SUNY Poly lands research agreement with AFRL

MARCY, N.Y. — SUNY Polytechnic Institute and the Air Force Research Laboratory(AFRL) announced they have forged a new cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) to develop the first-of-its-kind open federated XG network that can be used to connect smart live Internet of Things (IoT) equipment.

It will also help to develop an intelligent agility network that can facilitate the use of innovative application scenarios for education and teaching such as high-definition live broadcasts, VR/AR teaching, holographic classrooms, and HD supervision that currently suffer from backward performance of current communication–networking convenience, network delay, security management, terminal cost, and more.

The testbed supports real-time research that scales up to 10,000 5G-based user equipment.

“SUNY Poly is incredibly grateful for this investment by AFRL,” Hisham Kholidy, associate professor and chair of the Network + Computer Security: Cybersecurity Department, said in a release. “In simple words, we see this Open Federated XG network as a revolution in mobile network architecture. It is like building a flexible playground where different companies and technologies can easily join in and work together to create exciting new experiences. It’s a way of designing the 5G network so that various devices, services, and companies can connect and collaborate more easily, making the whole system more innovative and adaptable.”

AFRL plans to provide about $420,000 worth of equipment as part of the CRADA to establish an Erickson 5G testbed at SUNY Poly’s Advanced Cybersecurity Research Lab (ACRL) in Kunsela Hall. AFRL will also provide an estimated level of technical staff valued at about $150,000 over the life of the four-year agreement.

The main goal of the agreement is to extend the current testbed developed at the ACRL to be a unique solution for companies and researchers to test their private 5G standalone interoperable applications, perform vulnerability assessments on this testbed, and develop and test zero-trust security solutions.

“AFRL continues to be a great partner to SUNY Poly,” Michael Carpenter, associate provost for research and interim dean of the College of Engineering, said. “This new agreement will result in tremendous opportunities for our students and faculty, as well as significant research.”

The agreement works in tandem with a $1.1 million contract the AFRL awarded Kholidy last summer for a project to address the need for an advanced security system that can identify, assess, and protect against attacks across the 5G open architecture in a timely and accurate way without human intervention.