Distributed Multilateral Trust Model in 5G/6G Mobile Communication Networks

The emerging fifth/sixth generation (5G/6G) of mobile communication networks will enable real-time communications for a wide range of state-of-the-art and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven applications, such as connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), tactile communications, intelligent internet of medical things, and connected robotics, which will accelerate the digital transformation of vertical industry sectors and significantly reshape our economies and lives. Because 5G/6G wireless networks are more open and diverse than previous generations, cyber security is a critical challenge they should intrinsically deal with to avoid introducing additional vulnerabilities into the sectors they are supporting. At the same time, given that 5G/6G networks could be potentially controlled by many operators using different management architectures, their security requirements cannot be met by the standard security trust architecture, which frequently relies on the security perimeter at network boundaries. Collaboration among different control domains using different management modes is critical for 5G/6G security architectures. This necessitates the provision of a multi-party and cross-domain trust system capable of supporting the coexistence of multiple trust models. To address this challenge, this proposal aims to develop a distributed multilateral trust model that is customisable, provable, and measurable.