Winning the worldwide “race to 5G” is a top priority for the United States. As the global competition unfolds, we have continued to hear about the technological and economic benefits associated with leadership in the wireless domain. Earlier this year, CTIA, a trade association representing the wireless communications industry, released a report that said, “America’s telecommunications operators plan to invest $275 billion to deploy 5G networks, creating 3 million new jobs and adding $500 billion to our economy.” Even though the benefits are undeniable, the U.S. has not relented on the critical security risks that must also be accounted for prior to large-scale nationwide investments in 5G infrastructure.
It is no secret that the federal government is most concerned about Huawei, a Chinese based telecommunications giant, where the U.S. has asserted that the company’s technology puts American data at risk of espionage from the Chinese government. Huawei is the world’s #1 telecom supplier, #2 phone manufacturer, and has already deployed two-thirds of the commercially launched 5G networks outside the country.
While the narrative continues to focus on the equipment components of 5G networking infrastructure, we cannot ignore the additional layers of dependency that also put 5G at risk. In July, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released an unclassified infographic to identify points of vulnerability in 5G networks. It is critical to go one step further and take a deeper dive on the services needed to enable the almost-simultaneous connectivity associated with 5G, namely the availability of timing.
Kevin Boyle, telecommunications expert at Ericsson, wrote 5G will require highly accurate time synchronization almost everywhere in the network. According to Microsemi, a major semiconductor manufacturer, precise and accurate time enables virtually all infrastructures such as data centers, wired and wireless communications, financial exchanges, industrial networks, smart power grid, and other secure communications. Wireless networks, such as 5G, rely on highly accurate timing and synchronization for smooth cell-to-cell transfers of the mass of voice, video and mobile data deluging the networks on a daily basis. What isn’t always clear to users is where this timing source originates and why it matters.
To date, the U.S. Global Positioning System is a major source of position, navigation, and timing (PNT) for the world. China, Russia, Japan, India, and the European Union have also launched global navigation satellite systems that provide PNT on a worldwide or regional basis. As 5G is deployed, the requirement for accurate and reliable timing will increase exponentially. This will result in greater dependencies on space-based systems that operate internationally and also contain unique security concerns that the public may be unaware of.
Some individuals have called for firms to incorporate the use of these foreign satellite constellations in the U.S. to improve redundancy and maintain uninterrupted timing service. In this case the question remains, “Why has the community focused solely on the security of their equipment, but downplayed the need to secure critical 5G enabling services like PNT?” This is not to say we should rule out every source of foreign PNT, but there needs to be a more concerted effort to assess risk from the services designed and supplied from our adversaries.
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