A 2025 malware attack on the South Korean carrier SK Telecom impacted tens of millions of users and resulted in nearly $100 million in fines. The effort, supported by a $307,250 National Science Foundation award, aims to secure next-generation systems against quantum computing risks and AI-driven attacks while maintaining the performance required for massive wireless connectivity.
Securing Next-Generation Wireless Infrastructure
As 5G and 6G networks integrate into critical infrastructure like hospitals, smart-city systems, and emergency services, the vulnerability of these systems to cyberattacks has become a primary concern.
We want security and trustworthiness to be built into next-generation networks from the beginning. That means developing networks that can take advantage of AI while protecting the security and privacy of the systems that depend on them. We call this approach quantum-ready, AI-enabled next-generation networks.
Dr. Imtiaz Karim, UT Dallas
The research is funded by a $307,250 award through the National Science Foundation’s Verticals-enabling Intelligent Network Systems (VINES) program. This initiative is part of a $1.2 million collaboration involving the University of South Florida and Purdue University. The team is specifically tackling the threat posed by quantum computers, which could potentially bypass current encryption methods, and the risks associated with AI-driven intrusion techniques.
AQCME Framework Improves Wireless Noise Suppression
Beyond security, researchers are working to solve fundamental performance bottlenecks in wireless transmission. A new study introduces the AI-Quantum Channel Modeling and Estimation (AQCME) framework, which addresses the limitations of classical estimation methods in 5G and 6G environments. Unlike traditional approaches, AQCME integrates variational quantum circuits and quantum signal processing to improve channel estimation and noise suppression.
This framework offers measurable performance gains over existing deep learning and minimum mean squared error (MMSE) baselines. AQCME improves spectral efficiency by up to 22.4 percent in massive MIMO scenarios. The framework meets the ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) outage target using 6.2 dB less signal-to-noise ratio than MMSE.
UT Dallas Researchers Test Security on 5G Test Bed
For Karim’s team at UT Dallas, the focus remains on the practical viability of these security measures. Current postquantum cryptographic techniques can be too computationally intensive for real-time cellular use. Therefore, the researchers are designing new methods that balance high-level security with the speed required for modern mobile networks.
Deployment is a big part of my research. We actually design and deploy this on a 5G test bed that we have built in our lab. It tests whether the protocols are deployable and secure for practical use, and can push changes directly to the 6G standards.
Dr. Imtiaz Karim, UT Dallas
Karim noted a 2025 malware attack on the South Korean carrier SK Telecom, which impacted tens of millions of users and resulted in nearly $100 million in fines. The team expects their shared experimental platform to evaluate these technologies over the three-year duration of the VINES project.