As we move to the Internet-of-Things, the number of devices which will be connecting to the Internet – many of them without any direct human control - is estimated in billions in the immediate future. In October 2016, the Mirai Botnet performed the largest Denial-of-Service attack in history using infected consumer devices, showing how pressing is the need to properly secure the IoT. In parallel, a new technology has emerged which will be key in any future development in this sense: the blockchain. Initially designed as the backbone of Bitcoin a decade ago, Blockchain Technologies (BCT) are seen now as powerful digital abstraction of trust and stand out as a promising alternative to deal with it in the online world. Several initiatives are moving towards using BCT for securing the IoT, and the academic and industrial sector are participating in a race to envision and design new applications of BCT. However, there are few experts with a solid scientific background in IT Technologies who also have first-hand knowledge of the needs of the industry and who understand the financial and regulatory challenges of BCT. These professionals can be key to articulate converge of the BCT and the IoT technologies, to envision and create new business opportunities for the European economy. BAnDiT or Advanced Blockchain Attacks and Defense Techniques is an innovative research training network with two beneficiary organizations, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in the academic sector and Nokia Bell Labs in the private sector, which aims at bridging this gap. UPF will contribute through the network her knowledge and research experience in the departments of Information and Communication Technologies, Economics and Law and Nokia its hands-on experience in BCT. Partner organisations will contribute with transversal training events and providing access to existing blockchain ecosystems to test the results of the research conducted by the ESRs.

In recent years, we have witnessed the advent of what is now called the second quantum revolution: whereas previously we essentially observed the quantum nature of physical objects and used their properties at a macroscopic level, we now have the technological capabilities to manipulate these objects individually and make them interact in a controlled way for specific applications. The QUANTIFY project falls within this context, and more precisely within the scope of quantum communication, while keeping in mind the potential for transversal applications of the technology we are developing, in particular in the field of quantum metrology. The starting point of the project are the AlGaAs sources developed at the MPQ Laboratory, which present several advantages: small footprint (typical volume well below 1mm3), operation at room temperature, emission of entangled photons in the telecommunication C-band, compatibility with electrical injection, high second-order non-linearity, and electro-optical effect. Thanks to the complementary expertise of the consortium members, QUANTIFY's objective is to capitalize on these results, focused on component aspects, and to demonstrate that this platform with its many assets can now lead to high-performance quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. The work is organized into two main tasks: In the first part of our project we will work on the improvement of the performance of the multi-user QKD protocol based on entanglement, by exploiting the peculiarity characterizing the state emitted by the AlGaAs sources : wide spectral band, frequency anticorrelations and polarization entanglement. This work is structured in two parts: the implementation of a quantum key distribution protocol with several user pairs, and the implementation of a network connecting each user to all others through a connected graph principle. In the second part of our project, we wish to explore the frequency-comb structure of the states emitted by our source. We aim at demonstrating that high-dimensional QKD can be used in practice to increase the information throughput and security of these systems, which is useful for a large number of applications. The project will benefit from the complementarity and recognized expertise of the three partners. The team of the Quantum Phenomena and Materials (MPQ) Laboratory will contribute with its expertise in semiconductor device modeling and design, integrated non-linear optical device fabrication and characterization, and quantum optics measurements. The LIP6 Laboratory team will contribute with its know-how on the design and analysis of quantum cryptography protocols in a system and telecom network context. Nokia Bell Labs will participate in the project through the study and validation of the most relevant technologies for the architecture of a quantum key distribution network, the coherent manipulation of the quantum frequency comb states, and will contribute to the implementation of the test network to validate key distribution experiments. The project represents an ambitious goal and an important step forward compared to the state of the art in three aspects: technology, system architecture, and quantum key distribution protocols. The results of QUANTIFY will have an impact that goes beyond the objectives of the project and will have immediate applications in the field of quantum communication, information and metrology. The compactness, simplicity and robustness of the systems developed in this project will thus make it possible to take a further step towards the wide diffusion of quantum technologies in real-world applications.

The N-GREEN project targets the current ICT challenges: the ever-growing global data traffic and unsustainable increase of energy consumption. The main bottleneck is the switching, extremely power-hungry in current electronic switch/routers. N-GREEN proposes a new type of switching/routing node by introducing a new high-capacity design including new optical technologies to reduce by several orders of magnitude the energy consumption per bit switched. The project targets modelling and proof of concept of this novel node, focusing on: • A backplane, highly integrated yet modular, based on fast optical switches of small connectivity but addressing large switching capacities, thanks to the WDM technique. This technique is compatible with the conventional packet switching technique, while addressing a switching capacity beyond 100 Tb/s (160 Tbit/s for a 16x16 optical switch). • A network architecture exploiting WDM packets thanks to a new generation of optical add/drop multiplexers (WSADM: WDM slotted add/drop multiplexer). These packets having a fixed duration close to 1 µs are transported in a transparent way, to better exploit the switching matrix of the node; their headers will be transported over one dedicated wavelength at a lower bit rate, to reduce the physical constraints of the electronic processing and scheduler. • New interfaces improving the interconnection of data storage and processing units. These interfaces support new functionalities such as dynamical bandwidth allocation and secured interconnection. These innovations allow limiting the amount of data to be electronically handled, while introducing a limited number of optical components thanks to WDM slots, thus reducing energy consumption per transmitted bit. This project is built around the following criteria: • A partnership having the right expertise: The partners of N-GREEN have the different skills required to achieve the project’s goals. Many of these international experts are active in the steering committees of technical conferences such as Photonics in Switching (PS) or Optical Network Design and Modelling (ONDM). The partners of N-GREEN have previously worked together in the ANR ECOFRAME project. • Pragmatic directions, to provide a concrete answer to the needs of the market: N-GREEN proposes to study a new switch/router exploiting a 2012 patent of Alcatel-Lucent. N-GREEN capitalizes on real innovations: the dynamic optical bypass and line card interconnection. N-GREEN targets a well-identified market and proposes a new technology to be deployed beyond 2020. Due to the challenges to address, it is critical to start the proof of concept as soon as possible if the industrial version is to reach the market in time. • A workplan structured in 4 technical work-packages and one management work-package focused on: • Design and develop the N-GREEN network architecture, relying on strategic data provided by industry, compliant with emerging software- defined networks (SDN) and network function virtualisation (NFV). • Design in detail and model the switching/routing node for a feasibility study. • Analyse network and node performance, including a benchmarking analysis for comparison with existing solutions. • Experimentally demonstrate a proof of concept of the node. • Valorise and disseminate this new approach through patents, scientific conferences and publications, and setting up workshops towards a new standardisation process. Thus, N-GREEN offers new perspectives for the future telecommunication network by proposing a new generation of eco-designed switch/routers, creating the required conditions to take leadership in the domain of optical networks.

As proposed by initiatives in Europe and worldwide, enabling an open, general-purpose, and sustainable large-scale shared experimental facility will foster the emergence of the Future Internet. There is an increasing demand among researchers and production system architects to federate testbed resources from multiple autonomous organizations into a seamless/ubiquitous resource pool, thereby giving users standard interfaces for accessing the widely distributed and diverse collection of resources they need to conduct their experiments. The F-Lab project builds on a leading prototype for such a facility: the OneLab federation of testbeds. OneLab pioneered the concept of testbed federation, providing a federation model that has been proven through a durable interconnection between its flagship testbed PlanetLab Europe (PLE) and the global PlanetLab infrastructure, mutualising over five hundred sites around the world. One key objective of F-Lab is to further develop an understanding of what it means for autonomous organizations operating heterogeneous testbeds to federate their computation, storage and network resources, including defining terminology, establishing universal design principles, and identifying candidate federation strategies. On the operational side, F-Lab will enhance OneLab with the contribution of the unique sensor network testbeds from SensLAB, and LTE based cellular systems. In doing so, F-Lab continues the expansion of OneLab’s capabilities through federation with an established set of heterogeneous testbeds with high international visibility and value for users, developing the federation concept in the process, and playing a major role in the federation of national and international testbeds. F-Lab will also develop tools to conduct end-to-end experiments using the OneLab facility enriched with SensLAB and LTE. F-Lab is a “platform” type of project, fully compliant with the ANR VERSO call’s definition of a platform (technically challenging, open, shared and sustainable). It already involves a large and vibrant community of researchers and users; it is open and its operation is sustainable. It helps to structure the community with strong connections at the international level and develops common best practices in testbed operation, management, and experiments. It is fully aligned with the call in the areas of Future Internet, sensor and cellular networks, federation of networks and testbeds. F-Lab is a unique opportunity for the French community to play a stronger role in the design of federation systems, a topic of growing interest; for the SensLAB testbed to reach an international visibility and use; and for pioneering testbeds on LTE technology.