ISART 2020 • 5G Spectrum and a Zero-Trust Network

Future wireless systems (5G and beyond) will offer major economic benefit to countries and companies that can deploy those networks and services reliably, quickly, and securely. Spectrum — the foundation for much of 5G — presents unique security challenges, in addition to a multitude of technical, economic, regulatory, and political challenges. While spectrum security historically focused on jamming, spoofing, and interference, the time has come for governments, industry, and academia to re-examine what spectrum security means. ISART 2020 focused on what a “zero-trust” network environment means from a 5G spectrum perspective, identifying the challenges for spectrum to be available, reliable, assured, and secure in a no-trust environment; exploring potential technical solutions; and identifying research areas that facilitate securing spectrum for rapid adoption of assured 5G networks. The fully virtualized symposium format included tutorials, panel discussions, technical presentations, and virtual breakout rooms that provided opportunity for the discussion and networking that has always been a hallmark of ISART.

A written transcript of the conference has been published as ISART 2020: Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies —5G Spectrum and a Zero Trust Network. The full video archive is available in the ISART 2020 YouTube playlist on the NTIAgov channel. 

Click on a title or speaker to access the presentation where available.

Monday, August 10, 2020

• Tutorials: Setting a Baseline
  Tutorials on the current state of 5G are intended to set a common baseline for the discussions to follow..
  • Rebecca Dorch, NTIA/ITS, Moderator
  • Jeffrey H. Reed and Nishith Tripathi, Wireless @ Virginia Tech — 5G fundamentals and engineering considerations for use and deployment of 5G 
  • Jeffrey Cichonski, NIST — 5G Standardization, 5G Security Enhancements, and Supporting Infrastructure Security Considerations.
  • Monisha Ghosh, FCC — Spectrum For Next Generation Wireless: 5G and Wi-Fi
  • Mohamed El-Moghazi, NTRA — IMT-2020 Spectrum Identification and Technology Standardization
• Welcome and Opening Remarks
  • Sheryl Genco, Director of NTIA/ITS
• Setting the Stage
  A discussion among key leaders from the co-hosts—NTIA, NIST, and the University of Colorado—who will set the stage for the panels and discussions that follow.
  
  • Doug Kinkoph, Associate Administrator, Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications, performing the non-exclusive functions and duties of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, NTIA
  • Walt Copan, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Director, NIST
  • Terri Fiez, Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation, University of Colorado Boulder
• Keynote Address
  • Joseph B. Evans, Technical Director for 5G, Office of the Secretary of Defense

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

• Opening Panel: Framing Zero-Trust Today
  A deep dive into what zero-trust means within the spectrum world and the known risks that exist today at the intersection of 5G NR (New Radio) and zero-trust networks. Recognizing and naming the risks and vulnerabilities extant in the radio layer is crucial to identifying areas for research and developing solutions to better secure the spectrum relied upon for 5G services.
  • Bryan Tramont, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP, Moderator
  • Anna Gomez, Wiley Rein LLP
  • Lisa Porter, former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering
  • Charla Rath, Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee Co-chair
  • Henning Schulzrinne, Columbia University
  • William Webb, University of Cambridge
• Technical Presentation — O-RAN
  a deep-dive into the current state of open radio access networks.
  • Brian Daly, AT&T
• Panel 1: 5G Design — Resiliency at the Radio Layer 
  A look at design mechanisms and ideas, such as RF filtering, new antenna technologies, closed loop systems, and other ways to design the 5G radio layer for resilient services.
  • Tom Rondeau, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Moderator
    Panel 1: Mechanisms and ideas to design the 5G radio layer for resilient service
  • Kumar Balachandran, Ericsson, Trustworthiness and Process
  • Aleks Damnjanovic, Qualcomm, 5G Design — Resiliency at the Radio Layer
  • Serge Leef, DARPA, AISS Overview
  • Andreas Molisch, University of Southern California, Resilience in 5G
  • Pam Patton, John Hopkins University-Applied Physics Laboratory, O-RAN and 5G Design — Resiliency at the Radio Layer

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

• Technical Presentation: Supply Chain Protection and Verification Through EM Side-Channel Signature Analysis
  A high-level overview of the supply chain verification problem and possible solutions offered by EM side-channels, including RF detection of malware.
  
  • Alenka Zajic, Georgia Tech, Supply Chain Protection and Verification Through EM Side-Channel Signature Analysis
• Panel 2: 5G Deployment — Implementing Secure and Resilient Solutions
  An exploration of deployment challenges, including how to implement secure and resilient technical solutions in a rip and replace world within a zero-trust network environment.
• Drew Morin, T-Mobile, Moderator
• Carri Bennett, Rural Wireless Association
• Charles Mathias, FCC
• Michael Murphy, Nokia
• Anita Patankar-Stoll, Verizon
• Jaisha Wray, NTIA
• Technical Presentation: Spectrum Monitoring
• Doug Boulware, NTIA/ITS, NTIA Spectrum Monitoring

• Panel 3: 5G Monitoring and Data Collection — The Feedback Loops
  An exploration of options for effective and efficient spectrum monitoring and obtaining usable data. Monitoring and data is the nexus of the feedback loop among design, deployment, and operations—and key to securing the 5G radio layer.
• Jim Arnold, DoT, 5.9 GHz “Safety Band” Transportation Communications — Incorporating Secure 5G
• Bob Baxley, Bastille, How To Detect, Investigate + Resolve RF Devices Entering Your Facilities
• Kaushik Chowdhury, Northeastern University, 5G Monitoring and Data Collection
• Mark Gibson, CommScope, Spectrum Monitoring to Help Inform Spectrum Allocation Policy
• Michael Schwab, umlaut, RAN Monitoring and Data Collection

Thursday, August 13, 2020

• Technical Presentation: Spectrum Coliseum Competition
  A technical presentation by John Shea, a member of the University of Florida GatorWings team, winners of the recent DARPA Spectrum Coliseum Challenge competition. Dynamic Spectrum Sharing: Lessons from the DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge.
• Panel 4: 5G Operations — Implementing Resilient Zero-Trust Networks
  An examination of operations and implementing resiliency within a network’s operations.
• Paul Zablocky, DARPA, Moderator
• Tim Godfrey, Electric Power Research Institute, Perspectives on Spectrum and Resilient Communication for the Grid
• Milo Medin, Google
• Wayne Phoel, University of Maryland, Some Thoughts on Zero Trust, Resilience, and 5G…
• Sanyogita Shamsunder, Verizon, Mission Critical 5G Using Zero Trust Architecture
• Panel 5: Wrap-up — Bringing it All Together
  The wrap-up panel on brought together polymaths to help draw new insights and connections, identify potential new research areas, and hopefully add to the history of ISART triggering important out-of-the-box thinking, innovative ideas, and novel solutions
• Pierre de Vries, Silicon Flatirons, Moderator
• Paul Kolodzy, Kolodzy Consulting
• Blair Levin, Brookings Institute
• Doug Sicker, University of Colorado Boulder
• David Tennenhouse, VMware