European Parliament

Study 17-03-2022

This study describes two main dimensions of 5G technology, i.e. privacy and security. This research paper focuses on the analysis of cybersecurity risks and threats, privacy challenges and 5G technology opportunities at EU level and worldwide, as well as the relationship between cybersecurity risks and privacy issues. The methodological framework for this assessment of the impact of 5G technology is built on three pillars: (i) a document-based analysis; (ii) a parallel analysis with stakeholder involvement; and (iii) a selection of relevant case studies. The complexity of the 5G ecosystem, where new use cases are constantly emerging, also led the authors to assess the prospects of using new 5G-enabled technologies, such as the internet-of-things, robotics and AI. Moreover, policy options are defined and put forward for consideration by the European Parliament’s Committees on Legal Affairs, Internal Market and Consumer Protection, Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, as well as by other EU institutions and the Member States.

PDFs available at https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_STU(2022)697205

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Wednesday, March 30, 2022

In 2021, the MWF carried out research projects with the Universities of Ghent, l’Aquila and Aalborg, as well as Rohde & Schwarz and Telstra, investigating exposure in 5G networks, simulation of reverberation chambers for animal exposure studies, exploring the behaviour of incident and absorbed power densities in different frequency ranges, and cumulative exposure of IoT devices. 

Read more at: http://mobile-wireless-forum.blogspot.com/2022/03/mmwaves-5g-network-measurements.html

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Wei Jiang, Hans Dieter Schotten

The fifth-generation (5G) mobile system is now being deployed across the world and the scale of 5G subscribers is growing quickly in many countries. The attention of academia and industry is increasingly shifting towards the sixth generation (6G) and many pioneering works are being kicked off, indicating an important milestone in the history of 6G. At this juncture, an overview of the current state of the art of 6G research and a vision of future communications are of great interest. This paper thus investigates up-to-date 6G research programs, ambitions, and main viewpoints of representative countries, institutions, and companies worldwide. Then, the key technologies are outlined and a vision on “What 6G may look like?” is provided. This paper aims to serve as an enlightening guideline for interested researchers to quickly get an overview when kicking off their 6G research.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.10779

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Space based network infrastructure will soon complement the 5G terrestrial mobile networks that are currently being deployed — this will lead to satellite communications (SATCOM) becoming an integrated and indispensable part of the global telecommunications ecosystem, with the potential to grow existing market segments such as backhauling and to expand into new areas such as hybrid networks and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Airbus Defence and Space and the firm’s partners, Fraunhofer IIS, Fraunhofer FOKUS, Bundeswehr University Munich and Eurescom GmbH, recently kicked-off a project to study the delivery of standards based on 5G and beyond 5G communication services over a space-based infrastructure.

The study, which is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), will propose a comprehensive vision of how a 5G and beyond-5G space-based infrastructure can provide services for consumers and industries that deliver performance, reliability, resilience and security. The consortium will propose a non-terrestrial network (NTN) infrastructure and deployment scenarios to deliver advanced communication services in a timely and cost-efficient manner. In addition, it will focus on the preparation of a future SATCOM technology roadmap in line with the emerging 6G concepts in order for an NTN to play an even greater role in offering global connectivity.

Read more at: https://news.satnews.com/2021/10/04/5g-from-space-airbus-partners-to-study-standards/

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Smart cities could transform urban living for the better. However, in order to mitigate the risks of cyber threats that can be exacerbated by inadequately secured and mobile edge computing (MEC) technologies, government officials should be aware of smart cities security concerns associated with their supporting infrastructure.

September 24, 2021 • Verizon

What is a smart city?

A smart city is an urban area that uses technologies and networking to help improve local services and infrastructure management. For example, a smart city can harness the power of the Internet of Things (IoT), MEC and faster networking, such as 4G LTE and 5G, to reduce operational costs and provide better, faster services and information-sharing.

Typically, a smart city collects data using a web of IoT-connected sensors to gather insights about how residents use the environment and access services. This data helps inform decision-makers so resources can be more appropriately allocated.

As urbanization accelerates, smart cities will likely take on even more relevance. In fact, according to a report by Technavio, the market for smart cities is predicted to grow by about $2.1 trillion by 2024—and with it, smart cities’ security concerns.

Read more at https://www.govtech.com/sponsored/smart-cities-security-concerns-and-safety-issues-5g-mec-and-security-risks

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By Ray Le Maistre, Aug 6, 2021

• Network operators will need to densify their 5G networks
• ‘Street furniture’ such as light poles will play a key role
• Early examples are already operational
• Regulators, cities and vendors are working to make deployments possible

As mobile operators densify their radio access networks to put 5G’s capabilities to their full use, ‘street furniture’ – in particular street lighting infrastructure – is set to play an increasingly important role in enabling that, as well as providing lots of other smart city/IoT capabilities. 

Using street lights as a way to deploy wireless access infrastructure is not new, but it’s also not that widespread, and is only just starting to play a role in 5G expansion plans. As it happens, this development comes at a time when cities are increasingly deploying more efficient LED lighting infrastructure that is well suited to housing smart city-enabling technology, including small cells and Wi-Fi access points. 

Read more at https://www.telecomtv.com/content/5g/shedding-light-on-5g-street-furniture-42145/

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Deleting data from Echo Dots—and other IoT devices from Amazon and elsewhere—is hard.

DAN GOODIN – 7/2/2021

Like most Internet-of-things (IoT) devices these days, Amazon’s Echo Dot gives users a way to perform a factory reset so, as the corporate behemoth says, users can “remove any… personal content from the applicable device(s)” before selling or discarding them. But researchers have recently found that the digital bits that remain on these reset devices can be reassembled to retrieve a wealth of sensitive data, including passwords, locations, authentication tokens, and other sensitive data.

Most IoT devices, the Echo Dot included, use NAND-based flash memory to store data. Like traditional hard drives, NAND—which is short for the boolean operator “NOT AND“—stores bits of data so they can be recalled later, but whereas hard drives write data to magnetic platters, NAND uses silicon chips. NAND is also less stable than hard drives because reading and writing to it produces bit errors that must be corrected using error-correcting code.

Reset but not wiped

NAND is usually organized in planes, blocks, and pages. This design allows for a limited number of erase cycles, usually in the neighborhood of between 10,000 to 100,000 times per block. To extend the life of the chip, blocks storing deleted data are often invalidated rather than wiped. True deletions usually happen only when most of the pages in a block are invalidated. This process is known as wear-leveling.

Researchers from Northeastern University bought 86 used devices on eBay and at flea markets over a span of 16 months. They first examined the purchased devices to see which ones had been factory reset and which hadn’t. Their first surprise: 61 percent of them had not been reset. Without a reset, recovering the previous owners’ Wi-Fi passwords, router MAC addresses, Amazon account credentials, and information about connected devices was a relatively easy process.

The next surprise came when the researchers disassembled the devices and forensically examined the contents stored in their memory.

Read more at https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/passwords-in-amazon-echo-dots-live-on-even-after-you-factory-reset-them/

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Synthetic voice technologies are increasingly passing as human. But today’s voice assistants are still a far cry from the hyper-intelligent thinking machines we’ve been musing about for decades. In this episode, we explore how machines learn to communicate—and what it means for the humans on the other end of the conversation.

We meet:

Susan C. Bennett, voice of Siri

Cade Metz, The New York Times

Charlotte Jee, MIT Technology Review

Credits

This episode was produced by Jennifer Strong, Emma Cillekens, Anthony Green, Karen Hao and Charlotte Jee. Edited by Michael Reilly and Niall Firth.

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Rotman Lens-based ‘Rectenna’ Capable of Millimeter-wave Harvesting at 28-GHz With High Efficiency From All Directions for First Time.

By Anne Wainscott-Sargent | MARCH 25, 2021 • ATLANTA, GA

Read the article at: https://www.news.gatech.edu/2021/03/25/leveraging-5g-network-wirelessly-power-iot-devices

CITATION: A. Eid, et al., “5G as a wireless power grid.” (Scientific Reports, 2021) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79500-x. 

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Karpowership, a unit of the Turkish Karadeniz Energy Group, is on track for its longest contract to date to supply power from vessels to South Africa in a deal worth as much as R218 billion ($15 billion).

The company that advertises a “fast, flexible, reliable” solution of floating electricity generation was named last week as a preferred bidder for three projects fueled by liquefied natural gas to provide 1,220 megawatts of electricity.

The program is aimed at closing a supply gap in South Africa that’s resulting in periodic blackouts.

The 20-year deal will cost as much as R10.9 billion annually, according to a presentation by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, a state institution.

The estimate is based on the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s evaluation price of the bids. It didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.

The award adds a significant amount of generation capacity from fossil fuels for two more decades as South Africa plans a move away from coal that dominates its current power supply and has made it the world’s 12th biggest source of greenhouse gases.

Other, smaller, projects chosen use a mix of solar and wind with batteries and LNG.

“Power ships have proven effective at providing fast-response, emergency electricity — hence the maximum 10-year tenor for past contracts,” said Antoine Vagneur-Jones, an analyst at BNEF’s energy transition policy team for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

“That the South African government would procure one for 20 years speaks to the depths of the country’s power crisis, and questionable long-term planning in light of dropping renewables costs.”

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