Ericsson, IIT Kharagpur ink research partnership on AI, compute, radio for 6G

Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur on Friday, signed a long-term cooperation agreement for joint research in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), computing, and radio for the advancement of 6G technologies.

Two agreements were signed between the organisations to facilitate collaboration on the development of novel AI and distributed compute technology for 6G research, as per the official announcement.

Ericsson stated that AI and Compute Research are crucial for its 6G networks, as compute offload needs to be dynamically managed at the edge, driven primarily by AI. Both organisations view this partnership as a means to push the boundaries of fundamental and applied research in the radio domain.

“In the commitment towards Digital India and making India the hub of technological innovation, this collaboration with Ericsson will be effective for next-generation technology significantly. 6G networks integrated with artificial intelligence will enable AI-powered applications to run faster and more efficiently,” Virendra Kumar Tewari, director, IIT Kharagpur, said in a statement.

He added that in the 6G era, IIT Kharagpur aims to contribute to Radio Access Technology and Network, Core Network, RF & Device Technologies, VLSI Design, Neuromorphic Signal Processing, Services and Applications.

The collaboration between Ericsson and IIT Kharagpur includes several key initiatives, such as Compute offload and Resource Optimisation at edge compute, which aims to explore resource optimisation, dynamic observability, and sustainable distributed and edge computing technologies. Another initiative is the RL based Beamforming for JCAS: Safe, Causal, and Verifiable, which aims to explore causal AI methods for joint communication and sensing (JCAS).

Magnus Frodigh, Head of Ericsson Research, stated that this collaboration strengthens their R&D commitments in India and is pivotal to radio, compute, and AI research.

Ericsson has been present in India since 1903, and its research team was established in 2010. With the establishment of 6G research in India, Ericsson looks forward to playing a pivotal role in enabling India to be at the forefront of future communication technology. The company anticipates that 6G will merge the digital and physical world, contribute to a more intelligent, sustainable, and efficient society, and deliver new use cases in various fields.

In October last year, Ericsson announced the launch of its "India 6G" program with the establishment of an India 6G Research team in its Chennai R&D Center. The company currently has three R&D facilities in India: in Chennai, Bengaluru, and Gurgaon. The India 6G team consists of senior research leaders and experienced researchers in the fields of radio, networks, AI, and cloud.

The government also unveiled a national 6G project last year in March, with the goal of launching this technology by 2030. The project aims to identify and fund research and deployment of next-generation technology in the country. A council has been appointed to oversee the project and focus on issues such as standardization, suitable spectrum for 6G, creating an ecosystem for devices and systems, among other things. The council will also focus on new technologies like terahertz communication, radio interfaces, tactile internet, AI for connected intelligence, new encoding methods, and waveforms chipsets for 6G devices.

In September 2023, 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 aim of designing, developing, and deploying technology for future 6G systems.

Meanwhile, the 6G market is projected to be $1.58 billion in 2028, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 103.35% and reach $1,293.19 billion by 2035, according to data from BIS Research published in November. The growth in the 6G market is attributable to the high emphasis on low latency networks for specific applications and the growing adoption of internet services and edge computing devices, among others, it said.