6G represents standardized communication systems that will be commercially available in 2030s. Even if the initial 5G networks, basing on the 3GPP Release 15, have hardly started become commercially available gradually as of 2019 and their large-scale deployment is still years away, industry is already keen to envision the justification and performance of the forthcoming generation. While there are no concrete 6G standards produced at this stage, their planning will benefit from realistic indications of the requirements and type of usage. The task is not straightforward as users, including a variety of verticals with their rather different communication environments, are sometimes not capable of expressing their future needs in technical terms nor industry might be able to prognosticate the demand that has not yet equivalence in preceding systems. This paper analyses some of the most important current visions of key standardization bodies and assesses indications of the industry for the potential requirements, service types, use cases, and architectural and functional models that can serve as a building block for the actual realization of the visions. This paper also presents means that can be applied in further interpretation and assessment of the vertical needs and priorities, with examples reflecting the benefits of Network Slice requirements that the GSMA North Americas Network Slicing Taskforce studied for foreseen near future environment and that may be extended to be utilized also in exploration of 6G requirements.

Closed loops are key enablers for automation that have been successfully used in many industries for long, and more recently for computing and networking applications. The Zero-touch network and service management (ZSM) framework introduced standardized components that allow the creation, execution, and governance of multiple closed loops, enabling zero-touch management of end-to-end services across different management domains. However, the coordinated and optimal instantiation and operation of multiple closed loops is an open question that is left for implementation by the ZSM specifications. In this paper, we propose a methodology that uses intents as a way of communicating requirements to be considered by autonomous management domains to coordinate hierarchies of closed loops. The intent-driven methodology facilitates hierarchical and peer interactions for delegation and escalation of intents. Furthermore, it extends the existing management capabilities of the ZSM framework and facilitates conflict-free integration of closed loops by setting optimal (and non-conflicting) goals that each closed loop in the hierarchy needs to account for. We show an example of the application of the proposed methodology in a network slicing assurance use case. The new capabilities introduced in this paper can be considered as an extension of the ZSM framework to be used in scenarios where multiple intent-driven closed loops exist.

As the first 5G networks are being deployed across the world, new services enabled by the superior performance of 5G in terms of throughput, latency and reliability are emerging. Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) services are perhaps among the most demanding applications that 5G networks will have to support and their deployment, performance and potential for improvement has been well investigated over the past few years. However, CAM operation in multi-operator environments and the inevitable inter-PLMN handover caused by the inherent mobility of CAM services have not been studied in length. Moreover, the multiple domains, multi-vendor components and inherent high mobility of the cross-border vehicular environment, introduce multiple challenges in terms of network management and dynamic slicing, making Zero-touch network and Service Management (ZSM) solutions an attractive alternative for these environments. The work presented in this study attempts to analyse the requirements for cross-border CAM operation for the five main CAM use cases selected by 3GPP, based on input from key European stakeholders (Network Operators, vendors, Automotive Manufacturers etc.). A detailed analysis and categorization into four categories of the main challenges for cross-border CAM service provisioning is performed, namely Telecommunication, Application, Security/Privacy and Regulatory issues, while potential solutions based on existing and upcoming technological enablers are discussed for each of them. The role of standardization and relevant regulatory and administrative bodies is analysed, leading to insights regarding the most promising future research directions in the field of cross-border CAM services.

The world of communication technology is changing fast and the means of communication are moving towards a packet switched transmission systems such as Voice over IP (VoIP). Formerly call identity spoofing of the displayed number in circuit switched (CS) networks was too difficult to perform so that people could be sure that when receiving a call on their mobile phone or at home, the displayed number is the one as it is supposed to be. Nowadays this is not the case anymore, voice communication from the internet with VoIP is cheap and spam calls can be easily realized without any costs, also it is getting easier to perform spoofed calls with wrong display name or number.
 The mobile network operators have no mechanisms to tackle those threats, but standardization activities are already in place within the security group SA3 of 3GPP. This paper provides an overview of the current status of the standards activities and shows the most promising solutions that are proposed up to now. The proposed solutions detect unsolicited communications and spoofed calls by tracing back to the displayed number used in the attack.

The LoRaWAN security design adheres to state-of-the-art principles: use of standard, well-vetted algorithms, and end-to-end security. The fundamental properties supported in LoRaWAN security are mutual end-point authentication, data origin authentication, integrity and replay protection, and confidentiality. The use of symmetric cryptography and prior secret key sharing between a device and a server enables an extremely power efficient and network efficient activation procedure.

Non-3GPP Access technologies such as WLAN technologies can be connected to the 3GPP core network like EPC (Evolved Packet Core) in various ways based on the operator’s business models and architectural preferences. The desire to provide this access to the 5G core network, currently defined in 3GPP, requires the design of new protocols and procedures in order to fulfill all requirements. This paper describes the current status of the specification in Release 15 of the untrusted non-3GPP access where the mobile operator does not trust the access point and tunnels all traffic to a trusted gateway in the mobile network. Further, the paper provides an outlook of the new Release 16 feature for trusted non-3GPP access, i.e. the mobile operator trusts the access point, as well as the feature for 5G core network access from WLAN devices with 3GPP credentials that do not support the Non Access Stratum protocol.

Smart contracts on a blockchain network can be implemented to control digital value. A key question that arises is the extent to which smart contracts can, or should, operate as “smart legal contracts”. Simply put, can smart contracts meet requirements of validity at law and practical efficacy. In order to achieve the goal of value maximization, the efforts of policy-makers, standards organisations and regulators should be informed by first principles. Standards, and other regulatory activities, must be driven by consideration of the techno-legal functions of contracting. Blockchain-based smart contracts offer the potential to reduce transaction costs through new methods of stateful computation. When applied to commercial transactions, smart contracts can represent enforcement of an executed state. This paper argues that distributed ledger and smart contracts standards should seek to provide sufficient flexibility to facilitate contracting parties to coordinate in an optimal manner.

The traditional use of darknets is to passively monitor malicious traffic in a network. In this paper, we describe an experimental setup that leverages this property of the darknet in a network monitoring setup coupled with several honeypot servers. The honeypots are configured as a decoy to lure cyber attacks on the network. The cyber-security test-bed thus designed enables us to monitor an end-to-end mobile communication network test-bed [1] and detect attacks on the network in real-time. After successful trial runs, the results and alert incidents show that the cyber-security setup is efficient in detecting malicious activity in the network.

Information and communication technology (ICT) standards play a crucial role towards harnessing technological developments and shaping the technology landscape. ICT standards development is largely driven by standards developing organizations or standards setting organizations that represent and are informed by the perspectives and interests of the ICT private sector and the public sector. Thus the shaping of the standards is mostly driven by the business, technical, and legal impetus, towards facilitating greater market influence, coordination, integration, interoperability, and legal conformity. The technocentric, business-focused perspective to ICT developments, and corollary to ICT standards development, is distinct from and can be orthogonal to the human-centric perspective that elevates the role and centrality of the human concerns over the technology and business concerns. Notwithstanding the crucial role of business and technology, it remains that at the centre of the 21st century data-driven societies are individuals and end-users who are the primary actants and agents within the technology and data ecosystems. This gives motivation for infusing the human perspectives and values into technology development as well as into ICT standards development. This is more pronounced for cases where the business and technocentric interests are at odds and opposed to the human interests, such as, the need for increased datafication to support Big Data developments versus the need for individuals’privacy preservation. In this research, which is framed through a case study of personal health informatics in the context of sustainable development (i.e., sustainable development goal on “health and wellbeing” – SDG3) indicators monitoring, we have undertaken a survey to investigate the human-centric values and attitudes associated with the collection and use of personal data. From this inquiry, the paper highlights and surfaces: individuals attitudes and perceptions around monitoring of social indicators; key considerations associated with data ownership, privacy and confidentiality of data, as well as sharing of personal data within the data ecosystem. The paper then discusses how these findings could inform and be infused into the development of technology artefacts and standards, towards a realization of more human-centric data-informed societies.

This paper presents an overview of the NG Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) architecture and key protocols.NG-RAN is the new RAN defined in conjunction with 5G by 3GPP.The paper presents the overall architecture, migration path options, the 5G base station architecture and key protocol components.