Fingerprinting Technology for Enhancing 5G/NextG O-RAN Supply Chain Risk Management
Fingerprinting Technology for Enhancing 5G/NextG O-RAN Supply Chain Risk Management
Project Summary
Open RAN (O-RAN) architectures for 5G and next-generation cellular networks disaggregate hardware and software from multiple vendors, creating new opportunities for supply chain attacks. This project develops radio fingerprinting and anomaly detection techniques to identify unauthorized or compromised components within O-RAN deployments.
Research focus areas:
- Radio unit fingerprinting: Electromagnetic side-channel signatures that uniquely identify radio hardware, enabling detection of substituted or counterfeit units
- O-RAN protocol security: Analysis of security gaps introduced by the disaggregated O-RAN interface stack
- Anomaly detection: Machine learning approaches for real-time detection of abnormal radio behavior indicative of supply chain compromise
This work is closely related to the WiSec 2025 Best Poster/Demo Award-winning demonstration: DEMO: Radio Unit Activity Fingerprinting through Electromagnetic Side-Channel Analysis in O-RAN Networks.
Funding
This project is supported by the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (Award #N-3Q24-002).