Progress on the first private 5G use cases.

Mediane Systeme and UVSQ (University of Versailles) are coordinating the 5G-mMTC project as part of the French government's industrial stimulus plan...

The 5G-mMTC project aims to develop an end-to-end platform that includes the software and hardware building blocks needed to rapidly implement a secure, sovereign 5G system. The system encompasses static and mobile communicating objects, a 5G digital infrastructure (RAN and Core Networks) and an application environment hosted in a Cloud and/or Edge.

The 5G-mMTC project is based on two representative use cases to validate all the bricks of the platform.

The first is the Connected Bike (supported by the French Cycling Federation - FFC).

The professional bike used by the French cycling team houses several sensors that measure the rider's performance. Wireless solutions such as WiFi and Bluetooth have been tested by the FFC. These have not produced conclusive results in real competitions (Olympic Games, World Cup), mainly due to interference and collisions, as the physical channel (ISM band) is shared by too many devices.

The aim is to enable the FFC to equip itself with a portable 5G private network that can be redeployed anywhere in the world. Data sensitivity is very high. This is a highly competitive environment and use case, and data leaks must be avoided at all costs. The security component of this 5G private network is designed to prevent and eliminate cyber-attacks.

The second is Telemetry (supported by Electricité De France - EDF)

EDF has a fleet of sensors in various sensitive infrastructures, from production plants (nuclear, wind, hydro, etc.) to equipment close to the customer, such as electric vehicle chargers.

The aim of the 5G-mMTC project is to enable EDF to manage the entire heterogeneous sensor fleet via a 5G core network and thus exploit the "Slices" technique (network slices) to differentiate the services offered by the sensors. In addition to the security aspect, the platform will minimize costs and automate network management.

Work in progress

The project began on October 21, 2021, and since then the consortium has made good progress. The project has been framed, and the system architecture, security assurance plan and functional and technical specifications for the two use cases have been completed. The consortium has now embarked on the implementation phase, including the design of the electronic boards. At the same time, related research work (at lower TRL levels) is being carried out by academics. Current topics include the development of SDR-based TDD stacks for 5G sensor nodes, the exploration of "NR Light" or NR Redcap (Reduced Capabilities) concepts, the implementation of slicing in the RAN...

Related projects

To flesh out our solution, and still with a view to offering a 5G platform for end-to-end IoT, Médiane Système has set up a CIFRE thesis with UVSQ entitled: "IoT-SIEM in a 5G and Private Cloud environment".

The first objective is to propose security protocols adapted to the hardware constraints of IoT devices, enabling them to be authenticated, ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of the data emitted by these devices, and finally protecting their storage/processing on the servers making up the private cloud.

The second objective of this thesis is to propose a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) system for monitoring the activities of IoT devices in order to detect abnormal and malicious behavior. This device is particularly useful for IoT objects deployed without physical protection and likely to be attacked themselves.

This project, which started in February 2023, is very promising and will soon complete our offering.

Find out more information on our 5G platform solution for IoT