Journal of ICT Systems

The SDN Based WLAN Resilience Enhancement for Smart Grid

2025-01-20T06:48:18+00:00

A resilient wireless network for smart grid communication is essential for ensuring continuous network availability while maintaining an acceptable quality of service (QoS). The primary challenge is developing wireless networks that not only meet the stringent availability requirements of smart grids but also deliver satisfactory QoS. Current Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) struggle with seamless handover between Access Points (APs) when the serving AP encounters issues. In this study, we propose a Software Defined Networking (SDN)-based WLAN utilizing the Odin framework to enhance WLAN resilience against network challenges, thereby ensuring smart grid availability with acceptable bandwidth and latency. Our solution was evaluated in a physical laboratory setup employing off-the-shelf network components, including APs, routers, and switches. Our results demonstrate that in the event of an AP failure, the SDN-based WLAN effectively redirects users to a nearby AP, achieving 100% availability, a throughput of 8.93 Mbps, and a latency of 20ms metrics that fulfill the resilience requirements of smart grids. Notably, this approach employs standard APs and necessitates no modifications to end stations.

Systematic review on challenges for integration of health management information systems in enhancing HIV and AIDS estimation and monitoring across Sub-Saharan African countries

2025-04-15T18:57:26+00:00

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries suffer from high disease burdens, including HIV and AIDS. Data from the national Health Management Information System (HMIS) to inform HIV and AIDS estimates are relatively poor, negatively impacting monitoring of the epidemic. The challenge necessitates a need for increased integration and functionality of the national HMIS to deliver timely and reliable information to healthcare workers and managers. This study investigates how the challenges to effective integration of HMIS in SSA countries impact the availability of good quality HIV estimation and monitoring. We conducted a systematic review of relevant publications from 2008 to 2024. The findings show that, despite the efforts by SSA countries, challenges continue to impede the meaningful utilization of HMIS to produce good quality HIV estimates. The challenges are attributed to technical, organizational and behavioural factors, such as limited integration of HIV programme components, poor data quality, inadequate resources, weak leadership, lack of accountability, and limited enforcement of HMIS regulatory frameworks. Hence, the systems hardly respond timely to the expanding data requirements of the HIV estimation tools and monitoring requirements. The study recommends SSA governments and partners to support HMIS development and on job training in data collection, cleaning, and analysis.

Effects and Optimal Integration of Electric Vehicle Charging Systems in the Tanzania Electrical Distribution Networks using Metaheuristic Algorithms

2025-04-23T09:08:18+00:00

Electric vehicles (EVs) present a viable solution for reducing carbon emissions, environmental pollution, and the effects of climate change. The EV utilizes energy stored in its battery banks, which are charged by electric vehicle charging systems (EVCS), primarily integrated with the power grid. However, integrating EVCS into grid poses significant challenges, including increased power losses, voltage deviations, harmonic injection, and grid instability. This study examines the impacts of connecting EVCS to Tanzania's electrical distribution networks and proposes an optimization approach using metaheuristic algorithms to mitigate power loss and voltage deviation challenges. The study reveals that adding one EVCS raises power loss from 13.0357 kW to 17.1963 kW, while voltage deviation increases from 0.47 V to 0.63 V, with further deterioration in system performance as more EVCS units are introduced. An enhanced Symbiotic Organism Search algorithm was employed to determine the optimal allocation and size of EVCS and PV systems. The results show that integrating 1 PV in the power system with 3 EVCSs reduced power loss to 5.26 kW from 61.42 kW. This research reveals the effectiveness of optimal PV system placement in improving the stability of the electrical network and the feasibility of an efficient EV penetration in Tanzania.

Roadmap to Systematic Understanding of Artificial Intelligence Technology Development and Implementation: A Narrative Review of Frameworks, Platforms, Scenarios of Use and Empirical Guide

2025-03-16T07:57:30+00:00

One of the most significant inventions that have influenced both our daily lives and industrial operations is artificial intelligence (AI). Its quick development portends revolutionary effects in several areas, from cutting-edge businesses to regular people's lives. The current literature on technical understanding of what is required for AI development and implementation is fragmented across the existing studies. Nonetheless, there is still a shortage of systematic knowledge and comprehension regarding the AI implementation frameworks, techniques, tools, and scenarios of use (SoU). To contribute to the ongoing research efforts on the subject, the study conducted a narrative review using published resources from scholarly databases, such as IEEE, ACM, and Science Direct. 115 publications were found in well-chosen academic databases by the search to be eligible for further analysis intended for the study. The paper proposed an empirical guide towards implementing AI projects by AI stakeholders. The overall impact of the paper is that it emerges as a powerful tool for directing the whole AI continuum by both novice and experienced AI development schemes and stakeholders to approach the roadmap of developing and implementing AI initiatives. The paper offers systematic provision of direction towards any thought aiming at developing and implementing AI solutions.

Hybrid Dehazing Algorithm for Enhancing Quality of Homogeneous and Non-Homogeneous Hazy Images

2025-04-10T07:34:34+00:00

Restoring high-quality images from hazy environments presents a significant challenge, particularly when dealing with both homogeneous and non-homogeneous haze images. Homogeneous haze is uniformly distributed, while non-homogeneous haze varies across the image, making it difficult for existing dehazing methods to balance image clarity, preserve fine details, and minimize artifacts, such as color distortion. To address these challenges, this study proposes a hybrid dehazing algorithm that integrates fusion based techniques with Dark Channel Prior (DCP) and guided filtering to enhance atmospheric light estimation and refine the transmission map. A multi-scale fusion process is then applied to recover scene radiance, enhancing visual quality. Performance tests on standard datasets, including RESIDE and NH-HAZE, demonstrate the algorithm’s effectiveness, outperforming other state-of-the-art methods, achieving an average Peak Signal-to Noise Ratio (PSNR) of 26.70 dB and an average Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM) of 0.8843. These results underscore the algorithm's effectiveness in improving image quality while maintaining computational efficiency.

Geospatial Analysis of Water Sources Accessibility: A Case Study from Tanzania

2025-04-10T07:34:53+00:00

The government of Tanzania uses Water Points Mapping (WPM), a practice that utilizes GIS technologies, as the main tool for monitoring rural water supply. Data from WPM is used to report the functionality status of the water points, a proxy indicator (a measurable substitute) for water access. Access to water sources is crucial for strategically constructing water points to improve access to clean and safe water. This study employed cost-distance geospatial analysis methodology to establish routes to water sources from nearby villages where the construction of water points could take place. The research took place in the Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania where the researchers conducted interview sessions with household members and district water engineers. Data were also collected by reviewing water point records. The study found that inaccessible water sources exacerbated the scarcity of water as they limit the possibilities of constructing more water points. The study demonstrated a better approach to establishing routes to water sources from water point construction areas through the use of cost distance geospatial analysis. The study recommends the use of geospatial analysis to establish access routes to water sources as it increases the possibilities of enabling water sources to serve multiple water points.

How Combining Automatic Repeat Request and Forward Error Correction Improves Throughput in Low Earth Orbit Satellite Communications

2025-05-23T20:57:39+00:00

This paper investigates the throughput performance of Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) and hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Forward Error Correction (ARQ+FEC) schemes in a Rayleigh fading environment, representative of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications. While traditional FEC-only schemes have been favored in high-latency systems, the short round-trip delays in LEO enable the practical use of ARQ. However, it remains unclear whether typical Bit Error Rate (BER) levels in LEO channels caused by fading and path loss fall within the correction capabilities of ARQ+FEC configurations. This study fills that gap by analytically modeling and simulating the performance of BCH-coded FEC integrated with Selective Repeat ARQ. At an Eb/No of 20 dB, the hybrid system reduces the average transmissions per block from 1.5 (ARQ-only) to 1.2, and improves normalized throughput from 0.67 to 0.79 an 18% gain. These findings demonstrate that moderate error correction levels are well-suited to the BER ranges typically observed in LEO, confirming the hybrid schemes capability for improving throughput and reliability in next-generation satellite systems.

Evaluation of the Effectiveness and Awareness of Mobile Money Services among Users in Tanzania

2025-05-26T06:52:38+00:00

This study evaluates user perceptions of a framework proposed by Rashidi et al. [11] that uniquely combines iris biometric authentication (IRBAM) with two-factor authentication (2FA), incorporating liveness detection to enhance security in mobile money services (MMSs) in Tanzania. The IRBAM-2FA combination is novel for Tanzania’s MMS, leveraging unique iris patterns and liveness detection to enhance security over prevalent PIN-based systems vulnerable to fraud. Through a survey-based evaluation of a demo application, involving 258 respondents (204 customers, 54 agents) in Dodoma, we assessed the framework’s effectiveness in preventing unauthorized access, its convenience, and user acceptance. Findings show that 79.41% of customers are aged 18–35, suggesting a tech-savvy audience likely to embrace IRBAM-2FA, as younger individuals are typically more open to innovative technologies. Additionally, 46.1% of customers and 51.9% of agents strongly agreed that the framework enhances security, while 85.5% of customers and 71.6% of agents expressed willingness to adopt it. Low IRBAM awareness (65.2% of customers, 79.9% of agents), usability issues (20% of agents' disagreement), cost (30%), and health risks (40%), pose barriers, with future work needed on feature phone support and rural testing for inclusivity. These insights underscore the potential of IRBAM to foster trust in MMS.