This paper presents an analysis of digital skills and network infrastructure in the European Union (EU) countries based on data from the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2024. We analyze the current state of digital skills and network infrastructure in EU countries, which in the DESI framework is called digital infrastructure, identifying key trends and differences between EU member states. The analysis shows significant differences in the relative share of citizens with a certain level of digital skills across countries, both among ordinary users of digital services and among information and communication technology professionals. The analysis of digital infrastructure includes fixed broadband coverage, mobile broadband, and edge networks, the latter of which are expected to become an important component of future digital infrastructure. The results highlight the importance of harmonizing the development of digital skills and digital infrastructure to support the EU’s digital transformation. Significant attention is paid to 5G technology. The feasibility of including a new additional indicator in DESI for next-generation 5G technology in the frequency range of 24.25–52.6 GHz is shown. The value of this indicator can be used to assess the readiness of the EU economy for technological leaps that place extremely high demands on reliability and data transmission delays. The results of the current state and the analysis of digital skills and infrastructure contribute to understanding the potential for the future development of the EU digital economy.

The performance of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is highly dependent on the processes that are implemented in the Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer regulated by the IEEE 802.11 standard. In turn, various parameters affect the performance of the MAC sublayer, the most important of which is the number of stations in the network and the offered load. With the massive growth of multimedia traffic, research of the network performance depending on traffic types is relevant. In this paper, we present the impact of a high-/low-priority traffic ratio on WLAN performance with different numbers of access categories. The simulation results show different impact of high-/low-priority traffic ratio on the performance of the MAC sublayer of wireless LANs depending on different network-sizes and on network conditions. Performance of the large network with two access categories and with the prevalent high-priority traffic is significantly higher than in the case of using four categories on the MAC sublayer. This allows us to conclude that the performance improvement of the large network with the prevalent high-priority traffic can be achieved by an adaptive adjustment of the access categories number on the MAC sublayer.

Packet routing in computer networks provides complex challenges in environments with distrustful routers due to security vulnerabilities or potential malicious behaviors. The literature offers solutions to the problem designed for different types of networks. This paper introduces a novel method to mitigate risks associated with distrustful routers by constructing secure and efficient routing paths in Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) networks. Networks in which routing is carried out based on OSPF protocols are currently the most widespread, hence ensuring the security of data transmission in such networks is urgently needed. In turn, distrustful routers can degrade the overall security and performance of the network, creating vulnerabilities that can be used for malicious purposes. The proposed method is based on the Dijkstra algorithm which is enhanced to identify and mitigate the risk connected with potential distrustful network nodes. Analysis of the proposed method shows its ability to build efficient routes exclusively through trusted routers if such paths exist. As a criterion for effectiveness, a metric such as the channel weight is used. The proposed method is validated using applications across networks of varying topologies and sizes, including large-scale networks. For networks containing post-distrustful routers to which there is no path without distrustful nodes, the proposed method is able to build the shortest paths that are marked as not secure but have a minimum number of distrustful nodes on their path. In scenarios with multiple compromised routers with different locations in the network, the proposed method significantly increases network resilience.

One of the important directions for improving modern Wide Area Networks is efficient and secure packet routing. Efficient routing is often based on using the shortest paths, while ensuring security involves preventing the possibility of packet interception. The work is devoted to improving the security of data transmission in IP networks. A new approach is proposed to minimize the number of distrustful nodes on the path of IP packet transmission. By a distrustful node, we mean a node that works correctly in terms of hardware and software and fully implements its data transport functions, but from the point of view of its organizational subordination, we are not sure that the node will not violate security rules to prevent unauthorized access and interception of data. A distrustful node can be either a transit or an end node. To implement this approach, we modified Dijkstra’s shortest path tree construction algorithm. The modified algorithm ensures that we obtain a path that will pass only through trustful nodes, if such a path exists. If there is no such path, the path will have the minimum possible number of distrustful intermediate nodes. The number of intermediate nodes in the path was used as a metric to obtain the shortest path trees. Routing tables of routers, built on the basis of trees obtained using a modified algorithm, provide increased security of data transmission, minimizing the use of distrustful nodes.