Network and Physical Layer Attacks and countermeasures to AI-Enabled 6G O-RAN

TL;DR

This paper analyzes security threats and countermeasures in AI-enabled 6G O-RAN networks, focusing on network and physical layer vulnerabilities and proposing research directions for safeguarding future cellular systems.

Contribution

It identifies critical security threats in AI-driven 6G O-RAN architectures and discusses potential countermeasures and future research directions.

Findings

Identification of key threats to data-driven network and physical layers

Discussion of countermeasures for AI-related security risks

Highlighting research needs for secure 6G O-RAN deployment

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an increasing role in cellular network deployment, configuration and management. This paper examines the security implications of AI-driven 6G radio access networks (RANs). While the expected timeline for 6G standardization is still several years out, pre-standardization efforts related to 6G security are already ongoing and will benefit from fundamental and experimental research. The Open RAN (O-RAN) describes an industry-driven open architecture and interfaces for building next generation RANs with AI control. Considering this architecture, we identify the critical threats to data driven network and physical layer elements, the corresponding countermeasures, and the research directions.