The new team of researchers in India will work with Ericsson research teams in Sweden and the U.S.
Swedish vendor Ericsson announced the launch of its “India 6G” program with the formation of an India 6G Research team in its Chennai R&D Center.
In a release, Ericsson noted that it currently has three R&D facilities in India: in Chennai, Bengaluru and Gurgaon.
The vendor added that its India 6G team comprises senior research leaders and a team of experienced researchers across the fields of radio, networks, AI and cloud.
Together with Ericsson research teams in Sweden and the U.S., the India research team will work collaboratively with the aim of developing the technology which will help to deliver a cyber -physical continuum where networks will deliver critical services, immersive communications and omnipresent IoT, the European vendor said.
Some of the projects on which the teams will be working include channel modeling and hybrid beamforming, low-energy networks, cloud evolution and sustainable compute, trustworthy, “explainable” and bias-free AI algorithms, autonomous agents for intent management functions, integrated sensing and communication functions for man-machine continuum and compute offload to edge-computing cloud, amongst others.
“By establishing a dedicated 6G research team for in-country research, contextual to India’s need and collaborating with the world class research programs across international research labs, we look forward to incorporating the needs of India into the mainstream of telecommunication technology evolution,” said Magnus Frodigh, head of research at Ericsson.
Ericsson said it is partnering with premier institutes in India for radio, AI and cloud research, the most recent being a five-year partnership with Indian Institute of Technology Madras’ (IIT Madras) Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI) that was signed in September 2023. Ericsson also said it is looking to partner with other premier engineering institutes in India for 6G related research.
Earlier this year, the government of India unveiled a national 6G project with the aim of launching this technology by 2030. 6G has not yet been standardized, but research and development of candidate technologies and spectrum is well underway.
The main aim of the 6G initiative is to identify and fund research and deployment of the next-generation technology in the country, according to a vision document unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to the document, the government has appointed a council to oversee the project and focus on issues such as standardization, identification of suitable spectrum for 6G, create an ecosystem for devices and systems, among other things.
Another key focus of the council will be on new technologies such as terahertz communication, radio interfaces, tactile internet, artificial intelligence for connected intelligence, new encoding methods and waveforms chipsets for 6G devices, according to the vision document unveiled by the government.
Last month, ATIS’ Next G Alliance (NGA) and India’s Bharat 6G Alliance signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore collaboration opportunities on 6G wireless technologies.
The Bharat 6G Alliance is an initiative of Indian industry, academia, national research institutions and standards organizations, with the main aim of designing, developing and deploying technology for future 6G systems.
