To handle the unprecedented demand for mobile data traffic, different vendors, operators and research programmes have aimed to develop radio access technologies (RATs) that boost physical-layer link capacity, utilize millimeter wave radio, or further densify network topology. Notable steps have also been made towards shifting baseband processing from the (currently) ultra dense network edge to a central location where coordinated resource management will be performed. Nonetheless, the today’s mobile network ecosystem includes vastly heterogeneous, evidently overlapping (in coverage) and fully isolated (in operation) attachment points that still handle most of the functions necessary for mobile data communications independently. Aiming to meet and surpass the requirements set for the 5G-and-Beyond mobile data network, in SPOTLIGHT we will create a fully-integrated and multi-disciplinary network of Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) that will analyze, design, and optimize the performance of a disruptive new mobile network architecture: the SPOTLIGHT architecture. This architecture promises to break performance limitations present to the currently loosely inter-connected, resource-fragmented and isolated in operation mobile network ecosystem, by transforming the currently loosely-coupled multitude of heterogeneous and multi-layered RATs to a flat coalition of massively distributed antenna sub-systems that are optimally orchestrated by a cloud-empowered network core. Our primary aim will be to support for the first time self-including yet ultra-reliable radio communications at the edge network. To further reduce response time and enhance network resilience, all functions necessary for mobile communications will be subject of i) massive parallelization in cloud platforms at the network core and ii) big data analysis running on-top of a virtual pool of shared energy, radio, computing and storage resources at the network.

The CYBER-TRUST project aims to develop an innovative cyber-threat intelligence gathering, detection, and mitigation platform to tackle the grand challenges towards securing the ecosystem of IoT devices. The security problems arising from the flawed design of legacy hardware and embedded devices allows cyber-criminals to easily compromise them and launch large-scale attacks toward critical cyber-infrastructures. The proposed interdisciplinary approach will capture different phases of such emerging attacks, before and after known (even years old) or unknown (zero-day) vulnerabilities have been widely exploited by cyber-criminals to launch the attack. Emphasis is given on building a proactive cyber-threat intelligence gathering and sharing system to prevent the exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities. This intelligence information will be used to maintain accurate vulnerability profiles of IoT devices, in accordance with data protection, privacy, or other regulations, and optimally alter their attack surface to minimise the damage from cyber-attacks. Novel technologies will be developed, based on distributed ledgers and blockchains, to monitor devices’ integrity state and network behaviour that will considerably increase the detection and response capabilities against targeted and interdisciplinary cyber-attacks. In the case of alleged malicious activity, tools for collecting and storing forensic evidence on a tamper-proof blockchain structure will be delivered, taking into account the specific needs of law enforcement agencies. Privacy-preserving network monitoring and advanced virtual reality-based visualisation techniques will be employed for quickly detecting botnets, DDoS attacks and other incidents. Relying on interdisciplinary research, an intelligent autonomous cyber-defence framework will be built for providing intelligent ways of isolating the devices under an attacker’s control (or infected) and effectively responding to and mitigating large-scale attacks.

5G-PHOS aims to architect and evaluate 5G broadband wireless networks for dense, ultra-dense and Hot-Spot area use cases drawing from recent results in the area of optical technologies towards producing and exploiting a powerful photonic integrated circuit technology toolkit. It aims to streamline advances in multi-format and multi-bitrate optical communications, in InP transceiver, in Triplex optical beamformers and in integrated optical add/drop multiplexers in order to migrate from CPRI-based towards integrated Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) packetized C-RAN fronthaul supporting massive mmWave MIMO communications.It will deliver: a) a set of SDN-programmable units, called FlexBox and FlexBox-Pro, that will be compatible with the emerging 25Gb/s PON access networks and can deliver FiWi traffic ranging between 25-400Gb/s, b) a set of three different 64x64 MIMO Remote Radio Head configurations exploiting analog optical beamforming and producing 25Gb/s,100Gb/s and 400Gb/s wireless data-rates, c) an integrated FiWi packetized fronthaul for supporting Medium-Transparent Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation mechanisms and cooperative radio-optical beamforming, d) a converged FiWi SDN control plane for optimally orchestrating both the optical and the wireless resources. These blocks will be integrated towards architecting 5G networks for 3 use cases, evaluating their performance in lab-scale and field-trial experiments: a. 25Gb/s peak data rate PON-overlaid 5G FiWi network for dense areas, capable to offer densities up to 1.7 Tb/s/km2 , to be demonstrated also in field-trial experiments at the deployed network of Greek operator COSMOTE. b. 400Gb/s peak data-rate SDM-enabled 5G FiWi network targeted for ultra-dense environments and being capable of offering densities up to 28 Tb/s/km2 with <1msec latency. c.100Gb/s peak data-rate WDM-enabled 5G FiWi network targeted for Hot-Spot areas and being evaluated in field-trial experiments at the stadium of P.A.O.K. F.C. in Thessaloniki, Greece.