"A New Stanford Initiative Aims to Ensure 5G Networks Are Reliable and Secure"

A team of researchers at the Stanford University School of Engineering will demonstrate how an arrangement of computer-controlled drones can be managed with precision even if the 5G network that controls it is being hit with a cyberattack. The success or failure of the demonstration will depend on whether an experimental network control technology can detect the attack and defeat it within a second to protect the navigation systems. The demonstration will be observed by officials from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the government agency that is underwriting Project Pronto. Stanford University, Cornell University, Princeton University, and the nonprofit Open Networking Foundation (ONF) are jointly collaborating on Project Pronto, which is led by Nick McKeown, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford. Their goal is to ensure the security and reliability of 5G networks that will support autonomous vehicles, trains, and planes of the future, as the transition to 5G is expected to impact every device connected to the Internet. Project Pronto offers a solution devised by McKeown and his colleagues that uses Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology to wrap a virtually instantaneous shield around wirelessly accessible computers. This article continues to discuss the goals of Project Pronto, the pending Pronto demonstration, the application of advanced SDN techniques to secure 5G networks, and the importance of ensuring 5G networks are reliable and secure. 

Stanford reports "A New Stanford Initiative Aims to Ensure 5G Networks Are Reliable and Secure"