dacoso participates in the AI-NET-Protect research project.

Digitisation is advancing unabated and good ideas are sprouting from the ground - but are the networks keeping up? Are the centralised cloud infrastructures sufficient in the long term to give robotics, smart cities and next-generation industry the necessary tailwind? The AI-NET-Protect research project sees a need and is taking action: the goal is to provide critical infrastructures and companies with automated fail-safety and network security. The focus is on 5G, edge-centric computing and artificial intelligence technologies. Network telemetry and software-defined network management will enable zero-touch provisioning and support artificial intelligence-based automation of end-to-end services with predictive operations. Multi-layered cryptography, agile crypto functions and quantum-safe algorithms will ensure maximum network security.

More and more automation in the network

The project starts under the auspices of CELTIC-NEXT, a European research initiative in the field of telecommunications, new media, future internet and applications. Numerous companies from the telecommunications industry are participating - and so are we: Our contribution lies in the further development of SDN and edge solutions. "With our input on the virtualisation of networks, a programmable infrastructure and the intelligent processing of data at the network periphery, we want to help ensure that Europe has strong and secure networks that do not slow things down, but move them forward," says Karsten Geise, Head of Business & Product Development at dacoso and responsible for the research participation. "Combining deep packet inspection with intrusion detection, we will also detect attacks on the central SDN infrastructure and prevent them from spreading via the control plane to the entire network."

Participants from industry and research

It will be particularly exciting to work with leading technical universities, research institutes and specialised companies in hardware and software development. We will be able to contribute our many years of experience with managed services and network operations. In order to make efficient and result-oriented progress, the project has been broken down into several work packages with clear definitions of the activities and their interfaces. Regular conference calls as well as direct agreements between the participants help to implement the whole thing in a coordinated manner. And of course we are already looking forward to the possibility of face-to-face meetings again soon!

The project started in January 2021 and is scheduled to run until the end of 2023. We will report on the exciting interim results here!