The initiative, part of the European Union's Horizon Europe program, will run for 36 months and bring together 17 companies from five European countries.
Within the consortium, G+D will be responsible for developing and integrating eSIM and iSIM technologies with post-quantum cryptography and cryptographic agility mechanisms, geared towards identity management, authentication, and secure communications.
The project focuses particularly on energy and digital infrastructures, as well as systems that need to maintain certain functions during communication or supply service interruptions.

Edge computing for critical infrastructure:
CIRES aims to develop an integrated set of technologies that enables critical functions to be executed using edge computing, reducing reliance on centralized systems for certain operations.
The architecture is designed to maintain local operational capabilities in situations such as cyberattacks, power outages, communication disruptions, or supply chain issues.
The consortium is also working on mechanisms to facilitate the controlled recovery of systems after an incident.
These capabilities are key objectives of the project. The press release does not present test results that would determine how long the systems could continue operating during an outage or what levels of availability they would achieve.

eSIM and iSIM with Post-Quantum Cryptography:
G+D's main contribution focuses on developing eSIM and iSIM technologies to provide identity, authentication, and communications security functions for critical infrastructure.
The work includes an eSIM/iSIM operating system with cryptographic agility mechanisms for eUICC and iUICC platforms.
Cryptographic agility allows for the design of systems capable of adapting or replacing the cryptographic mechanisms used when security requirements change or new algorithms emerge.
G+D also plans to integrate post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to address threats related to the evolution of quantum computing.
The press release does not identify the selected post-quantum algorithms, their security parameters, memory or processing requirements, or the results of cryptographic tests.
Therefore, these solutions should be described as technologies under development and not as systems whose resilience against post-quantum threats has already been demonstrated.

Roots of Trust for Identity and Authentication:
The eSIM and iSIM technologies developed within CIRES are designed to provide a hardware-based root of trust for communication systems.
This functionality will enable the establishment of device identification and authentication mechanisms and protect connectivity-related operations.
G+D proposes their use in systems employing different radio access technologies, known as multi-RAT (Multiple Radio Access Technology) environments.
Among the communication technologies mentioned by the company are 4G, 5G, and non-terrestrial networks.
Compatibility with different networks can facilitate the design of systems with alternative connectivity options, although service continuity will also depend on network availability, equipment, and operating conditions.

Remote Management of Connectivity Profiles
Another part of the development focuses on managing eSIM and iSIM profiles throughout the device lifecycle.
G+D envisions resilient backend systems to securely manage these profiles and enable connectivity modifications without physically accessing the installed equipment.
This capability is geared towards situations where a critical infrastructure operator needs to respond to a network outage, switch communications providers, or adapt to specific security requirements.

Embedded AI and Fault-Tolerant Communications
In addition to G+D's specific work, the CIRES consortium is developing other technologies intended to form part of the edge computing architecture.
These include embedded AI for low-latency local decision-making, secure and fault-tolerant communication mechanisms across heterogeneous networks, and timing and synchronization systems designed to maintain operation in the event of certain incidents.
The project also envisions distributed architectures from the edge to the cloud, with the aim of combining local processing and centralized services.

European technologies and interoperability
: CIRES envisions the use of European hardware and software components, along with open standards and interoperable security architectures.
The project links this approach to the objective of reducing certain external technological dependencies in critical infrastructures.

Validation through real-world demonstrations:
The technologies developed within CIRES will undergo real-world demonstrations to evaluate their application in different scenarios.
Among the anticipated use cases are infrastructure inspections using drones, services for smart cities and buildings, digital twins for supply chains, energy systems, and the monitoring of digital infrastructure.
These demonstrations will allow for testing the performance of the developed technologies, although the press release does not yet specify the locations, dates, evaluation metrics, or expected results for each case.

A 36-month European project, CIRES, brings together 17 companies from five European countries for a period of 36 months within the Horizon Europe program. G+D' s participation focuses on identity and secure connectivity components, especially the development of an eSIM/iSIM operating system for eUICC and iUICC platforms that incorporates post-quantum cryptography and cryptographic agility. The consortium's other lines of work address edge computing, embedded AI, heterogeneous communications, and the synchronization and recovery of critical systems.