The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) is participating in the newly launched research project SHINKA (Secure Hybrid digital twin network INfrastructure with Knowledge-based Analytics). The German-Japanese project aims to develop a secure and sovereign data infrastructure for the federation of digital twins in fully optical high-speed networks.
"With SHINKA, we are laying the foundation for a new generation of intelligent, secure, and interoperable networks based on digital twins", says Dr. Johannes Fischer, head of group at Fraunhofer HHI. "Close collaboration with industry and standardization bodies ensures rapid implementation into market-ready solutions."
Cross-border ecosystem of digital twins
Digital Twins (DT) are considered a key technology for optimizing and automating modern communication infrastructures. Within the SHINKA project, a state-of-the-art platform is being developed to collect, process, and securely exchange real-time data from physical network infrastructures—across domains, network operators, and even national borders.
"A key focus is the development of a novel, standards-compliant architecture for federating digital twins of open optical networks—designed to natively ensure data sovereignty, privacy protection, and fair consideration of stakeholder benefits", adds Dr. Behnam Shariati, project lead and topic lead "AI for Photonics" at Fraunhofer HHI.
Fraunhofer HHI is responsible for significant contributions to the architecture definition as well as the implementation and validation of a secure data exchange platform. This platform will enable protected, trustworthy, and regulated exchange of real-time data between digital twins and physical network components—including through the use of cryptographic methods such as secure multi-party computation and homomorphic encryption.
In addition, Fraunhofer HHI is developing innovative data models for optical multiband networks (S-, C-, and L-band), as well as digital twin–based optimization and analysis algorithms aimed at maximizing network capacity and resilience. These solutions will be tested together with international partners such as Adtran and Fujitsu, as well as within test environments in Germany and Japan.
The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) under the program “Digital Twins and Data Models for Fully Optical High-Speed Networks” and makes a significant contribution to the digital and sustainable transformation of network infrastructures.
More information about the project:
https://www.forschung-it-sicherheit-kommunikationssysteme.de/projekte/shinka
https://www.hhi.fraunhofer.de/abteilungen/pn/projekte/shinka.html