University of Waterloo Leads Consortium to Develop Secure 5G Networks 

WATERLOO, Ontario, Jan. 11, 2023 -- The University of Waterloo today announced a 5G and beyond mobile network technology consortium funded by the Department of National Defence (DND) to improve Canada’s security and defence through its Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program. A team of computer scientists at the University of Waterloo is leading the $1.5 million multi-partner consortium.

Called the “Secure and reliable end-to-end network slicing for 5G and beyond mobile networks,” the three-year project brings together academic and industry partners from École de technologie supérieure in Montréal, University of Regina, BlackBerry, NoviFlow, and Rockport Networks, with support from Rogers Communications Canada to create new solutions to secure 5G mobile networks. This latest global wireless standard delivers reliable, high-speed data transfers with ultra-low latency — advanced communications technology that is transforming businesses, industries, and nations.

“Our mobile communications networks can be sliced using software into fit-for-purpose networks that operate virtually, each with a different degree of isolation and level of quality-of-service to meet security and performance requirements,” said Professor Raouf Boutaba, the project’s principal investigator and director of Waterloo’s Cheriton School of Computer Science. “However, network softwarization also introduces vulnerabilities that can compromise services, including slices. The goal of the consortium is to deploy 5G network slices that not only have high performance, flexibility and reliability but also have increased security levels required for critical applications.”

“The solution we are developing will have many, long-lasting impacts on Canadian industry and defence,” said Dr. Noura Limam, a research professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science and the project’s coordinator. “Applications that range as widely as healthcare, public safety, emergency response and unmanned vehicles will benefit from these secure, responsive 5G network slices, positioning Canada as a leader in 5G and beyond mobile networks. Additionally, the innovations developed in collaboration with our industry partners — Rockport Networks, NoviFlow and BlackBerry — will further Canada’s economic prosperity.”

Read the University of Waterloo announcement.

Key contributions from BlackBerry, Rockport Networks, and NoviFlow include the following:

• BlackBerry: 5G introduces Software-Defined Networking capabilities which allow network operations to flexibly change and is combined with a “softwarization” of networks where bespoke networking hardware is being replaced with software, thus changing the nature of the networking software supply chain. BlackBerry will leverage its knowledge of software supply chain security to build new solutions for identifying and blocking the insertion of malicious software into the 5G supply chain.
• Rockport Networks: the scale fabrics innovator will provide University of Waterloo researchers with resilient, high-performance local area networks to power safety-critical AI workloads at the 5G edge. Rockport distributes switching to the edge for faster processing, ultra-low latency and high availability in a smaller, cost-efficient and low power footprint than centralized architectures.
• NoviFlow: the multi-terabyte Software-Defined Networking solutions with programmable network fabric developed by NoviFlow will provide University of Waterloo with the technology needed for deploying a high-performance and scalable Multi-Access Edge Cloud for on-demand deployment of security functions at the network edge.

Among the technologies the consortium will develop are artificial intelligence systems to detect a range of cyberattacks on 5G network slices as they happen, then respond quickly and automatically with countermeasures to keep the network secure. Additionally, security requirements will be built into the 5G network slices themselves using end-to-end network slice orchestration that responds dynamically to an application’s security requirements and the severity of threats.

Ultimately, the various solutions will be integrated with the consortium’s partner and collaborator technologies to create a proof-of-concept on the University of Waterloo–Rogers 5G testbed.

About Rockport Networks

Rockport Networks delivers the next generation of scale fabrics to accelerate AI and HPC innovation. Rockport is reimagining the system infrastructure model of the data center with networking solutions designed for scale, resiliency and sustainability — all with the right economics. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Rockport has offices and projects spanning international markets with Centers of Excellence in Europe and North America.

Source: Rockport Networks