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Professor for Internet of Things

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kalman Graffi

Portrait: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kalman Graffi
E 441
Kalman.Graffi@hs-rm.de
Postal address Postfach 3251 65022 Wiesbaden
Visitor address Unter den Eichen 5 65195 Wiesbaden

Vita

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kalman Graffi is Professor for Internet of Things in the Institute of Computer Science at the Faculty of Design, Computer Science and Media at the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, the capital of the state Hesse in Germany. His research interests are in decentralized secure systems and communication networks. 

Previous to this, from 2023 to September 2025 he was Professor for Networks, Communication Systems and Cybersecurity at the Technical University of Applied Sciences in Bingen Germany. From 2019 to end of 2022, he was Principal Scientist and Competence Group Leader for Reliable Systems and Software at Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH. From 2012 to 2019, he was W1-Professor for  ``Technology of Social Networks''  in the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Duesseldorf in Germany. Before joining the University of Düsseldorf in 2012, he was senior researcher at the  "Theory of Distributed Systems" group at the University of Paderborn in the years 2011 to 2012. From 2006 to 2010, he was a PhD student at the Multimedia Communications Lab at TU Darmstadt, Germany. In 2010, he obtained his doctorate degree (Dr.-Ing.) from the faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the Technische Universitaet Darmstadt with summa cum laude ("mit Auszeichnung"). Prof. Graffi received 2006 a diploma degree in Computer Science and a diploma degree in Mathematics from the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany. In this time, he also obtained the IT-Security Certificate by the Competence Center for Applied Security Technology (CAST) in Darmstadt.  

Teaching

Open Theses (Bachelor / Master)

1.  AI-supported swarm algorithms

2. Algorithms for emergent behavior of robot swarms

3. Computational Discovery of Arab Personality Traits

4. Moderation of illegal content in LibreSocial: a P2P-based social network

 

Lectures
 

Communication Networks - 2SWS

Scope: 2+2 semester hours per week

Contents: Understanding the basic structures and functions of communication systems and applying them to existing systems. Applying and developing layer models. Understanding Ethernet, wireless networks, and TCP/IP architecture. Plan and commission simple local networks and IP networks. Analyze IP configuration, plan and commission in simple environments. Understand the basic structure of distributed applications and the client/server principle and apply them to existing applications. Understand the basic concepts of switching systems, especially in the area of wide area networks. Analyze and evaluate protocol behavior in local networks.

Annually in the winter semester starting in 2025 at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences

Playlist with lecture recordings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJGmP04pevnGHBF6LKIogGLSL77Jp_BW

Communication Networks (KONE) - 4SWS

Scope: 4+2 semester hours per week

Contents: Understanding the basic structures and functions of communication systems and applying them to existing systems. Applying and developing layer models. Understanding Ethernet, wireless networks, and TCP/IP architecture. Being able to plan and commission simple local networks and IP networks. Being able to analyze IP configuration, plan it in simple environments, and commission it. Understanding the basic structure of distributed applications and the client/server principle and being able to apply this knowledge to existing applications.

Playlist with lecture recordings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJGmP04pevnXH_j3z98Ewxgzshx07alN

Peer-to-Peer Systems (P2P)

Scope: 2+2 semester hours per week

Contents: 1. Decentralization, Overlay Networks, Characteristics of P2P Systems
2. Unstructured P2P Overlays (Gnutella, edonkey, Kazaa, BubbleStorm)
3. Distributed Indexing and Distributed Hash Tables
4. Structured P2P Overlays (Chord, CAN, Pastry, Kademlia)
5. Interconnection Overlay Networks (Hypercube, De Bruijn Network)
6. Location-based, Heterogeneous Structured P2P Overlays
7. Improvements of P2P Overlays, Scale Free Networks
8. Security Issues in P2P Systems, BitTorrent
9. P2P Streaming, P2P Storage Fundamentals
10. P2P Storage Systems (CFS, Ivy),
11. Monitoring P2P Systems (Sampling, Gossiping, Tree-based)
12. Control Loops in P2P Systems, Monitoring Peer-specific Information
13. P2P-based Social Networks (Safebook, P2PSocial)

Annually in the summer semester 2012-2017 at HHU Düsseldorf, winter semester 2011-2014 at Paderborn University

Playlist with lecture recordings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJGmP04pevlDtRnYnE-tRiaZrP0YO5M5

Mobile Communication (MOKO)

Scope: 4+2 semester hours per week

Contents: Organization, technical fundamentals, media access, satellite systems, broadcasting systems, Bluetooth, wireless LANs (+ ad hoc networks)

History of Mobile Communication and Standardization, System and Radio Access Network Architecture, Radio Interface and Application Protocols, Physical Layer of UMTS and LTE (R99/HSPA), Fundamental Radio Resource Management, Radio Resource Management – MAC Scheduling, Mobility, QoS, and Charging, Current and Future Trends: HSPA+, LTE-A and 5G

Network Security (NETS)

  • Scope: 2+2 semester hours per week
  • Contents:
    • Attacks and security measures for different network layers, including firewall, virtual private networks and intrusion detection systems
    • Stack and heap overflows, format string vulnerabilities, integer overflows, etc.
    • Malware: viruses, worms, Trojans and botnets.
    • Security measures for authentication, anonymity and trust
    • Introduction to security development lifecycle: CPE/CVE/CWE, threat modeling, fuzzing
    • Confidential computing: differential privacy, (fully) homomorphic encryption, secure multiparty computation, trusted execution environments.
    • Decentralized systems: Blockchain, peer-to-peer networks, opportunistic networks.
  • Annualy in the summer semester in 2023 - 2025 at TH Bingen and in 2014 at HHU Düsseldorf
  • Playlist with lecture recording: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJGmP04pevlWaiiYRHfXVmI4i4G1AzRB

IT Security (ITSEC)

Scope: 4+2 semester hours per week

Contents: 

  • Introduction and terminology: Application scenarios, terminology, security services
  • Physical security and social engineering
  • Cryptographic methods I: Steganography, symmetric methods
  • Cryptographic methods II: Asymmetric methods, perfect forward secrecy
  • Cryptographic Methods III: Elliptic curves, PKI, hashing, key management, SSL/TLS
  • Authentication Methods and Password Security: Identification Features, Online Banking, Password Management, Access Control Models, Kerberos
  • Internet security: Protocols, services, web applications
  • Special threats: Buffer overflow, viruses, worms, botnets, spam
  • Security engineering and secure software engineering: Design principles, security architecture/model, threats
  • Legal framework and security in companies
  • Security in distributed systems: Blockchain, secure decentralized social networks

Annually in 2023-2025 in the winter semester at TH Bingen

Playlist with lecture recordings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJGmP04pevnEOJxTyVWWQrH496mYz1TP

Computer Architecture and Technical Fundamentals of Computer Science (REAR)

Scope: 4+2 semester hours per week

Contents: 

  • 1. Terms, 2. Digital circuits, 3. Von Neumann computers
  • 4. Decoders, 5. Instructions and operators, 6. Control circuit, 6a. ARM microarchitecture, 6b. MC68000 architecture, 7. RISC pipeline, 8. Superskalarity, 8*. Interrupts, 9. Computer structures, 10. Computer performance
  • 11. Bus systems, 12. Serial communication
  • 13. Memory map, 14. Memory, 15. Memory modules, 16. Cache structures, 17. Storage media, 18. Memory management
  • 19. Multithreading, 20. Multiprocessors
  • 21. Virtualization – machines, 22. Virtualization – system, memory, distributed systems

Annually in 2023-2025 in the winter semester at TH Bingen

Playlist with lecture recordings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJGmP04pevnAq7GPR5arC7NY4nTq-169

Annual project groups (at University of Paderborn)

SS/WS 13/12Project group “A Peer-to-Peer Framework for Social Networks”, University of Paderborn
2+2+2 SWSProject aims at researching, implementing and evaluating useful algorithms and mechanisms using the p2p paradigm to create a toolbox for p2p applications.
Tasks: project management, organization of lectures and seminars, supervision
  
SS/WS 11Project group “A Distributed Framework for Social Networks”, University of Paderborn
2+2+2 SWSLong term project aiming at engineering a general p2p framework for a wide set of applications, and social networks in specific.
Tasks: project management, organization of lectures and seminars, supervision
  

Seminars and lab exercises at various Universities (Darmstadt, Paderborn, Düsseldorf)

SS13Seminar “Essential Elements for a Peer-to-Peer Framework for Social Networks”, correlated with the project group “A Peer-to-Peer Framework for Social Networks”
 Topics: decentralized social networks, big data in p2p networks, performance and security issues in p2p monitoring mechanisms, p2p network address translation, streaming social content in p2p networks
  
SS12Seminar “Security in Peer-to-Peer Systems”
 Topics: Attacks on routing and storage in p2p networks, surveys and simulations
  
SS12Seminar “Essential Elements for a Peer-to-Peer Framework for Social Networks”, correlated with the project group “A Peer-to-Peer Framework for Social Networks”
 Topics: decentralized social networks, graphical representation of social networks, performance and security issues in p2p overlays, mechanisms on p2p networking and storage, evaluation methodology for large scale networked systems
  
WS11Seminar “Peer-to-Peer Systems”
 Topics: P2P improvements, simulation and benchmarking, p2p overlays
  
SS11Seminar “Essential Elements for a Distributed Framework for Social Networks”, correlated with the project group “A Distributed Framework for Social Networks”
 Topics: P2P platforms, distributed data storage and replication, p2p service repositories, requirements analysis for distributed social networks
  
SS10Seminar “P2P and Benchmarking”
 Topics: P2P self-aware networks, commercial aspects, monitoring and management
Limited responsibility: topic conception, student supervision, project management
  
WS08/07/06Seminar “Advanced Topics of Future Internet Research”
 Topics: modeling of p2p systems, QoS-awareness in p2p systems, monitoring mechanisms in p2p and distributed systems
Limited responsibility: topic conception, student supervision, grading
  
SS09/08/07Project seminar “Advanced Topics in Distributed Systems”
 Topics: implementation and evaluation of p2p mechanisms in a p2p simulator.
Limited responsibility: topic conception, student supervision, project management
  
WS09/08Bachelor lab exercise “Advanced Topics in Distributed Systems”
 Topic: implementation of a GUI for a p2p-based online social network.
Limited responsibility: topic conception, student supervision, project management
  
SS10, WS09/08Master lab exercise “Advanced Topics in Distributed Systems”
 Topic: collaboration and management tools for a p2p online social network.
Limited responsibility: topic conception, student supervision, project management

Research and projects

He has acquired several projects sponsored by the industry, the German Research Society ("Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)", the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In 2016 to 2019 he conducted several projects for the German Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF) via the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA). The projects cover topics such as "Sup-Press: Freedom of Speech under Attack in the EU and Arab World", "Egyptian-German Partnership on Practical Evaluation of Networked Nano-scale Devices", "Academic Matchmaking: Supporting a South-Norh Scolarship Cooperation", "Distant Teaching with Telepresence Robots", "Make a difference: Ideen aus aller Welt", as well as "Twinning for Innovation". In 2014 to 2018 he received funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for his projects on "Decentralized Monitoring of large-scale Overlay Networks (OverlayMeter)" and "Setup and Routing in Opportunistic Networks with unrooted Android Smartphones using WiFi and Bluetooth". At the same time, he was part of the NRW Fortschrittskolleg on "Online Participation". In 2015 to 2016 together with Powerfolder (dal33t GmbH) his project on "P2P-based Data Synchronization between mobile Devices in local Networks" was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). Finally, in 2014 to 2016 his project on "Convergence of Hierarchical Overlay Networks (OverConverge)" was funded by the Strategic Research Fund of the Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf.

Findings from his research has been published in more than 90 refereed scholarly publications, including publications in high-tier journals like Elsevier Computer Communications, Springer Peer-to-Peer Networking and and Applications, as well as, Wiley Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing. With over 200 supervised student theses and a lectures given on Communication Networks, Network Security, Mobile Communications, Peer-to-Peer Systems and Opportunitic Networking, findings from his research has been passed on to the next generation of researchers.

 

In his position he researches and teaches protocols and mechanisms for complex, secure and self-managing communication and compute networks with different methodologies to implement this vision. His research focus is on building reliable, secure and highly scalable computing environments through dynamic overlay networks, mobile opportunistic networks, multi-agent systems and argumentation networks, in which autonomous, unreliable and heterogeneous actors want to offer a common, reliable and quality-controlled service. His concepts can be applied in global-scale computer networks, in wide-area wireless mesh or opportunistic networks as well as for large-scale nano or robot swarms

 

 

Committees and memberships

He received several awards for his work on secure and decentralized communication platforms and their impact on society. In March 2015 he was awarded the title ``Young Scientist of the Year 2014'' (Nachwuchswissenschaftler des Jahres 2014) by Academics.de. In 2014, he was elected as member in the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA), and in 2015 he was appointed as ``Junior Fellow'' of the Gesellschaft fuer Informatik, both for 5 years. In 2016 he was elected as member of the Young Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz and of the Young Forum: Technical Sciences (JF:Tec) both for 4 years. He is founding member of the ``Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy''. Being in dialogue with political activists in the Arab word and outside, allows him to learn the requirements for secure decentralized communication platforms from first hand and to test his solutions in places where they are needed.