Every attempt to access to the Internet through a web browser, email sent, VPN connection, VoIP call, instant message or other use of telecommunications systems involves cryptographic techniques. The most commonly applied technique is asymmetric cryptography, which is generally executed in the background without the user even being aware. It establishes a cryptographic code based on the computational complexity of mathematical problems. However, this type of cryptography, which is widely used in today’s telecommunications systems, is under threat as electronics and computing rapidly develop. The development of fifth-generation cellular networks (5G) is gaining momentum, and given its wide field of application, security requires special attention. This is especially true faced with the development of quantum computers. One solution to this security challenge is to use more advanced techniques to establish cryptographic keys that are not susceptible to attack. An essential part of quantum cryptography, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) uses the principles of quantum physics to establish and distribute symmetric cryptographic keys between two geographically distant users. QKD establishes information-theoretically secure cryptographic keys that are resistant to eavesdropping when they are created. In this paper, we survey the security challenges and approaches in 5G networks concerning network protocols, interfaces and management organizations. We begin by examining the fundamentals of QKD and discuss the creation of QKD networks and their applications. We then outline QKD network architecture and its components and standards, following with a summary of QKD and post-quantum key distribution techniques and approaches for its integration into existing security frameworks such as VPNs (IPsec and MACsec). We also discuss the requirements, architecture and methods for implementing the FPGA-based encryptors needed to execute cryptographic algorithms with security keys. We discuss the performance and technologies of post-quantum cryptography, and finally, examine reported 5G demonstrations which have used quantum technologies, highlighting future research directions.

Software-defined networking (SDN) has attracted the attention of the research community in recent years, as evidenced by a large number of survey and review papers. The architecture of SDN clearly recognizes three planes: application, control, and data planes. The application plane executes network applications, the control plane regulates the rules for the entire network based on the requests generated by network applications, and based on the set rules, the controller configures the switches in the data plane. The role of the switch in the data plane is to simply forward packets based on the instructions given by the controller. By analyzing the SDN-related research papers, it is observed that research, from the very beginning, is insufficiently focused on the data plane. Therefore, this paper gives a comprehensive overview of the data plane survey with a particular emphasis on the problem of programmability and flexibility. The first part of the survey is dedicated to the evaluation of actual data plane architectures through several definitions and aspects of data plane flexibility and programmability. Then, an overview of the SDN-related research was presented with the aim of identifying the key factors influencing the gradual deviation from the original data plane architectures given with ForCES and OpenFlow specifications. In this paper, we used the term data plane evolution for this deviation. By establishing a correlation between the treated problem and the problem-solving approaches, the limitations of ForCES and OpenFlow data plane architectures were identified. Based on the identified limitations, a generalization of approaches to addressing the problem of data plane flexibility and programmability has been made. By examining the generalized approaches, open issues have been identified, establishing the grounds for future research directions proposal.

With the goal of relieving the Internet of things (IoT)application designers of the complexities and heterogeneity of wireless sensory networks (WSNs), devices, communication media, protocols and operating systems, the development of higher level domain specific language has been undertaken. The result is DSL-4-IoT Editor-Designer, which is based on high level visual programming language, established on the class of visual domain specific modeling languages (VDSMLs). DSL-4-IoT is using formal presentations and abstract syntax in a metamodel. The visual front-end of the Editor has been developed in JavaScript language. The runtime execution of generated IoT application configuration files is done by the open source project “OpenHAB” runtime engine. In order to demonstrate the viability and usability of the developed DSL-4-IoT visual model based language, an experimental IoT testbed including 15 heterogeneous wireless sensory devices spanning two application domain (smart home and remote patient monitoring), has been designed and deployed.

Although there are many attempts to engineer a domain specific language for the Internet of Things, most of them forget the fact that with the evolving of the Internet of Things, the end user will probably be a common person without an engineering or software development background. The designers of the UML had the same problem: how to make a language powerful enough for the professionals, but at the same time simple enough to be understood by a non-technical end user that gives the requirements. Inspired by this idea a Visual Domain Specific Modeling Language was developed for the IoT and proved that it is powerful enough for the professional and at the same time simple enough to be used by non-technical users.

Two-wave with diffuse power (TWDP) is one of the most promising models for the description of small-scale fading effects in 5G networks, which employs mmWave band, and in wireless sensor networks deployed in different cavity environments. However, its current statistical characterization has several fundamental issues. Primarily, conventional TWDP parameterization is not in accordance with the model’s underlying physical mechanisms. In addition, available TWDP expressions for PDF, CDF, and MGF are given either in integral or approximate forms, or as mathematically untractable closed-form expressions. Consequently, the existing TWDP statistical characterization does not allow accurate evaluation of system performance in all fading conditions for most modulation and diversity techniques. In this regard, physically justified TWDP parameterization is proposed and used for further calculations. Additionally, exact infinite-series PDF and CDF are introduced. Based on these expressions, the exact MGF of the SNR is derived in a form suitable for mathematical manipulations. The applicability of the proposed MGF for derivation of the exact average symbol error probability (ASEP) is demonstrated with the example of M-ary PSK modulation. The derived M-ary PSK ASEP expression is further simplified for large SNR values in order to obtain a closed-form asymptotic ASEP, which is shown to be applicable for SNR > 20 dB. All proposed expressions are verified by Monte Carlo simulation in a variety of TWDP fading conditions.

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is the actual approach in the network design, based on separating the control and data plane. Such architectural model has brought improvements in terms of network monitoring, management and troubleshooting, but has also increased risks related to network security. Security attacks can occur at all SDN layers and disrupt part or the entire network. Existing research is mostly focused on the security of the control plane, since it contains all control logic of SDN networks and thus represents their main part. Although the data plane has many vulnerabilities and can also be a significant source of security threats towards the control plane, it is only partially covered in existing research, without enough details related to differences between methods and implementation techniques which provide security enhancement. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey on security of the data plane, focusing on the latest advanced solutions. The survey starts with an overview of attacks, threats and affected security attributes in the data plane, classified using common security models: STRIDE, CIA and AAA. After that, we present a detailed analysis of solutions explored in the literature, including the methods used for security enhancement, implementation techniques, experimental environments, their contributions in terms of vulnerabilities that they address, performance analysis and limitations. Through this analysis, we introduce the concept of adaptive security and select several mechanisms which can be used to achieve it. Additionally, we propose possible combinations of presented mechanisms to provide strong, comprehensive solution which should adapt to dynamics of network, attackers and users, and in that way protect the network from different threats and also satisfy the requirements of services which need different levels of security.