Ericsson and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur have announced a long-term cooperation for joint research in the area of artificial intelligence (AI), compute 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 compute technology towards 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 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.
Commenting on the partnership, Virendra Kumar Tewari, director, IIT Kharagpur, said, “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 AI 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 network, core network, radio frequency (RF) and device technologies, Very-large-scale integration (VLSI) design, neuromorphic signal processing, services, and applications. The institute also looks forward to participate in 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.”
Meanwhile, Dr Magnus Frodigh, vice president (VP) and head, Ericsson Research, said, “This collaboration strengthens our research and development (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.”
Further, Nitin Bansal, managing director, Ericsson India, said, “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 across the country”.
