A foundation has been established to ensure stable nationwide communications by interworking the national defense 5G private network with commercial networks.
The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on December 29 that it has developed this trust interworking technology through a joint national research and development (R&D) project with KT, Woorinet Co., Ltd., and 4WIZ System Co., Ltd.
This technology successfully completed a demonstration test last month at a smart military unit of the Army.
Conceptual Diagram of Trust Interworking Technology Service between Private Network and Commercial Network. Provided by Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
Currently, the national defense 5G private network operates within limited coverage inside institutions or military units, making it difficult to use once outside these areas. Therefore, separate communication networks are required for activities outside the unit or in wide-area operational environments, which limits the continuity and security of services.
To overcome these limitations, ETRI developed a trust interworking technology between private and commercial networks using a 5G standalone (SA) mode-based multi-operator core network (MOCN) approach.
This technology allows stable access to existing institutional and military data networks via commercial 5G networks of mobile operators, even when outside the private network area.
Even when switching to a commercial network, the system maintains service continuity by authenticating with the existing subscriber identity module (SIM) and retaining the assigned IP address.
In particular, the latest security roaming technology based on 5G standalone mode, known as Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), was verified and applied for the first time in Korea, ensuring security and reliability even in environments interlinked with commercial networks.
During the actual demonstration at the Army smart unit last month, ETRI provided a mobile environment for defense work and integrated mobile edge computing (MEC) and wireless backhaul systems, successfully implementing and verifying a communication environment capable of real-time information delivery even in remote tactical communication settings.
The trust interworking technology between private and commercial networks can be applied not only in defense but also in fields requiring both security and mobility, such as public safety, disaster response, and smart manufacturing.
Most notably, by interworking institution-level 5G private networks with commercial networks, it enables wide-area service operations without the need for separate network reconfiguration, increasing the potential for adoption across various public and industrial sites in the future.
Experts highly evaluate this research for establishing a foundational technology that can be expanded to integrated communications networks for wartime and disaster response, field command systems, and complex manned-unmanned operations based on defense IoT, robotics, and drones.
With the successful development and demonstration of the trust interworking technology between private and commercial networks, the national defense ICT system is expected to expand from the existing 'facility-level network' to a 'nationwide defense 5G platform.'
Park Hyesook, Head of the Defense Safety Convergence Research Division at ETRI and project leader, stated, "The core achievement of this research is securing connection and interworking technology that enables stable application of 5G commercial communication technology to defense and public sectors. The joint research team will further advance the technology and pursue commercialization based on field demonstrations, expanding its application to defense as well as public and manufacturing sectors."
This research was conducted as part of the smart defense strategy jointly promoted by the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Science and ICT, supported by the 'DNA-based Defense Digital Innovation Technology Development Project' of the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP).
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