Research Collaboration

CISSAN builds methods and technology for integrating collective security intelligence to IoT networks. CISSAN-powered networks will be able to collaboratively identify tampered and adversarial devices, detect malicious activities, and select effective countermeasures. Higher IoT network resilience with be accompanied by resource efficiency through intelligent distribution of security functionalities across network nodes. CISSAN is EU CELTIC-NEXT project (https://www.celticnext.eu/project-cissan/). In Finland CISSAN belongs to Bittium´s Seamless and Secure Connectivity program funded by Business Finland. 

Main focus 

The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) has fundamentally changed how different environments, such as homes, offices, factories, smart buildings, and smart grids, are used and operated. However, security is a major concern for IoT networks and environments, where the risks of physical device tempering, injection of malicious devices, and unpatched vulnerabilities are higher than in traditional networks. CISSAN proposes and implements algorithms for mitigating IoT security threats through collective decision-making and with a reduced impact on the limited resources of IoT devices. These algorithms will be based on research and innovation in optimizing the distribution of security capabilities and aggregating the intelligence in IoT network nodes. Three industrial use cases, which nowadays heavily rely on the use of IoT, will inform the project developments and will be used for validating and demonstrating the project results: (i) public transportation; (ii) smart energy grids; (iii) mining and tunneling operations. 

Approach 

CISSAN will research and implement algorithms for distributed security monitoring, attack detection and response in IoT networks. Such algorithms will combine machine learning-based methods, more traditional AI techniques (e.g., decision-making based on formal knowledge representation and expert systems, fuzzy logic-based approaches, or genetic algorithms), and attack-specific rules. Since increasing the level of autonomy in IoT network defence is one of the high goals of the project, we will propose mechanisms for collective decision-making by CISSAN “security agents”, which are essentially security functions placed to IoT network nodes. Blockchain-based consensus protocols are one possible type of such mechanisms to be considered in the project. To enable communication between the security agents, CISSAN will implement a light overlay networking solution. Also, methods and tools will be developed for verifying the quality of data sets used in the project for building machine learning models and supporting other data-driven technologies.  

IoT devices are usually resource-constrained, and instrumenting each of them with the full set of security functions required for detecting and countering cyberattacks may not be an optimal strategy. Instead, we will propose network context-aware algorithms for distributing the security functions among the IoT devices, edge devices, and possibly cloud backends to achieve a suitable balance between the network resilience and the resource utilization. 

The technical efforts in CISSAN will be accompanied by defining and investigating potential business models around the project results and their business impact analysis. Regulatory and compliance considerations will be taken into account, including the ENISA’s work on certification schemes.  

Partners 
 
AddSecure Smart Grids (SE), Affärsverken Karlskrona (SE), Arctoslabs AB (SE), Blekinge Tekniska Högskolan (SE), Blue Science Park (SE), Cibernos (ES), Clavister AB (SE), Councilbox (ES), Geodata Ziviltechnikergesellschaft mbH (AT), Mattersoft Ltd. (FI), Mint Security Ltd. (FI), Netox (FI), Nodeon Finland Oy (FI), Savantic (SE), ScopeSensor Ltd. (FI), Techinova AB (SE), University of Jyväskylä (FI), Wirepas Oy (FI) and Bittium (Veturi leading company) 

Contact  

Contact for the CISSAN project is [email protected]  

More information on the project can be found from our website: https://www.celticnext.eu/project-cissan/ 

LifeFactFuture (LFF) is a large consortium project including research teams at the University of Turku and the University of Helsinki, as well as some of Finland’s leading life science manufacturers, data and technology companies. Project is funded by Business Finland during 2024–2026. The goal of the collaboration is to speed up the introduction of digital solutions and more efficient utilization of data and to make Finland the most attractive place in the world for investments in data-driven life science manufacturing.

The LifeFactFuture (LFF) project combines world class-excellence of Finnish life science companies, technology companies and academic researchers. It seeks to enhance advanced pharmaceutical and life science manufacturing in Finland. The LFF consortium includes research teams at the University of Turku and the University of Helsinki, as well as some of Finland’s leading life science manufacturers, data and technology companies. The goal of the project collaboration is to speed up the introduction of digital solutions and more efficient utilization of data and to make Finland the most attractive place in the world for investments in data-driven life science manufacturing. Current global vendors for pharmaceutical manufacturing are not able to provide the critical future data capabilities already identified by the sector in Finland. The data-driven capabilities offered by life science manufacturing vendors are assessed as less mature than similar solutions for other manufacturing sectors such as the automotive industry. If Finland becomes the lighthouse for exploiting new data-driven capabilities in advanced life sciences manufacturing, new billion-euro export opportunities are on the horizon. The export potential is considerable within the life science sector itself as well as within technology industry companies supplying the life science sector with data-driven capabilities.

Partners 

University of Turku (coordinator), University of Helsinki, Bayer, Orion, Wallac, Darekon, Brightly Works, Nokia (Veturi leading company), Vaisala, Care4Living, Dain Studios and Bittium (Veturi leading company) 

Contact 

Contacts for the LFF project is [email protected] (Interaction Coordinator) and [email protected] (Consortium Leader) 

More information on the project can be found from our website: https://sites.utu.fi/lifefactfuture/ 

RF ECO³ project address challenges related to radio frequency (RF) design for ultra-fast communication and potential for high-resolution sensing in forthcoming 6G radio systems towards ecological and economic benefits for society and industry. Hardware components and their efficient design for future application requirements are indisputable assets for the industrial success of extremely complex radios targeted for new applications in 6G. Those include vastly enhanced capacity for communications as well as the opportunity to sense objects and environment simultaneously. Energy efficiency and resilience in different environmental conditions to attacks (like interference in GPS navigation) are core problems that the project addresses towards increasingly complex spectral view in 5G advanced and 6G radios. RF design is a specialized skill transferring wireless information from radio waves to data in digitalized society. Competence is a mandatory asset for companies excelling in the field. The project has partners that have world class expertise in different areas of RF engineering from immense complex systems to testing, antennas, chip design and aligned technologies complemented with the leading research organizations in Finland providing depth and breadth to the underlying challenges towards 6G. Productivity in research and development is key problem in modern and highly complex RF designs. Machine learning and AI methods offer new opportunities to boost efficiency and performance – in both communication networks and design tools, still at very early stage in RF that require domain specific expertise to adopt for the benefit of the industry. Project is a part of the national Veturi programs of the two partnering companies.

Partners 

University of Oulu (coordinator), Aalto university, University of Tampere, VTT, Verkotan, SAAB, Senfit, Optenni, Nokia (Veturi leading company), CoreHW and Bittium (Veturi leading company) 

Contact 

Contact for the RF ECO³ project is [email protected]  

More information on the project can be found from our website: https://rf-eco3.rf-hub.org/  

Funding organization: Business Finland / ITEA3

Sensitive health data is often kept in silos in a way that cannot be efficiently leveraged for legitimate medical, research and data analysis purposes. The goal of the Secur‐e‐Health project is to integrate new approaches for digital ID technologies and privacy-preserving analysis techniques in a secure system infrastructure. The Secur-e-Health system allows medical institutions of all types to collaborate together and leverage data analyses and insights. This is expected to have a significant impact on the quality of the medical predictive models, the efficiency of data-driven treatments, the acceleration of new clinical research, and the improvement of healthcare in general.

Read more: https://itea4.org/project/secur-e-health.html

The aim of the ESSOR programme, currently sponsored by the governments of Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain, is to develop pan-European Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology in order to improve the ability of Armed Forces to cooperate in joint operations and also to develop new ESSOR waveforms (E3DWF, ENBWF, ESATWF), in the frame of ESSOR ENC (ESSOR New capabilities) project.

The ESSOR programme will continue, with further activities including the porting of the ESSOR HDRWF to Rohde & Schwarz’s SDR and a new interoperability verification test session. In addition to the European High Data Rate (HDR) waveform, the programme has produced and validated a European SDR architecture, now qualified on six different European platforms. The benefits of waveform interoperability are regularly demonstrated through network testing involving different ESSOR national platforms.

Read more: https://www.occar.int/programmes/essor

Funding organization: European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP)

Bittium is part of the iMUGS (integrated Modular Unmanned Ground System) project that is operating under the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP). The iMUGS project is developing new capabilities for European defence forces based on autonomous systems.

Goal of the project is to develop a modular and scalable architecture for hybrid manned-unmanned systems in order to address a large range of missions and to enable easy update or modification of assets and functionalities within the system: aerial and ground platforms, command, control and communication equipment, sensors, payloads and algorithms. The project will also develop a prototype for demonstrating the features of the implementation.

In the project, Bittium is responsible for the execution of resilient and networked data transfer, including both tactical communications and data transfer over commercial 4G and 5G cellular networks. The iMUGS project begun in 2021 and the duration of the project is approximately 30 months. The participating countries in the project are Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia and Spain.

Read more: EDIDP: The iMUGS Consortium demonstrates autonomous missions with robotic systems

Funding organization: Business Finland

Cost savings and better patient care through co-creation of novel data-intensive innovations for stroke prevention and diagnostics.

Expected results:

1. Patient-facing solution to support stroke patient from hospital to rehabilitation and back home
2. Professional-facing solution to support expert team decision making in from emergency care to hospital, rehabilitation and back home
3. Feasibility tests for the co-created solutions
4. Prediction model to show the solution impact
5. Business model alternatives that help companies and hospitals to take the Stroke-Data solutions to the selected Nordic, Asian, US and Australian markets

Read more: https://www.strokedataproject.com/about-us/

Funding organization: Business Finland

RF SAMPO project strengthens Finland’s competitiveness in radio technologies
RF Sampo is the lead ecosystem project for the Optimized Antenna Technology theme under the Nokia Veturi program.

A consortium of major industrial and academic stakeholders led by Nokia and coordinated by the University of Oulu will start a massive project aiming to speed up the development of RF and antenna technologies and accelerate the transition from 5G to 6G. The project contributes to creating new jobs and new business opportunities through technological development. 

Bittium is participating in RF Sampo project widely in several work packages as well as industrial leader in WP4 RF Architecture and Algorithms.

Read more: https://rf-sampo.rf-hub.org/

Funding organization: Business Finland / ITEA3

The motivation for TIoCPS project arises from the grand challenge facing cyber-physical systems (CPS): the lack of trustworthy, smart and interoperable information/data sharing and value exchange prevents the establishment of the data economy around CPS. The objective of the project is to technically enable trustworthy and smart communities for CPS systems (TIoCPS concept) for solving the grand challenge in the context of selected industrial use cases dealing with energy, mobility and user/owner CPS systems. The TIoCPS concept combined with the use case solutions are envisioned to boost the business of the respective industries and enable more trustworthy, smart, interoperable and sustainable industrial CPS ecosystem and society.

Bittium’s TioCPS project is part of ITEA TIoCPS collaboration coordinated in Finland by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

The project objective is to develop strategic technology assets and knowhow that enables creating new major business in the field of trushworthiness in cyber physical systems.

Bittium works in the project to research and develop smart data sharing contracts that enable new use cases for sharing data in cyber physical systems (CPS). This enables establishing and proving strong identities between humans, devices and even individual components and sensors in the devices.

Read more: https://www.tiocps.fi/