Net-Zero self-adaptive activation of distributed self-resilient augmented services

Project Information

NATWORK

Grant agreement ID: 101139285

DOI

10.3030/101139285

EC signature date 1 December 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 3 828 075,00

EU contribution

€ 3 628 007,50

Coordinated by

ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NATWORK (Net-Zero self-adaptive activation of distributed self-resilient augmented services)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

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.
NATWORK built its Secure Federated Learning architecture. This is based on decentralized defensive AI models embedded in disaggregated 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.
Furthermore, NATWORK investigates on 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.

NATWORK also seeks to influence 6G standardization and policy. The project is aligned with EU regulations like GDPR and the Cybersecurity Act. In addition, the project contributes to EU's low-carbon goals by materializing a secure, sustainable, and highly performing 6G ecosystem, hence reinforcing Europe's global 6G leadership.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The key achievements of the consortium in the first 18 months of the project includes the following:

1. Detailed user requirements have been drafted and translated into technical specifications, forming the technological base of the project
NATWORK’s Use Cases scenarios and requirements have been formulated along with the first version of the architecture. NATWORK's architecture imitates the biological immunity's stepwise operation. Its first defence layer employs AI-based proactive mechanisms that dynamically change the available attack surface to discourage intruders. The second layer uses adaptive AI/ML models to classify detected threats and initiate mitigation actions, while also learning from past security incidents and being trained to forecast and mitigate future threats. This knowledge ensures situational awareness and enhanced adaptability. Thus, NATWORK develops an AI-driven cybersecurity autoimmunity system.

2. Significant progress has been realized towards the development of the first release of the NATWORK technology. The consortium achieved preliminary results, conducted tests in experimental testbeds and defined the required frameworks for the final integration. These refer to the anticipated outcomes of the technical work, i.e. the components of the envisioned technology such as: Secure-by-design orchestration and management, Payload security per runtime, Intelligent networking, CTI & explainability, Physical layer threat modelling, AI-powered Anti-jamming and RIS Defence Mechanisms.

3. Preparatory activities have been conducted towards the initiation of the first round of NATWORK pilots. These include the definition of the evaluation framework & drafting of pilot specifications.

4. The roadmap toward commercial exploitation of the results has been investigated, and partners’ exploitation plans have been elaborated.

5. The results of project activities in these first 18 months have been disseminated through targeted events and 35 scientific publications.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The envisioned project results include the development of:
1. Dynamic MTD framework for End-to-End security.
2. AI-native 6G architecture that utilises a cross-layer decentralised approach based on secure federated learning.
3. Composer of secure-by-design 6G cloud-native slices.
4. Platform-agnostic, always sustainable, all threat coverage, all payload format support, intent-based adjustable SECaaS (Security as a Service).
5. Advanced AI-empowered decentralised orchestration and management services.
6. Deep software runtime Monitoring for DoS attack detection.
7. AI-powered Anti-jamming & RIS Defence module.
8. Decentralised node (self) attestation and trust regulation.

During the first 18 months, the consortium promoted the above aims through the technical developments mentioned above. The progress in this first period is aligned to the expected impacts which are summarised as follows:
•Smart connectivity technologies for platforms integrating ubiquitous connectivity, storage, and computing resources opening for new service and business models
•Trustworthiness and security in a continuous manner in 6G as a humancentric pervasive CPS.
•Increase resilience and dependability of smart 6G services and devices under novel malicious actors and threats with more advanced capabilities (e.g. AI-controlled weaponisation) in 6G.
•Innovative radio spectrum use, novel strategies for coverage/service extension, support of novel wireless technologies and use cases through platforms, usability of today unexplored spectrum.
•Significant energy savings, by allowing the intelligent and systematic reuse of heterogeneous network and computing assets across different domains.
•The versatility of the developed technology is expected to enable novel applications that have been so far challenging, thus paving the way for new market creation (e.g. new entrepreneurial initiatives, the formation of new EU-based SMEs in the 6G and cybersecurity domain) into the expected future economic impact of NATWORK.
•NATWORK will create new jobs to the European 6G industry, research organizations and higher education establishments, as well as to European smart connectivity systems manufacturers.
•During the project implementation, after the project completion and up to the full commercialization of its technologies new jobs of high qualified personnel will be generated.
•Enhancement of connectivity, at an adequate speed, to provide numerous advantage in terms of well-being, education and training, health and welfare as well as enhanced lifestyles.
•Contribution to the future growth in several industries and society at large, enabling a broad set of emerging applications and ultimately sparking a new era of enhanced digitization of our society.

NATWORK Components

NATWORK Architecture