Thea Loise Woodward
The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency has published a broad agency announcement to seek proposals on how to develop open source platforms for 5G and future mobile networks.
DARPA’s Open, Programmable, Secure 5G initiative also calls for appoaches to secure modern wireless networks with the use of open source technology as well as increase the adaptability and support customization of such infrastructure, the agency said in a SAM notice posted Jan. 30.
Technical OPS-5G priorities include procuring a portable zero-trust security architecture for internet-of-things sensors, using slicing and virtualization to decrease vulnerabilities and accelerating the software modernization process for the program.
The agency will split the potential four-year effort into the technology development, maturation and refinement phases to address all five technical areas.
According to DARPA, first and second phases will each last for one year and a half while the third phase will take place over a one-yearperiod. The agency expects at least one provider to offer the resulting OPS-5G stack upon completion of the third phase.
Interested parties can submit proposals through March 17.
