The ambition of the NATWORK project is to set the foundations and deploy the very first economically realistic, energy efficient and viable bio-inspired AI-based 6G cybersecurity and resilience framework for intelligent networking and services, taking a holistic approach and considering all elements in a cross-sector business environment to address the diverse requirements and challenges that arise. The NATWORK project aims to develop a novel AI-leveraged self-adaptive security mechanism for 6G networks based on resilient bio-mimicry principles. The goal is to improve the malleability and the self-resilience of future 6G network ecosystems to offer augmented and secure services at the lowest energy costs. The principle premise is to empower various entities of 6G ecosystems with the ability to self-regulate their conditions to provide service continuity in compliance with service SLAs. The Secure Federated Learning architecture of NATWORK will be based on decentralized defensive AI models embedded in dis-aggregated 6G network physical layer, smart Edge Network Interface Cards and RAN devices with P4-based programmable data plane and advanced DPU acceleration, with local feature extraction at wire-speed and AI model training. Among the key 6G security challenges that NATWORK aims to alleviate are Moving Target Defense and adaptive response to incidents, the employment of Net Zero AI and energy-efficient security for sustainable networks, the Detection of new forms of attacks bearing deep control flow monitoring as well as the elaboration of a continuum of security for payload deployment fostering secure migration of novel forms of in-network operations and secure distributed computations.

The ACROSS project designs and implements an end-to-end service deployment and management platform for next-generation networks and services, aiming at unprecedented levels of automation, performance, scalability, and energy efficiency. At its basis, the platform is built as a highly-distributed grid of domain-level orchestrators, spread across multiple geo-dispersed and potentially heterogeneous edge environments, overseen by a cloud-managed multi-domain orchestrator. The use of standardised communication interfaces fosters separation of concerns (events) between the two orchestration layers through an integration fabric which ensures compliance with ongoing standardisation efforts. The platform is further enhanced with a) deep end-to-end telemetry to unlock visibility of the intertwined network and compute system states, b) AI-driven intelligence that leverages both the vast number of events originating from the dense IoT ecosystem and detailed monitoring data originating from the ACROSS telemetry sub-system, to generate new insights, c) full-stack cross-domain zero-touch provisioning via programmable “hooks” that exploit events originating from raw telemetry and AI processed events, and d) secure and trusted orchestration mechanisms for trusted computing technologies over large and heterogeneous cloud-edge deployments, as well as orchestration and monitoring of the security VNFs. The ACROSS concept is developed over a federated heterogeneous validation and testing environment that hosts a number of test cases and scenarios for promoting all potential intelligent and trusted zero-touch provisioning processes with different event triggering origins. The test cases are carefully designed for being promoted as proof of concept (PoC) project submissions to standards and open-source initiatives (targeting but not limited to ETSI ZSM, ETSI NFV-OSM, TMF, ONF).

X-TREME 6G proposal relies on a unique industry led consortium to provide a foundational open microelectronics platform in Europe with the objective to create and design key disruptive next generation chiplets and chipsets for 6G use cases. The idea is to break-up the full potential of best-in-class Silicon BiCMOS, InP and heterogeneous 3D integration for high capacity radio access technologies such as wireless back-hauling at sub-TeraHertz frequencies, Joint Communication And Sensing, Non Terrestrial Networks and Network as a Sensor. New classes of chipsets will unleash the full potential of 6G and enable the emergence of new applications through specific developments for the underpinning novel microelectronic technologies. X-TREME 6G valorizes also resource efficient 6G algorithms and an ML/AI software toolbox for computationally efficient silicon-ready baseband extensions. Part of the SNS “Microelectronic Lighthouse” visionary initiative, the proposal’s ambition is to establish and maintain a sustainable open platform for the duration of the SNS program and beyond, to support 6G verticals. By nurturing the links with the emerging Chips JU pilot lines, the platform acts as a first fabric to accelerate joint initiatives between SNS and Chips JUs. In a nutshell, X-TREME 6G will provide tangible contributions towards an experimentation EU framework for 6G, demonstrating the full benefit of the newly developed chipsets and chiplets for a set of emerging 6G high potential use cases (wireless back-hauling, JCAS, NTN, NaS); while being open to dynamically support the emerging 6G ecosystem (SMEs, Industries, Service Providers, Government etc.) and evaluate additional 6G challenges and expectations. By strengthening and extending the 6G functionality and microelectronics supply chain, X-TREME 6G contributes towards a network-centric democratized and open 6G ecosystem able to release the current hyperscaler’s market embrace, while empowers European Industry at large.

Cybersecurity certification as introduced by the EU Cybersecurity Act (EUCSA) will play a crucial role in increasing the trust to and security of ICT Products, ICT Services and ICT Processes. Cybersecurity certification is a complex process, posing a variety of challenges to the different interested parties. This proposal introduces the CUSTODES, a system comprised of a variety of components with the aim to provide trustworthy, cost-effective, agile and portable conformity assessment capabilities, to a variety of interested parties, covering multiple Assurance levels of Composite ICT products or ICT services. The CUSTODES system will discover and translate certification information of the Building Blocks of the composite ICT products or Services under evaluation, will provide Certification information to the interested parties and will share information on newly identified vulnerabilities related to the specific blocks or composite products as needed increasing transparency, re-usability and trust. It will also utilize a Restricted & Trusted Execution (RTE) Environment, to ensure the chain of custody of the product under assessment. CUSTODES will be validated in three pilots, a) one of two Class I composite products with digital elements, b) one of an ICT product with an embedded AI component and c) a final one of the as-a-service functionality through EIT Digital extensive digital ecosystem. The CUSTODES project is built on a collaboration of 17 organisations from 11 EU member states and third countries. The Consortium which includes 3 Conformity Assessment Organizations is composed by 10 SMEs, 3 large industry partners, 2 research organizations, and 2 public organizations/associations. The Consortium is led by RISE which has extensive experience in national and European research projects, and numerous collaborations with industrial partners.

Long-term towards Evolved 5G and 6G research needs mobilization of massive volumes of ideas, from which the best can emerge and be taken into standardization. It is the convergence of the cyber and physical worlds that could be achieved with the very low latency and high data capacity of Beyond 5G and 6G networks and thus the creation of services such as digital twins and internet of senses/haptic applications. This future eco-system is on course to be more collaborative and inclusive than previous generations of network, and FIDAL aims to lead the way by promoting open architectures, large experimentation sites and taking a multi-stakeholder approach. FIDAL steps in, targeting the augmentation of human capabilities, allowing Media & PPDR vertical industry players to perform advanced technological and business validation in large-scale field trials of highly innovative and advanced applications, that exploit Evolved 5G technologies. This, in turn, will provide extensive and valuable feedback to the broader industry, academia, innovators and community before wide commercial deployments of Evolved 5G networks throughout Europe. FIDAL key objective is to extend and deliver (i) advanced future proof Evolved 5G test infrastructures, anticipating evolution into next SNS phase, (ii) open & accessible to support 3rd party vertical experiments, (iii) test environments for rapid prototyping and large-scale validation of advanced, forward-looking applications. The project will build on the success of 5G-PPP Phase 3 projects, producing a unified experimentation framework with Zero-Touch orchestration, reusable Network Applications and secure AI as a Service capabilities. FIDAL will deploy 3 testbeds and 3 large-scale test infrastructures in Greece, Norway and Spain aiming to validate Evolved 5G technologies in a user context to maximise downstream take up, thus cultivating the ground for 6G.