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Publications

2026

• IEEE AIR-RES'26 "Quantum Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Advanced Authentication Systems", Dragan Korac, Cong Pu, and Hamid R. Arabnia, Proceedings of the 2026 IEEE International Conference on the AI Revolution: Research, Ethics, and Society" (AIR-RES 2026), pp. xx--xx, April 13-15, 2026. Accepted To Appear

2025

• IEEE CCNC'26 - RoboCom "Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Data Download Scheduling Algorithm for Internet of Drones Systems", Image Bhattarai and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the 2026 IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (IEEE CCNC 2026) - Workshop on Communication and Networking for Swarm Robotics (RoboCom), pp. xx--xx, January 9-12, 2026.
• IEEE CCNC'26 "Quantum-Safe and Cross-Layer Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for Smart Grid Communications", Cong Pu, Muhammad Abdullah Bilal, and Sunho Lim, Proceedings of the 2026 IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (IEEE CCNC 2026), pp. xx--xx, January 9-12, 2026.
• IEEE CCNC'26 "Authenticated Key Agreement Protocol for Device-to-Gateway Communication in IoT", Cong Pu, Jongho Seol, Nohpill Park, and Dragan Korac, Proceedings of the 2026 IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (IEEE CCNC 2026), pp. xx--xx, January 9-12, 2026.
• IEEE CCNC'26 "A Privacy Preserving Federated Learning-Based Authentication Scheme for Internet of Drones Systems", Image Bhattarai and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the 2026 IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (IEEE CCNC 2026), pp. xx--xx, January 9-12, 2026.
• IEEE IPCCC'25 "Secure and Privacy-Preserving Data Aggregation Against Malicious Gateway in RPL-Based Internet of Things", Image Bhattarai and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the 44th IEEE International Performance Computing and Communications Conference (IEEE IPCCC 2025), pp. xx--xx, November 21–23, 2025.
• IEEE BCCA'25 "A Quantitative Study across CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability) Triad and Performance in Blockchain-Based Crypto-Space", Jongho Seol, Jiwan Deuja, Indy N. Park, Cong Pu, and Nohpill Park, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Blockchain Computing and Applications (BCCA) 2025, pp. xx--xx, October 14–17, 2025.
• Elsevier IPM "Management of evaluation processes and creation of authentication metrics: Artificial intelligence-based fusion framework", Dragan Korać, Boris Damjanović, Dejan Simić, and Cong Pu, Elsevier Information Processing and Management (Impact Factor: 7.4), Vol. 62, Iss. 6, pp. 104233, 2025.
• IEEE IoTJ "A Redactable Blockchain-Assisted Application-Aware Authentication System for Internet of Drones", Cong Pu, Abdullah Bilal, Nohpill Park, Jongho Seol, and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Impact Factor: 8.2), Vol. 12, Iss. 14, pp. 27206--27221, 2025.
• Elsevier PMC "FastPlan: A Three-Step Framework for Accelerating Drone-Centric Search Operations in Post-Disaster Relief", Sunho Lim, Ingyu Lee, Gyu Sang Choi, Jinseok Chae, Ellora Ashish, Eric Ward, and Cong Pu, Elsevier Pervasive and Mobile Computing (Impact Factor: 3.0), Vol. 107, pp. 102017, 2025.

2024

• ACM DLT "Quantitative Study on the Performance of An Asynchronous Chain Model", Jongho Seol, Cong Pu, and Nohpill Park, ACM Distributed Ledger Technologies: Research and Practice, Vol. xx, Iss. xx, pp. xx--xx, 2024.
• ASEE/IEEE FIE'24 "Integrating Generative AI With Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis Course Homework", Cong Pu, Proceedings of the 2024 ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), pp. xx--xx, October 13-16, 2024.
• IEEE ICC'24 "Data-Driven Channel Acquisition with Pilot Decontamination in IRS-Aided Communication Systems", Majumder Haider, Imtiaz Ahmed, Md. Zoheb Hassan, Mohammad Matin, and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2024 - NextG-WiSec Workshop, pp. 177--182, 2024.
• IEEE IoTJ "A Lightweight and Anonymous Application-Aware Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for the Internet of Drones", Image Bhattarai, Cong Pu, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, and Dragan Korac, IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Impact Factor: 10.6), Vol. 11, Iss. 11, pp. 19790--19803, 2024.

2023

• IEEE TVT "liteGAP: Lightweight Group Authentication Protocol for Internet of Drones Systems", Cong Pu, Clare Warner, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Sunho Lim, and Imtiaz Ahmed, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (Impact Factor: 6.8), Vol. 73, Iss. 4, pp. 5849--5860, Nov 16, 2023.
• IEEE TVT "GAN-based Channel Estimation for IRS-aided Communication Systems", Majumder Haider, Imtiaz Ahmed, Ahmed Rubaai, Cong Pu, and Danda B. Rawat, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (Impact Factor: 6.8), Vol. 73, Iss. 4, pp. 6012--6017, Nov 15, 2023.
• IEEE CCNC'24 "A Lightweight Aggregate Authentication Protocol for Internet of Drones", Image Bhattarai, Cong Pu, and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (IEEE CCNC 2024), pp. 316--324, 2023. (Best Paper Award)
• IEEE CCNC'24 "Chebyshev Polynomial and Private Blockchain Based Cross-Domain Authentication Protocol for IoD Networks", Cong Pu, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, and Image Bhattarai, Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (IEEE CCNC 2024), pp. 33--38, 2023.
• IEEE TPS'23 "Resource-Efficient and Data Type-Aware Authentication Protocol for Internet of Things Systems", Cong Pu, Imtiaz Ahmed, and Sumit Chakravarty, Proceedings of the 2023 5th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems, and Applications (IEEE TPS 2023), pp. 101--110, 2023.
• IEEE DSC'23 "Privacy-Preserving and Fault-Tolerant Data Aggregation Protocol for Internet of Drones", Cong Pu, Proceedings of the 2023 6th IEEE Conference on Dependable and Secure Computing (IEEE DSC 2023), pp., 2023.
• IEEE PIMRC'23 "A Featherweight Authentication and Key Agreement Scheme for Internet of Drones Applications", Cong Pu, Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE 34th Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), pp., 2023.
• IEEE WiMob'23 "Deep Learning Assisted Channel Estimation for Cell-Free Distributed MIMO Networks", Imtiaz Ahmed, Md. Zoheb Hasan, Ahmed Rubaai, Kamrul Hasan, Cong Pu, and Jeffrey H. Reed, Proceedings of the 2023 19th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob), pp. 324--329, 2023.

2022

• IEEE MASS'22 "Bilinear Pairing and PUF Based Lightweight Authentication Protocol for IoD Environment", Cong Pu, Andrew Wall, and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE 19th International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Smart Systems (MASS) - Security and Privacy Track, pp. 115--121, 2022.
• IEEE TSP'22 "Low Complexity Resource Allocation for Multiuser Uplink Communication Systems", Neelanjana Subin Ferdous, Imtiaz Ahmed, Umma Hany, Lutfa Akter, Ramesh Annavajjala, and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the 2022 45th IEEE International Conference on Telecommunications and Signal Processing (IEEE TSP) (Virtual Conference), pp. 169--173, 2022.
• IEEE IoTJ "A Lightweight and Anonymous Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks", Cong Pu, Haleigh Zerkle, Andrew Wall, Sunho Lim, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, and Imtiaz Ahmed, IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Impact Factor: 9.471), Vol. 9, Iss. 21, pp. 21136--21146, 2022.
• IEEE ISJ "Drone Helps Privacy: Sky Caching Assisted k-Anonymity in Spatial Querying", Hema Naga Sai Sudha Jagarlapudi, Sunho Lim, Jinseok Chae, Gyu Sang Choi, and Cong Pu, IEEE Systems Journal (Impact Factor: 3.931), Vol. 16, Iss. 4, pp. 6360--6370, 2022.
• IEEE IoTJ "A Lightweight and Privacy-Preserving Mutual Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for Internet of Drones Environment", Cong Pu, Andrew Wall, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Imtiaz Ahmed, and Sunho Lim, IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Impact Factor: 9.471), Vol. 9, Iss. 12, pp. 9918--9933, 2022.
• IEEE MDM'22 "SecureIoD: A Secure Data Collection and Storage Mechanism for Internet of Drones", Cong Pu, Andrew Wall, Imtiaz Ahmed, and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Proceedings of the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management (MDM 2022), pp. 83--92, 2022. (Acceptance Rate: 26%)
• CRC Book Chapter "Cyber Attacks and Countermeasures in RPL-based Industrial Internet of Things", Cong Pu, Book Chapter in CRC Press Book Entitled "Intelligent Cyber-Physical Systems Security for Industry 4.0: Applications, Challenges and Management", CRC Press (USA), 2022.
• IEEE ICC'22 "A Reinforcement Learning Based Service Scheduling Algorithm for Internet of Drones", Cong Pu, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2022 - UAV5G Workshop, pp. 999--1004, 2022.
• IEEE VTC'22 "Mitigating Routing Misbehavior in the Internet of Drones Environment", Cong Pu and Pingping Zhu, Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE 95th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2022-Spring), Helsinki, Finland, June 19 - 22, 2022.
• Elsevier VEHCOM "DarkSky: Privacy Preserving Target Tracking Strategies Using a Flying Drone", Samhith Reddy Chinthi-Reddy, Sunho Lim, Gyu Sang Choi, Jinseok Chae, and Cong Pu, Elsevier Vehicular Communications (Impact Factor: 6.91), Vol. 35, pp. 100459, June 2022.

2021

• IEEE Access "A Stochastic Packet Forwarding Algorithm in Flying Ad Hoc Networks: Design, Analysis, and Evaluation", Cong Pu, Imtiaz Ahmed, Evan Allen, and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, IEEE Access Journal (Impact Factor: 3.367), Vol. 9, pp. 162614--162632, 2021.
• IEEE TVT "Dynamic Resource Allocation for IRS Assisted Energy Harvesting Systems with Statistical Delay Constraint", Imtiaz Ahmed, Su Yan, Danda B. Rawat, and Cong Pu, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (Impact Factor: 5.978), Vol. 71, Iss. 2, pp. 2158--2163, 2022.
• Elsevier COSE "Lightweight Sybil Attack Detection in IoT Based on Bloom Filter and Physical Unclonable Function", Cong Pu and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Elsevier Computers & Security (Impact Factor: 4.438), Vol. 113, pp. 102541, February 2022.
• IEEE GLOBECOM'21 "Defending against Flooding Attacks in the Internet of Drones Environment", Cong Pu and Pingping Zhu, Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), pp. 1--6, 2021.
• IEEE WTS'21 "A Novel Blockchain-Based Trust Management Scheme for Vehicular Networks", Cong Pu, Proceedings of the 20th IEEE Wireless Telecommunications Symposium (WTS), pp., 2021.
• Hindawi JCNC "ProNDN: MCDM Based Interest Forwarding and Cooperative Data Caching for Named Data Networking", Cong Pu, Journal of Computer Networks and Communications (CiteScore: 3.1), Vol. 2021, pp. 1--16, 2021.
• IET Book Chapter "Hide-and-Detect: Forwarding Misbehavior, Attack, and Countermeasure in Energy Harvesting Motivated IoT Sensor Networks", Sunho Lim, Cong Pu, Jinseok Chae, Manki Min, and Yi Liu, Book Chapter in IET Book Entitled "Energy Harvesting in Wireless Sensor Networks and Internet of Things", IET Press (London, UK), ISBN-13: 978-1-78561-736-2, 2021.

2020

• IEEE TechRxiv "Adaptive Forwarding Strategy Based on MCDM Model in Named Data Networking", Cong Pu, IEEE TechRxiv, Dec 02, 2020.
• IEEE TechRxiv "Blockchain-Based Trust Management Using Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model for VANETs", Cong Pu, IEEE TechRxiv, Oct 17, 2020.
• IEEE CSE'20 "Lightweight Digital Signature Solution to Defend Micro Aerial Vehicles Against Man-In-The-Middle Attack", Yucheng Li (CS Graduate) and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, pp. 92--97, 2020.
• IEEE LANMAN'20 "Lightweight Authentication Protocol for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Physical Unclonable Function and Chaotic System", Cong Pu and Yucheng Li (CS Graduate), Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Local and Metropolitan Area Networks (LANMAN), pp., 2020.
• IEEE ISJ "Psched: A Priority-Based Service Scheduling Scheme for the Internet of Drones", Cong Pu and Logan Carpenter (CS Undergraduate), IEEE Systems Journal (Impact Factor: 4.463), Vol. 15, Iss. 3, pp. 4230--4239, 2021.
• IEEE HPSR'20 "A Theil Index-Based Countermeasure Against Advanced Vampire Attack in Internet of Things", Cong Pu, Jacqueline Brown (CS Undergraduate), and Logan Carpenter (CS Undergraduate), Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE 21st International Conference on High Performance Switching and Routing (HPSR), pp. 1--6, 2020.
• IEEE IoTJ "Sybil Attack in RPL-Based Internet of Things: Analysis and Defenses", Cong Pu, IEEE Internet of Things Journal (Impact Factor: 9.936), Vol. 7, Iss. 6, pp. 4937--4949, 2020.

2019

• IEEE MILCOM'19 "Stochastic Packet Forwarding Algorithmin Flying Ad Hoc Networks", Cong Pu, Proceedings of the IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), pp. 494--499, 2019.
• IEEE MILCOM'19 "A Gini Index-Based Countermeasure Against Sybil Attack in the Internet of Things", Bryan Groves (CS Undergraduate) and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), pp. 672--677, 2019.
• IEEE NCA'19 "To Route or To Ferry: A Hybrid Packet Forwarding Algorithm in Flying Ad Hoc Networks", Cong Pu and Logan Carpenter (CS Undergraduate), Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA), pp. 367--375, 2019.
• IEEE NCA'19 "Digital Signature Based Countermeasure Against Puppet Attack in the Internet of Things", Cong Pu and Logan Carpenter (CS Undergraduate), Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA), pp. 189--192, 2019.
• IEEE ISJ "MQry: Elastic Validity Region for Querying Mobile Point-of-Interests in Infrastructure-less Networks", Byungkwan Jung, Sunho Lim, Jinseok Chae, Cong Pu, and Manki Min, IEEE Systems Journal (Impact Factor: 4.463), Vol. 14, Iss. 2, pp. 1852--1861, 2019.
• IEEE CPSCom'19 "Self-Adjusting Share-Based Countermeasure to Interest Flooding Attack in Named Data Networking", Cong Pu, Nathaniel Payne (CS Undergraduate), and Jacqueline Brown (CS Undergraduate), Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Cyber Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom), pp. 142--147, 2019.
• IEEE ICDIS'19 "Energy Depletion Attack in Low Power and Lossy Networks: Analysis and Defenses", Cong Pu and Bryan Groves (CS Undergraduate), Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Data Intelligence and Security (ICDIS), pp. 14--21, 2019. (Best Paper Award)
• IEEE ICNC'19 "Spam DIS Attack Against Routing Protocol in the Internet of Things", Cong Pu, Proceedings of the International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communication (ICNC), pp. 73--77, 2019.
• IEEE CCWC'19 "RescueMe: Smartphone-Based Self Rescue System for Disaster Rescue", Cong Pu and Xitong Zhou (CS Graduate), Proceedings of the IEEE Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC), pp. 0832--0837, 2019.
• IEEE CCNC'19 "Energy Depletion Attack Against Routing Protocol in the Internet of Things", Cong Pu, Proceedings of the IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC), pp. 1--4, 2019.

2018

• IEEE Access "Jamming-Resilient Multipath Routing Protocol for Flying Ad Hoc Networks", Cong Pu, IEEE Access Journal (Impact Factor: 4.098), Vol. 6, pp. 68472--68486, 2018.
• IEEE UEMCON'18 "Evacuation Assisting Strategies in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks", Cong Pu, Proceedings of the IEEE Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics & Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON), 2018.
• IEEE CIC'18 "Link-Quality and Traffic-Load Aware Routing for UAV Ad Hoc Networks", Cong Pu, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Collaboration and Internet Computing (CIC), pp.71--79, 2018.
• MDPI Sensors "Suppression Attack Against Multicast Protocolin Low Power and Lossy Networks: Analysis and Defenses", Cong Pu and Xitong Zhou (CS Graduate), Sensors Journal (Impact Factor: 3.031), Vol. 18, No. 10, pp.3236, 2018.
• IEEE LCN'19 "Mitigating Suppression Attack in Multicast Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks", Cong Pu, Xitong Zhou (CS Graduate), and Sunho Lim, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN), pp. 251--254, 2018.
• IEEE WASA'19 "A Novel Energy Harvesting Aware IEEE 802.11 Power Saving Mechanism", Yigitcan Celik (CS Graduate) and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the International Conference on Wireless Algorithms, Systems, and Applications (WASA), pp. 14--26, 2018.
• IEEE CSCloud'19 "Hatchetman Attack: A Denial of Service Attack Against Routing in Low Power and Lossy Networks", Cong Pu and Tianyi Song, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Cloud Computing (CSCloud), pp. 12--17, 2018.
• Elsevier COMCOM "EYES: Mitigating Forwarding Misbehavior in Energy Harvesting Motivated Networks", Cong Pu, Sunho Lim, Byungkwan Jung, and Jinseok Chae, Elsevier Computer Communications (Impact Factor: 3.63), Vol. 124, pp. 17--30, 2018.
• IEEE CCWC'18 "Mitigating DAO Inconsistency Attack in RPL-based Low Power and Lossy Networks", Cong Pu, Proceedings of the IEEE Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC), pp. 570--574, 2018.
• IEEE CCNC'18 "Mitigating Forwarding Misbehaviors in RPL-based Low Power and Lossy Networks", Cong Pu and Salam Hajjar, Proceedings of the IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC), pp. 1--6, 2018.

2017

• Elsevier COMCOM "VRSense: Validity Region Sensitive Query Processing Strategies for Static and Mobile Point-of-Interests in MANETs", Byungkwan Jung, Sunho Lim, Jinseok Chae, and Cong Pu, Elsevier Computer Communications (Impact Factor: 3.63), Vol. 116, pp.132--146, 2017.
• Springer WINE "Active Detection in Mitigating Routing Misbehavior for MANETs", Cong Pu, Sunho Lim, Jinseok Chae, and Byungkwan Jung, Springer Wireless Networks (Impact Factor: 2.405), Vol. 25, Iss.4, pp. 1669–-1683, 2017.
• IEEE MILCOM'17 "Mitigating Stealthy Collision Attack in Energy Harvesting Motivated Networks", Cong Pu, Sunho Lim, Byungkwan Jung, and Manki Min, Proceedings of the IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), pp. 539--544, 2017.
• Tech Report "Probabilistic Cooperative Caching-Based Content Subscribing in Opportunistic Mobile Networks", Bitao Peng, Sunho Lim, Byungkwan Jung, Cong Pu, Xinying Qiu, and Manki Min, 2017.

2016

• IEEE MILCOM'16 "Validity Region Sensitive Query Processing Strategies in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks", Byungkwan Jung, Sunho Lim, Jinseok Chae, and Cong Pu, Proceedings of the IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), pp. 1022--1027, 2016.
• Ph.D. Dissertation "A Holistic Approach to the Exploitation of Energy Harvesting Motivated Networks: Protocols and Countermeasures to DoS Attacks", Cong Pu, Ph.D. Dissertation, 2016.
• IEEE ISJ "A Light-Weight Countermeasure to Forwarding Misbehavior in Wireless Sensor Networks: Design, Analysis, and Evaluation", Cong Pu and Sunho Lim, IEEE Systems Journal (Impact Factor: 4.463), Vol.12, Iss. 1, pp. 834--842, 2016.

2015

• IEEE MILCOM'15 "Spy vs. Spy: Camouflage-based Active Detection in Energy Harvesting Motivated Networks", Cong Pu and Sunho Lim, Proceedings of the IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), pp. 903--908, 2015.

2014

• IEEE MILCOM'14 "Light-Weight Forwarding Protocols in Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks", Cong Pu, Tejaswi Gade, Sunho Lim, Manki Min, and Wei Wang, Proceedings of the IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), pp. 1053--1059, 2014.

2013

• Master Thesis "On Evacuation Assisting Vehicular Ad HocNetworks", Cong Pu, Master Thesis, 2013.