IEEE VTS YP Seminar: Secure and reliable communications for satellite mega-constellations

Title: Secure and reliable communications for satellite mega-constellations

Abstract
Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) mega-constellations have a high potential to address global connectivity problems in rural areas and densely populated metropolitan centers. The designs of these networks will be challenging as they introduce new constraints in terms of their integration to exiting terrestrial networks and their high-speeds. In addition to the reliable design of these communication networks towards 6G, the security of inter-satellite links of these emerging mega-constellations will be another issue that needs to be addressed in a comprehensive manner. This talk aims to describe the emerging satellite networks and highlight the design challenges in terms of secure and reliable communications. The potential security threats in the physical layer will be described with a conceptual framework, considering the cyber-physical nature of the satellite systems. A learning-driven detection scheme will be discussed as a remedy.

Presented by Gunes Karabulut Kurt
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
Polytechnique Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada

Bio: Gunes Karabulut Kurt received the B.S. degree with high honors in electronics and electrical engineering from the Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2000 and the M.A.Sc. and the Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Ottawa, ON, Canada, in 2002 and 2006, respectively. From 2000 to 2005, she was a Research Assistant with the CASP Group, University of Ottawa. Between 2005 and 2006, she was with TenXc Wireless, Canada. From 2006 to 2008, Dr. Karabulut Kurt was with Edgewater Computer Systems Inc., Canada. From 2008 to 2010, she was with Turkcell Research and Development Applied Research and Technology, Istanbul. Between 2010 and 2021, she was with Istanbul Technical University. She is currently an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada. She is a Marie Curie Fellow and has received the Turkish Academy of Sciences Outstanding Young Scientist (TÜBA-GEBIP) Award in 2019. In addition, she is an adjunct research professor at Carleton University. She is also currently serving as an Associate Technical Editor (ATE) of the IEEE Communications Magazine and a member of the IEEE WCNC Steering Board. She is the chair of the IEEE special interest group entitled “Satellite Mega-constellations: Communications and Networking”. Her current research interests include space information networks, satellite networking, wireless network coding, wireless security, space security, and wireless testbeds.