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.

Over the past decades the mobile communications has evolved over the different generations to the current 5G, and transformed into a fundamental infrastructure that supports digital demands from all industry sectors. However, 5G systems are expected to fall short on meeting the anticipated stringent performance requirements for the new generation of real time mission-critical applications. In view of that, DESIRE6G will design and develop novel zero-touch control, management, and orchestration platform, with native integration of AI, to support eXtreme URLLC application requirements. DESIRE6G will re-architect mobile networks through a) its intent-based control and end-to-end orchestration that targets to achieve near real time autonomic networking; and b) a cloud-native unified programmable data plane layer supporting multi-tenancy. The latter will be supported by a generic hardware abstraction layer designed for heterogeneous systems. Flexible composition of modular micro-services for slice specific implementations and flexible function placement depending on HW requirements will enable granular use case instantiation and service level assurance with minimum resource consumption and maximum energy efficiency. The DESIRE6G data, control, management, and orchestration plane is supported by a pervasive monitoring system, extending from the network to the user equipment or IoT terminal. DESIRE6G will employ distributed ledger technology to support a) dynamic federation for services across of multiple administrative domains and b) infrastructure-agnostic software security. Finally, DESIRE6G will enable communication-, and energy- efficient distributed AI, at the network edge, while considering application-level requirements and resource constraints. The proposed innovations will be validated employing a VR/AR/MR and a Digital Twin application at two distinct experimental sites.

The goal of INSPIRE-5Gplus is to advance security of 5G and Beyond networks via two main approaches: (1) by leveraging/extending existing assets such as Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), Remote Attestation/Path Proof/RCA (Root Cause Analysis), and end-to-end liability management between parties, and (2) by introducing novel solutions/paradigms exploiting the potential of new trends including AI/ML and Blockchains. Accordingly, the INSPIRE-5Gplus project will address key security challenges against the concrete and efficient realisation of 5G through vertical applications, ranging from autonomous and connected cars to Critical Industry 4.0 (under specific regulation constraints). Grounded in an integrated network management system and relevant frameworks, INSPIRE-5Gplus is entirely devoted to improve security at various dimensions (i.e., overall vision, use cases, architecture, integration to network management, assets, and models). It is also committed to deliver actionable results and enablers for all relevant stakeholders at both Program and Community levels. These outcomes will serve the crucial objectives of intelligent security and pervasive trust for future connected systems where Security will not be software-defined only, but will also be governed by Algorithms (AI, ML, Modeling, Optimization) to realize new concepts such as pro-active security while being trustworthy. Through its objectives, INSPIRE-5Gplus will deliver unique assets to achieve intelligent and trusted multi-tenancy (i.e. confident, evidence-based, and liable) across multi-tenants infrastructure, whilst also improving the control of systems, vulnerabilities and compromises for the infrastructure owners and tenants.