Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Union Minister of Communications and Development of North Eastern Region, has inaugurated 5G Lab developed by Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) at Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), at a function held in Gauhati University.

‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ vision of Government of India has led to the development of indigenous 4G/5G stack that is being rolled out in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) network. This achievement sets a strong foundation to venture into new use cases of 5G and development of 6G technology.

There are thousands of engineering colleges in the country that aspire to be current with new technologies like 5G and 6G. In order to develop desired competencies and innovative use cases for 5G and to enable acceleration of 6G research and development (R&D) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) generation, a cost effective 5G test lab set up is required at universities and engineering colleges. A need was felt to develop a cost effective 5G test bed solution that is affordable for wider adoption by engineering colleges. C-DOT has realised low cost 5G solution which is suitable for deployment in universities and engineering colleges to serve as 5G Testbed set up.

5G test lab inaugurated by Scindia will benefit the students, researchers and faculty in the following ways:

  • Gaining practical insights into an end-to-end 5G system.
  • Developing a deeper understanding of Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications for 5G radio access network (RAN) and 5G Core networks.
  • Enhancing system capabilities while exploring new 5G use cases and applications.
  • Providing a foundation for advanced research and specification development for 6G technologies, enabling IPR generation.

C-DOT 5G University solution consists of gNodeB (radio), core network and IMS. gNodeB consists of centralised unit (CU), distributed unit (DU) and radio unit (RU) functionalities. An element management system (EMS) has also been provided for managing and configuring various 5G units of Radio subsystems. A technical manual is also supplied that will allow students to configure the system in various ways so that a deeper understanding of 5G network can be achieved.

Scindia stated, “The 5G use case lab will proliferate the capability of our country to spread education, to take telemedicine and healthcare to the last village in the country. He said he has great belief in the young cohort which will spearhead the change and such test labs will prove extremely beneficial for them to transcend across multiple dimensions and bring in innovations within our country.”

Meanwhile, Professor Dr Kandarpa Kumar Sarma, head, Department of ECE, Guwahati University, said, “C-DOT 5G Lab is very beneficial for the students and the teaching faculty. This 5G test bed solution and the short-term training programme provided by C-DOT engineers would be very helpful for the students to become familiar with 5G technology. The physical device in the lab would facilitate the students to work on the domain of 5G and beyond and would further help them to contribute towards the development of 6G technology.”

Further, Professor Nani Gopal Mahanta, vice chancellor, Gauhati University, thanked Scindia and C-DOT team while highlighting the university’s contribution to higher education, research, and technological advancements, emphasising its vision towards enhancing innovation and excellence in the region.

Furthermore, Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay, chief executive officer (CEO), C-DOT, expressed his gratitude to Scindia for motivating and inspiring C-DOT engineers that led to the development of low cost 5G lab. Dr Upadhyay also assured that C-DOT will work with various engineering colleges in establishing 5G test labs and providing support for development and scalability of Indigenous telecom technologies.