RIS4NGWB

Promotion of test infrastructures and studies in the 5G/6G backbone area

The planned project deals with security in the 5G/6G backbone area. Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) controlled by Software-Defined Networking (SDN) will be used to demonstrate increased security and resilience in the wireless backhaul.

The starting point will be existing network components and preliminary work by the partners. The RIS enable additional paths for the radio links between individual 5G/6G access points. On the one hand, this can neutralize potential interferers or temporarily increase capacity (resilience), but on the other hand it also makes possible eavesdropping more difficult, since the information is transmitted on more than one path (physical layer security).

Finally, various application scenarios are highlighted and addressed accordingly. This applies both to the usual public telecommunications infrastructure and to smaller campus networks, such as those in industrial plants or networks of critical infrastructure operators with high resilience and security requirements.

Thanks to these application examples, the potential of RIS for flexible and, above all, secure wireless connection of radio access network (RAN) components becomes visible and is investigated using wireless backhaul and with the entire mobile network in a test hall.

Partners and Core Areas

TU Clausthal, Professorship Communication Technology for the Industrial Internet of Things (Coordination)
System architecture, high-frequency modeling and realization of the RIS
Contact: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Niels Neumann
Subproject Website: RIS4NGWB
Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS
Application scenarios and requirements, simulations, SDN realization, system evaluation
Contact: Norbert Franke
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Chair for digital transmission
intelligence development and algorithms
Contact: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robert Schober

Motivation

Point-to-point wireless network infrastructures (wireless backbone) for 5G / 6G are essential in many places, but are particularly vulnerable to intentional or unintentional interference and eavesdropping. As mobile networks become more important, the protection and resilience of this infrastructure must also be improved.

Vision

In the future, new network elements - reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) - will help provide alternative connection paths for point-to-point network infrastructures. In order to make these network elements jointly usable for different connections, they must be controllable in the network management as a resource - modernly this is realized via software-defined networks (SDN).

Targets

The proposed principle will be investigated and demonstrated in an exemplary deployment environment, the LINK test center at Fraunhofer IIS. In addition, possible application scenarios, requirements and system architectures will be developed.

Intended Results

A catalog of possible application scenarios, resulting requirements, and a system architecture for hardware and SDN components will be developed by the partners in the project. In addition, the principle will be demonstrated in the LINK test center of Fraunhofer IIS.

Impact

The project strengthens the consortium and its network at the location Germany by newly acquired solution competence to ensure the new and high requirements in security and resilience in the context of wireless backhaul and allows the targeted transfer of the results through qualification of scientific personnel, theses, scientific publications as well as patents if applicable, application scenarios in cooperation with individual companies and associations such as NGMN, 5G-ACIA, BDEW, UP-KRITIS, standardization such as 6G (e.g. via 3GPP).

Funding

The research project is funded under the Federal Office for Information Security's (BSI) economic stimulus program "Cyber Security and Digital Sovereignty in 5G/6G Communication Technologies."

Statement on the funding measure

The competencies required for the project in the information-theoretical field (FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg), SDN and network architecture (Fraunhofer IIS) and hardware (TU Clausthal) are only possible in such a funding format within a national framework. With the existing budgets at universities and research institutes, such a specialized topic cannot be handled either in terms of personnel or other resources. The project strengthens the consortium and its network at the location Germany by newly acquired solution competence to ensure the new and high requirements in security and resilience in the context of wireless backhaul and allows the targeted transfer of the results.

RIS4NGWB: first milestone was reached

At a working meeting at Fraunhofer IIS in Nuremberg, the first milestone in the RIS4NGWB project was reached on schedule: The system architecture and the mobile application scenarios have now been defined. In addition, there are already initial results in hardware design, information technology modeling, and the SDN part of the project.

On site at the L.I.N.K. Test and Application Center, colleagues from the Clausthal University of Technology and the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg were able to get an idea of the excellent experimental possibilities. Thus inspired, the demonstrations planned for next year were immediately planned.