addition, this paper presents a thorough review on the most relevant blockchain-based applications for Industry 4.0 technologies. Thus, its aim is to provide a detailed guide for future Industry 4.0 developers that allows for determining how blockchain can enhance the next generation of cybersecure industrial applications.