DoT signs agreement with two IITs for development of ‘Cell-Free’ 6G access points

The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), a premier Telecom R&D centre of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Government of India, signed an agreement with the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) and IIT Mandi, for the development of ‘Cell-Free’ 6G Access Points. Both the IITs are collaborating to develop this technology.

This marks a significant step towards developing indigenous technology.

The agreement is signed under the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) scheme of DoT, which has been designed to provide funding support to domestic companies, Indian startups, academia and R&D institutions involved in technology design, development, commercialisation of telecommunication products and solutions. This scheme aims to enable affordable broadband and mobile services, playing a significant role in bridging the digital divide across India.

To support mobile consumers, traditional mobile networks employ cellular topologies, such as 4G/5G, in which each cell is served by a single base station. "Cell-Free" With massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output), many access points (APs) are deployed over a large area to serve multiple user devices simultaneously, doing away with the concept of cells and cell borders. A single user may receive help from numerous APs because many APs are devoted to each user within their service region. As a result, even in highly congested places, consumers are guaranteed ubiquitous connectivity, dead zone elimination, improved signal strength, and much faster data speeds.

This 6G project will focus on developing APs for enabling the upcoming 6G radio access networks and also aims to contribute to the 6G standardisation activity, drive commercialisation, generate intellectual property rights (IPRs), and develop a skilled workforce to support the emerging 6G landscape.