Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SOVEREIGN (distributed ledger technologies and user-driven automation towards self-SOVEREIGN mobile data access inbeyond 5G networks)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2024-01-01 al 2025-12-31
Towards the forthcoming transition to a fully connected world (e.g. Internet of Senses, digital twins), support of connected intelligence requires service advertisement, discovery, negotiation and management that goes beyond the complexity and scalability that existing technologies and subscription-driven mobile network operation (MNO) processes can handle. In Beyond 5G (B5G) networks, cyber-physical assets and intelligent end points will be capable of translating current service requirements to comprehensive technical specifications dynamically (e.g. QoS/QoE management per service chunk) as well as request for full customization of their service terms in line with current availability of tenants/resources and their application requirements. Distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) hold the key for natively disintermediated, cost-efficient, and anonymous B5G communications, enabling transparency and trust to be established across the integrated DLT, radio access and core network continuum. The SOVEREIGN research programme aims to fuel artificial intelligence (AI) with DLT-backed data in order to innovate the B5G service chain and the B5G protocol stack towards the support of fully decentralized, instantaneous, and anonymous resource trading across the B5G network ecosystem (end terminals, infrastructure, over-the-top OTT service providers, etc.). SOVEREIGN aims to empower intelligent end points in B5G networks, to gain full control of their identities, connectivity, sessions, service terms, and shared data upon accessing B5G spectrum, antennas, network slices and services. To this end, SOVEREIGN will conceptualize and develop a modular end-to-end service architecture integrating DLT-empowered service provisioning, fully decentralized Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) operations, forward-thinking protocols for self-sovereign identity management and anonymity/data privacy preservation as well as user-driven AI-enabled mobility management and traffic steering over joint DLT/B5G system infrastructures.
The project has completed the SOVEREIGN scenarios framework and business models and delivered the final system architecture and technical specifications, defining end‑to‑end DLT‑backed B5G service pipelines, modules, APIs and required functional upgrades to current 5G/NTN standards. Technical and scientific activities have included extensive state‑of‑the‑art reviews and requirement analyses in DLT‑backed AAA, distributed consensus and capacity boosting, self‑sovereign identity and anonymity (SSI, coin mixing, mobility‑proof Tor), and user‑driven access and automation, followed by the design of new protocols and mathematical models (AoI‑inspired queuing, stochastic geometry, semantics‑aware KPIs, DRL/DP‑based optimisation) that underpin the targeted performance objectives MPO1–MPO5. In parallel, secondments and joint work across academia and industry have produced detailed designs for the decentralized AAA platform, SSI/anonymity suite and user‑driven automation mechanisms, aligned them with the common architecture, and mapped their implementation and integration requirements into the TRL‑6 PoC platform to be realised in WP6 during the second half of the project.
The project has already delivered key results such as a full scenarios framework and business models for self‑sovereign, DLT‑backed B5G access, a complete end‑to‑end architecture with APIs and functional upgrades to current 5G standards, and detailed designs plus analysis frameworks for decentralized AAA, self‑sovereign identity and anonymity services, and user‑driven automation and semantics‑aware communications, all tailored to ambitious scalability, reliability and sustainability targets and expected to enable subscription‑less pay‑per‑use models, more efficient use of existing infrastructures (with projected CO2 and cost reductions on the order of 30% when fully deployed), and more affordable, privacy‑preserving, inclusive connectivity aligned with UN SDGs. To ensure further uptake and success, the main needs are (i) follow‑up research and large‑scale demonstrations beyond the TRL‑6 PoC foreseen in the project, (ii) access to markets and finance to turn high‑level exploitation plans into concrete business cases and scaled deployments, (iii) IPR and legal support for joint software/algorithms and for navigating telecom, data‑protection and DLT regulation, (iv) continued internationalisation and cooperation with operators, vendors, OTT/fintech actors and standardisation bodies, and (v) a supportive regulatory and standardisation framework that recognises and enables self‑sovereign identity, DLT‑based charging and flexible spectrum/resource trading models.