Mission-critical networks are essential for national security and public safety, requiring resilience against adversarial threats. Dr. Ian Wong, RF and Wireless Architecture Lead at VIAVI Solutions, discusses how VIAVI provides advanced tools to secure these networks, ensuring uninterrupted operations for industry and government.
With the rise of non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) like satellites and high-altitude platforms, network security and reliability are more crucial than ever. VIAVI plays a key role in testing and validating these technologies while also addressing future challenges like quantum security. Learn how VIAVI is shaping the future of resilient communications.
Speaker 1:
Dr. Wang, it's so great to be here with you today. I wanted to start out with a quick question. What is the mission-critical network and what is the role that industry and government play in making those happen?
Dr. Ian Wang:
Yeah. By its name, mission-critical means lives depend on it, our national security depends on it. And obviously governments are really putting a lot of emphasis, making sure that they're resilient to attacks, especially from our adversaries. So we, at VIAVI, are securing the networks for these operators with our tools and technologies every day.
Speaker 1:
Okay. So something we've been hearing a lot about at the show is satellites. So satellites are NTNs, right? Maybe broaden that out a bit. What are non-terrestrial networks and what role do positioning, navigation, timing systems play when it comes to those?
Dr. Ian Wang:
Yeah. So interestingly, for 3GPP, they call everything that is not a terrestrial a non-terrestrial network, right? So you can think of it as, of course, satellites, but also we call them HAPS or high-altitude platforms. Also, drones can be used as networks.
For us, we focus a lot on the satellite piece. We see that as one of the most promising technologies to really provide global coverage, as you can imagine. And we're seeing a lot of momentum towards providing direct-to-sell service from satellites. A lot of announcements from operators recently, and we're doing a lot of that testing with vendors today. So we're pretty excited about the prospect of NTNs.
Speaker 1:
Awesome. So one of the other things that we know about is that reliability is key. So talk to me about service assurance. Talk to me about where that fits into the whole picture as it relates to mission-critical networks, NTNs. What do you have to say?
Dr. Ian Wang:
Right. So for operators, of course, a lot of them need to continue to make money, right? And a lot of the assurance pieces are to make sure that their networks run smoothly, run with efficiency, right?
And you couple that with the requirement of resiliency against attacks. You see this confluence of factors that make sure that they invest enough to make sure that their networks are going to be, again, robust to adversarial attacks, but at the same time be efficient enough so that they can continue to make money. And so that's a really important balance.
Speaker 1:
Excellent. So one of the other things that I get to explore in my role as a cloud and AI executive editor is quantum computing. That's been super fun for me. So talk to me about what that looks like in the context of mission-critical networks and communications. How can we use quantum computing maybe to help ensure security for tomorrow?
Dr. Ian Wang:
Yeah. So there's a lot of talk right now about quantum, maybe in the next 10 years. Some people say 15 years; we don't know. From our perspective, the NIST has already come out with these algorithms to really make sure that we are prepared when that time comes. From a VIAVI standpoint, we have post-quantum security tools today to really test out these networks to make sure that all these are prepared when that day comes.
Speaker 1:
Excellent. Well, thank you so much for your time here on the booth.
Dr. Ian Wang:
Sure. Pleasure's mine.