QACBAC: an owner-centric QoC-aware context-based access control model for pervasive environments

In Pervasive Computing Environments (PCE), context information can have a strong impact on application adaptation; not only at application logic level but also security management level. Therefore, from an access control point of view, it is required that the access control models take into account context information such as location and time, in determining whether access should be allowed or not. As context information represents real-world situations, it is associated with certain quality indicators that can influence directly the access control decisions. In this paper, we propose an owner-centric QoC-Aware Context-Based Access Control model (QACBAC) that takes into account both context information and its QoC indicators to grant and to adapt access permissions to resources. We also introduce components and equations to measure the revelant QoC indicators to the access control services/users, that will be used in the QACBAC model. Moreover, a case study is presents showing the definition of access rules using the proposed access control model.