IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur and the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER) have licensed their 5G radio access network (RAN) sub-system to Tejas Networks for a sum of Rs 120 million. The 5G RAN technology was developed by the multi-institutional team at the 5G testbed developed indigenously through a collaborative project involving eight institutes and funded by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in May 2022.
Tejas Networks will pay a transfer of technology (ToT) non-exclusive, licence fee of Rs 120 million in multiple instalments based on technical milestones. The company will play a vital role in leveraging the technology for further advancements and commercial applications.
Commenting on the development, Prof. V. Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, said, “I am very pleased that Tejas Networks is planning to adopt this 5G RAN technology developed indigenously by a multi-institutional team of researchers. This initiative is in line with the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision of the government of India. This is an outstanding example of how translational research must happen in an inter-institutional, inter-disciplinary manner. This is a great example of how research should translate into a product and then get deployed. I hope a billion users of our country will benefit from this technology.”
Meanwhile, Prof. S. Ganesh, director, IIT Kanpur, said, “IIT Kanpur has been a pioneer in communication research in India. Our faculty have played a pivotal role in the development of this state-of-the-art indigenous 5G testbed, specifically by developing the baseband unit (BBU) of the 5G new radio (NR) base station at the institute. As we know, 5G test bed has been developed as part of a multi-institute collaborative project. This collaborative effort not only complements India’s stride in ground-breaking transformative innovation but also opens up tremendous growth prospects for India’s rapidly evolving telecommunication industry.”
Further, Dr. P. Hanumantha Rao, director general, SAMEER, said, “We at SAMEER, an autonomous R&D organisation under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), are pleased to be part of this journey of building an Indigenous end-to-end 5G solution as a home-grown technology in India. SAMEER has contributed in building an active multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) and massive MIMO antennas and fully integrated millimetre wave (mmWave) phased arrays at FR1 (sub 6 GHz) and FR2 (mmWave) bands respectively. The knowledge sharing of fully-functional 5G RAN technology of SAMEER in collaboration with IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur to industry is a breakthrough achievement to create a secured 5G eco-space in telecom sector.”
Additionally, Dr. Kumar N. Sivarajan, chief technology officer and co-founder, Tejas Networks, said, “We are delighted to conclude a comprehensive 5G RAN technology licensing agreement with IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur and SAMEER. This sets a new benchmark in industry-academia collaboration in India’s high-technology sector. As India’s leading R&D-driven telecom products company, we look forward to translating these cutting-edge innovations and integrating them into industry-leading products and solutions for India and the world.”
