On 8 September, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Defense (DoD) announced the award of $12 million to 16 teams of 5G operators through the NSF’s Convergence Accelerator Program. The awards will be used to support enhancements to end devices and augmentations to 5G infrastructure, providing capabilities to military, government and critical infrastructure operators to operate through public 5G networks while meeting security and resilience requirements. The goal is to enable 5G operators (including the defense community) to operate securely anywhere and anytime.
Projects funded include:
- 5G Hidden Operations through Securing Traffic, or GHOST, led by University of Colorado Boulder.
- 5G Traffic Sovereignty: Operating Through an Adversarial Internet, led by University of California San Diego.
- Autonomously Tunable Waveform-Agnostic Radio Adapter for Seamless and Secure Operation of DoD Devices Through Non-Cooperative 5G Networks, led by Florida International University.
- Building Resilient and Secure 5G Systems, or BRASS, led by Red Balloon Security.
- Combating Vulnerability and Unawareness in 5G Network Security: Signaling and Full-Stack Approach, led by University of Kansas.
- Feasible Cooperative Zero Trust Framework for 5G, led by Blackberry Corporation.
- Intelligent 5G Networks Designed and Integrated for Globalized Operations, or INDIGO, led by AT&T Corporation.
- Lightweight Scalable Secure 5G and Beyond Networks, led by Novowi.
- Security Services for the 5G Software-Defined Edge, led by SRI International.
- Programmable Zero-Trust Security, or PETS, for Operating Through 5G Infrastructure, led by Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station.
- Privacy-preserving Intrusion-resilient Secure Multiparty-computation-based Overlay for Secure and Resilient Communication Through 5G, led by SRI International.
- Proactive End-to-End Zero Trust-Based Security Intelligence for Resilient Non-cooperative 5G Networks, led by University of Michigan.
- Secure Censor-resistant Overlay Resilient Networks, or SCORE, led by Peraton Labs.
- Secure Texting over Non-cooperative Networks and Anti-jamming Enhancement in 5G, led by George Mason University.
- Securely Operate through 5G Networks with Informed Control, or SONIC, led by the University of Utah.
- SMART-5G: Secure Multichannel Automated opeRations Through 5G Networks, led by IBM, Consulting Federal.
The collaboration supports DoD’s 5G initiative, which seeks to assess and mitigate 5G vulnerabilities, inform 5G standards and policies through rigorous research, and promote technology development to advance 5G communications for the U.S. military and federal government.
“5G wireless networks are crucial components of the modern communication system and a key aspect of how we operate,” said Amanda Toman, Acting Principal Director for 5G at DOD OUSD(R&E). “We must have viable solutions to support the military and federal government’s missions. The Department is excited to partner with NSF and its Convergence Accelerator to accelerate the development of 5G technologies for our systems and those of our allies and partners.”
This is the fourth in a series of grants on various research tracks administered through NSF’s Convergence Accelerator, part of NSF”s new Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP). For more information, see: https://beta.nsf.gov/tip/latest
