SUSTAINET Session on Emerging Trade-offs in Networking: Sovereignty, Security, ReSilience, and Sustainability

Next-generation communication networks face a critical challenge in balancing traditional Quality-of-Service (QoS) with emerging requirements such as sovereignty, security, resilience, and sustainability. These dimensions are closely interconnected and often involve conflicting objectives. Sovereignty enables control over infrastructure and data but may limit vendor diversity and slow innovation. Security and resilience enhance protection and service continuity, yet typically rely on redundancy and increased computational effort, leading to higher energy consumption, system complexity, and operational costs. In contrast, sustainability aims to reduce environmental impact and improve energy efficiency but can conflict with strict performance requirements such as low latency and high availability.
Addressing these trade-offs is central to the evolution of 6G, non-terrestrial networks, and AI-driven infrastructures. The goal of this workshop is to examine how communication networks, ranging from large-scale infrastructures to data centers and smart grids, can be designed and operated to balance these requirements while maintaining high performance. A particular focus is placed on holistic system design and the development of measurable quality indicators to support informed decision-making.

SUSTAINET Session on Emerging Trade-offs in Networking: Sovereignty, Security, ReSilience, and Sustainability
08.-10. September 2026
Berlin, Germany
https://www.berlin-6g-conference.de/#agenda
In conjunction with Berlin 6G Conference

Session Chairs

• Frank Loh, University of Würzburg, Germany (frank.loh@uni-wuerzburg.de)
• Christoph Lipps, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Germany (christoph.lipps@dfki.de)
• Sandip Das, Nokia Bell Labs, (sandip.das@nokia-bell-labs.com)