The DeSiRe-NG (Dependable and Secure Infrastructure for Resilient Next Generation Networks) research project led by Prof. Dr. Henning Trsek was successfully concluded on 21 March. The final event took place at the Lufthansa Industry Solutions site in Hamburg.
Project consortium from science and industry
The project consortium, consisting of inIT, TU Ilmenau, NUROMEDIA GmbH, InnoZent OWL e.V. and Lufthansa Industry Solutions AS GmbH, met with representatives of the project organisers DLR and BSI as well as other guests at the Lufthansa campus in Hamburg.
The inIT team, consisting of Maxim Friesen, Niels Hendrik Fliedner, Natalia Moriz and Henning Trsek, was represented on site.
Presentation of the project results
As part of the final presentation of the DeSiRe-NG research project, the key project results were presented by the project partners and brought to life in a live demonstration. After a thematic introduction and a tour of the Lufthansa Industry Solutions factory halls, the project participants presented an end-to-end use case that demonstrated various innovative approaches to monitoring and ensuring the reliability and resilience of 5G campus networks.
Challenges for 5G campus networks: recognising and understanding interference
The quality of service (QoS) in 5G campus networks is susceptible to various types of interference - such as active interference like jammers or neighbouring radio networks. Passive changes in the radio channel, for example due to moving metal objects or structural conditions, can also impair network quality. In order to ensure consistently high network quality, spatio-temporally resolved monitoring measures are therefore required that continuously record and evaluate the current QoS status throughout the entire network.
Digital twin visualises network quality in real time
The core of the demonstration was the presentation of a digital twin for mapping the QoS - a digital model that records and visualises the status of the 5G network in space and time. An autonomous guided vehicle (AGV), equipped with a special measurement setup, provided this digital twin with real-time data on the network behaviour and thus contributed to the dynamic mapping of the network quality.
Virtual turbine maintenance as an application scenario
Virtual turbine maintenance (VTI) was presented as a central application scenario. This involves a specialist carrying out a remote inspection via high-resolution video communication - an application that places particularly high demands on data rate and latency.
Using the previously collected QoS data, this inspection could be planned specifically in areas with stable network quality. The demonstration then illustrated how targeted disruptions to the 5G network - caused by a software-defined radio (SDR), for example - can impair or even interrupt video communication. In such a case, the specialist is alerted via an app that continuously monitors parameters such as signal strength and signal-to-noise ratio.
The specialist can then request an AGV to rescan the environment at the affected location. Based on the data collected, conclusions can be drawn about possible sources of interference - such as neighbouring radio networks, jammers or passive interference from objects in the vicinity.
This not only localises acute interference, but also creates the basis for future interference detection procedures.
Impairment entity enables repeatable network tests
The final step of the demonstration involved the use of the so-called ‘impairment entity’ - a system that serves as an ‘actuator’ in the digital twin for QoS states. It enables the repetition of previously recorded interference scenarios under laboratory conditions and directly influences the connection quality of connected devices at network level.
This allows applications to be specifically tested and their behaviour analysed under realistic conditions - even retrospectively, for example to investigate failures or jamming attacks (post-mortem analyses).
Project manager Henning Trsek expressed his satisfaction: "The demonstration underlines the potential of DeSiRe-NG to provide powerful tools for the operation of reliable and resilient 5G campus networks in industrial environments. Operators can use this system to identify external and internal influences on their campus network, then analyse them and take effective measures accordingly."
Publication as part of the WFCS 2025
The system architecture developed in the project and the accompanying software components will be published at the WFCS conference in 2025 - both as a paper and in a publicly accessible GitHub repository.