Network and Physical Layer Attacks and countermeasures to AI-Enabled 6G O-RAN

Abstract--Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an increasing role in cellular network deployment, configuration and management. This paper examines the security implications of AI-driven 6G radio access networks (RANs). While the expected timeline for 6G standardization is still several years out, pre-standardization efforts related to 6G security are already ongoing and will benefit from fundamental and experimental research. The Open RAN (O-RAN) describes an industry-driven open architecture and interfaces for building next generation RANs with AI control. Considering this architecture, we identify the critical threats to data driven network and physical layer elements, the corresponding countermeasures, and the research directions. The steady increase in the number of connected devices and the heterogeneous types of communications performance demands have driven the wireless business and research and development (R&D) efforts.