A new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) will see the development of a first-of-its-kind open federated XG or 5G network that can be used to connect smart live internet of things.

The open federated 5G network will create a space where all of the information can flow at once, at 10 times the speed.

"We can actually work with other campuses, and we can offer our classes remotely to these campuses. This will support that virtual reality where we can actually broadcast the videos using the huge bandwidths that the 5G network actually offer," said Dr. Hisham Kholiday, associate professor at SUNY Polytechnic Institute.

Kholidy, department chair of the network and computers security graduate program, says the 5G network is like a playground where different companies and technologies can easily join in and work together to create new experiences. 

"This will actually improve the cybersecurity offering and will help students do some advancement research in the cybersecurity domain," Kholidy said.

"I was able to run attacks against our network and see the impacts on performance, see if there were any delays in sending information," said Andrew Fox, a senior at SUNY Polytechnic Institute.

Fox, a senior at SUNY POLY, says experimenting with the 5G network in the school's Advanced Cybersecurity Research Lab has been a bonus to his education.

"This equipment is really adding another layer to our learning, especially getting the hands-on experience that’s very, very important," Fox said. 

This agreement with SUNY POLY and the Air Force Research Laboratory is a part of a $1.1 million contract which is the largest single investor award received at SUNY POLY.