[InSuReCS] Intelligent Surfaces for Resilient Communication and Sensing

The greatest cybersecurity risk on the battlefield is the threat to one's own wireless radio communication posed by enemy electronic warfare (EloKa). In addition to ensuring integrity and security against eavesdropping of transmitted information through modern cryptographic methods, as well as the availability of information links even under jamming measures, the protection of one's own electromagnetic signature against enemy localization methods is a frequently overlooked but operationally critical component of Communications Security (COMSEC). Especially in direct communication between two transmission stations, there is a risk that one's own transmission will be intercepted and decoded by enemy forces, or that one's own location will be jammed or located using EloKa measures. Currently, troop units in the field react with technical measures (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum/Frequency Hopping, burst transmissions, radio relay) or tactical measures (short transmission cycles, radio discipline, high mobility), which limits the use of wireless communication and its advantages in operations. On the other hand, the uninterrupted availability of the information flow in the "Military Internet of Things" on the battlefield, e.g., for creating high-precision and continuously updatable situation pictures, plays an increasingly important role and requires the use of tactical data links with high data rates. This requires, for example, novel adaptive waveforms in the VHF range and higher, which are currently being developed on the basis of Software Defined Radio (SDR), e.g., within the framework of the ESSOR project. Secure radio connections can be realized through flexible modulation methods, integrated encryption, and high resilience. At the same time, such waveforms also enable simultaneous communication and sensing (Integrated Communication and Sensing, ISAC) and are therefore particularly interesting for military applications. Within the framework of the InSuReCS research program, an adaptively controllable transmission and reception technology based on meta-surfaces (e.g., Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS)) is to be developed, which enables indirect communication and sensing (active and passive) and thus further minimizes the risk of detecting one's own position through a continuously adapting transmission path. Indirect communication and sensing is to be realized through an intermediate or relay station that is capable of selectively forwarding incoming and highly focused transmissions between source and sink. The transmission and reception technology to be developed can be used to supplement existing radio technology and expand its capabilities (e.g., with regard to bandwidth, frequency bands used, directional characteristics), but also to consider future military-relevant radio applications. The goal is to develop a transmission and reception technology that enables mobile field teams to have highly available, broadband, and secure communication and remote sensing with high directivity. For this purpose, intelligent meta-surfaces, which are intended for use in the upcoming 6G mobile communication standard, for example, are to be adapted for highly flexible use in conflict and crisis management scenarios. Prioritized requirements such as largely platform-independent usability, good integration into existing and future radio applications, and continuous adaptation of the RIS configuration in a highly mobile operational scenario represent significant innovation goals of the research program.