Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a secure communication scheme for sharing symmetric cryptographic keys based on the laws of quantum physics, and is considered a key player in the realm of cyber-security. A critical challenge for QKD systems comes from the fact that the ever-increasing rates at which digital data are transmitted require more and more performing sources of quantum keys, primarily in terms of secret key generation rate. High-dimensional QKD based on path encoding has been proposed as a candidate approach to address this challenge. However, while proof-of-principle demonstrations based on lab experiments have been reported in the literature, demonstrations in realistic environments are still missing. Here we report the generation of secret keys in a 4-dimensional hybrid time-path-encoded QKD system over a 52-km deployed multicore fiber link forming by looping back two cores of a 26-km 4-core optical fiber. Our results indicate that robust high-dimensional QKD can be implemented in a realistic environment by combining standard telecom equipment with emerging multicore fiber technology.

Intrusion detection systems (IDS) stand as formidable guardians in network security, playing a pivotal role in identifying and mitigating potential threats. As our digital landscape evolves, the imperative for robust intrusion detection mechanisms grows exponentially. The significance of IDS extends beyond preserving the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of network resources. In the dynamic realm of evolving cyber threats, IDS acts as the frontline defender-constantly monitoring network traffic to pinpoint suspicious activities and preemptively mitigate security breaches. In this paper, we study the effectiveness of combining the potency of the transformer-based model known as Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) in conjunction with the Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique (SMOTE) and a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) to enhance the classification tasks in Machine Learning (ML) based IDS. We tested our approach on well-known and recent datasets, demonstrating that it is possible to obtain very high accuracy and robust performance in the detection of various attack types even when the datasets are affected by class imbalance. Beyond these results, our research introduces a novel perspective by seamlessly integrating the interpretability and context awareness of BERT with the efficient classification of MLP. This novel approach holds promise for advancing intrusion detection capabilities and contributing to the broader cybersecurity community.

Cooperative Cyber-Physical Systems (Co-CPSs) can be enabled using wireless communication technologies, which in principle should address reliability and safety challenges. Safety for Co-CPS enabled by wireless communication technologies is a crucial aspect and requires new dedicated design approaches. In this paper, we provide an overview of five Co-CPS use cases, as introduced in our SafeCOP EU project, and analyze their safety design requirements. Next, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the main existing wireless communication technologies giving details about the protocols developed within particular standardization bodies. We also investigate to what extent they address the non-functional requirements in terms of safety, security and real time, in the different application domains of each use case. Finally, we discuss general recommendations about the use of different wireless communication technologies showing their potentials in the selected real-world use cases. The discussion is provided under consideration in the 5G standardization process within 3GPP, whose current efforts are inline to current gaps in wireless communications protocols for Co-CPSs including many future use cases.

5G networks are designed to support both high data rate eMBB services, and low-latency high-reliability URLLC services. Multiplexing these two services on the same wireless frequency band leads to a challenging radio resource allocation problem due to their heterogeneous requirements. Usually, multiplexing is based on the puncturing mechanism by URLLC traffic at the expense of the eMBB throughput’s reduction. In this paper, we investigate the potential of cell-free massive MIMO to multiplex URLLC and eMBB traffic by exploiting the sole spatial diversity through network slicing. We define a theoretical framework to evaluate the system’s performance, based on closed-form expressions for the spectral efficiency and the throughput of eMBB and URLLC services in this new asset. We show that by design the cell-free massive MIMO architecture can support such heterogeneous services without relying on sophisticated interference management techniques or pilot assignment schemes, while guaranteeing their specific QoS requirements.

The high reliability required by many future-generation network services can be enforced by proper resource assignments by means of logical partitions, i.e., network slices, applied in optical metro-aggregation networks. Different strategies can be applied to deploy the virtual network functions (VNFs) composing the slices over physical nodes, while providing different levels of resource isolation (among slices) and protection against failures, based on several available techniques. Considering that, in optical metro-aggregation networks, protection can be ensured at different layers, and the slice protection with traffic grooming calls for evolved multilayer protection approaches. In this paper, we investigate the problem of reliable slicing with protection at the lightpath layer for different levels of slice isolation and different VNF deployment strategies. We model the problem through an integer linear program (ILP), and we devise a heuristic for joint optimization of VNF placement and ligthpath selection. The heuristic maps nodes and links over the physical network in a coordinated manner and provides an effective placement of radio access network functions and the routing and wavelength assignment for the optical layer. The effectiveness of the proposed heuristic is validated by comparison with the optimal solution provided by the ILP. Our illustrative numerical results compare the impact of different levels of isolation, showing that higher levels of network and VNF isolation are characterized by higher costs in terms of optical and computation resources.