Final Demonstration in the project PHYSICS

The research project “Physical Layer (PHY) Security Innovations for Communication Systems” (PHYSICS) concluded on June 26, 2025 with a demonstration of the overall system developed for secure, connected and autonomous driving. The core of the project was the synergetic use of two physically different wireless transmission paths - 5G mobile radio and optical LiFi communication - for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. The consortium consisted of TU Dresden with the chair for Transport Systems Information Technology (ITVS) and for Big Data Analytics in Transportation as well as the Netzwerk Automobilzulieferer Sachsen (AMZ), the aeroLiFi GmbH and the dresden elektronik ingenieurtechnik Gmbh. The project has been funded by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) over the past two years as part of the “Cybersecurity and digital sovereignty in 5G/6G communication technologies” program.

The objective of PHYSICS was to develop a fail-safe and resilient communication system between vehicles (V2V) and with the infrastructure (V2I). This was achieved by linking various subsystems, including communication via 5G mobile radio, attacker detection using machine learning (ML) based on channel state information (CSI), optical data transmission using LiFi and the implementation of special directional antennas for risk mitigation. In particular, the research aimed to ensure the availability and integrity of the information exchanged in the event of potential attacks. As part of the project, attacks caused by jamming - the interference of radio signals - and possible 5G communication failures were investigated in particular.

The final demonstration took place on the automotive test field of the Dresden University of Applied Sciences (HTWD) with two vehicles and the corresponding infrastructure. All components and the interaction of attacker detection, application management and countermeasures (handover to LiFi and antenna change) were successfully demonstrated in a V2X deployment environment.

The scientific results for the attack detection using machine learning (ML) based on the channel state information (CSI) of the 5G NR Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) in the uplink were presented at the international conference “IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS 2024)”. The paper entitled “Physical Layer Security: Learning-Aided Attack Detection based on 5G NR SRS” can be found here.

Further information on the PHYSICS project can be found here:

• Project Website
• PHYSICS-Website of the Chair ITVS
• Project Introduction on the Website of the BSI