Ericsson and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) announced a long-term cooperation for joint research in the area of AI, computing, and Radio. As part of this collaboration, two milestone agreements were inked between both the organisations which will allow researchers from both organisations to collaborate towards developing novel AI and distributed computing technology for 6G research. A symposium on Radio and Network research was organised at GS Sanyal School of Telecommunications (GSSST) where leaders from Ericsson Research and IIT Kharagpur participated to discuss the developments and advancements for the future of networks and communication.
AI and compute research is instrumental to Ericsson’s 6G networks as the compute offload needs to be managed dynamically at the edge and the policies would primarily be driven by AI. These themes of research are well aligned with IIT Kharagpur and both organisations view this partnership as a way to push the boundaries of fundamental and applied research in the radio domain.
The director of IIT Kharagpur, Virendra Kumar Tewari, states, “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. In the 6G era, IIT Kharagpur aims to contribute to radio access technology and networks, core networks, RF & Device technologies, VLSI Design, neuromorphic signal processing, services, and applications. The institute also looks forward to participating in the telecommunications standardisation process, developing test beds, prototype development and commercialisation along with training and manpower development. This collaborative research partnership in fundamental areas as well as translational research will be transformational for our Future Network Platforms.”
Elaborating on the partnership between IIT Kharagpur and Ericsson, Dr Magnus Frodigh, Head of Ericsson Research, states, “This collaboration strengthens our R&D commitments in India and is pivotal to Radio, Compute and AI research. We are excited to partner with IIT Kharagpur and look forward to collaborative research in fundamental areas as well as translational research for our Future Network Platforms”. Dr Frodigh also presented Ericsson’s vision on 6G which aims to blend the physical and digital worlds enabling us to improve the quality of life by incorporating widespread sensor-based communications between humans and machines through digital twins.
Nitin Bansal, Managing Director of Ericsson India states, “Ericsson is well poised to lead 6G innovation and we are making significant R&D investments in India in line with our commitment to the country. Given our 5G and technology leadership, our research initiatives are geared to provide affordable network platforms for ubiquitous connectivity all across the country”.
The speakers and panellists of the conference included Prof. Suvra Sekhar Das (Head, GSSST), Prof. Debarati Sen, Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti, Prof. Soumyajit Dey, and many other faculty members from IIT Kharagpur; Dr. Magnus Frodigh, Head of Ericsson research, Dr Mikael Hook, Head of Radio Research and Dr. Mikael Prytz, Head of Network research.
Some of the key initiatives finalised by both the organisations include:
Compute offload and resource optimisation at edge compute: The project aims to explore resource optimisation, dynamic observability, and sustainable distributed and Edge computing technologies.
RL based Beamforming for JCAS: safe, causal, and verifiable: The project aims to explore causal AI methods for joint communication and sensing (JCAS).