Infrastructure and Networks

The “Infrastructure and Networks” axis is concerned with the implementation of information systems and network services that guarantee that the components of complex systems communicate. These communications form a network that needs to be sized, virtualised, secured and then shared, so as to ensure a good quality of service and multi-tenancy, which would then allow the operator and end-user to optimise their associated costs.
In a context where operators are faced with a sudden increase, not only in the diversity of services, but also in traffic and the number of interconnected objects, this management is subject to increasing complexity and therefore requires end-to-end optimisation, which would lead to the decompartmentalisation of all protocol and network layers.
The latter elements, coupled with cloud computing solutions, lead to a massive use of softwarization and virtualisation to meet the requirements of next generation networks (5G and beyond). These virtualisation elements make SDN (programmable networks) and NFV (virtualised network functions) unavoidable technologies to guarantee the agility and availability of the services offered. Nevertheless, these paradigms introduce new risks and clearly present issues of cybersecurity of software components and their interactions with physical platforms. The “Infrastructure and Network” theme addresses this issue in the context of future systems (Internet of Vehicles, Objects, Industry 4.0, etc.) through the deployment of technologies such as homomorphic encryption, which allows for greater trust and privacy in exchanges and communications. Blockchain is another example of a technology that can be mobilised for these purposes.