Interview with Satish Jamadagni; “TSDSI is well focused on 6G activities”

Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) is a Standards Development Organisation (SDO) dedicated to developing and promoting India-specific requirements in ITU and ICT space, serving consumers and various vertical sectors. Over the years, TSDSI has been instrumental in strengthening India’s presence in the global telecom standardisation space, through its participation and contributions in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) especially in the domain of 5G and 5G-Advanced standards. It is currently actively involved in advancing India’s contribution to global 6G standards. In an interview with tele.net, Satish Jamadagni, Chairman, TSDSI, discusses the organisation’s evolving role, its contributions to evolution of 6G standards formulation, and key trends shaping the future of telecom in India…

How has the role of TSDSI evolved over the years? What role is the standards body playing in the formulation of telecom standards globally?

TSDSI, recognised as India’s Telecom Standards Development Organization, is celebrating 10 years of its inception. We develop and promote India-specific requirements, standardise solutions to meet these requirements and contribute to international standards, supporting development of globally harmonised telecom standards.

Over the past decade, TSDSI membership base has grown to over 120 organisations, spanning all segments of the telecom ecosystem, including manufacturers, operators, service providers, , “research and development”  institutions, academia and policymakers.

TSDSI has enhanced India’s position on the global standardisation stage with significant contributions to IMT-2020 technologies. One of the notable contribution was the introduction of the Low Mobility Large Cell (LMLC) concept in ITU-R and including its technical implementation using pi/2 BPSK waveforms in the global standards. These requirements resonated with several regions around the world, as we endeavor to reflect user requirements across the coverage, capacity and user experience dimensions on global platforms

We are an organisational partner of 3GPP and oneM2M as well as Sector member of ITU. Currently, TSDSI’s chair leads the TSDSI delegation to the 3GPP Project Coordination Group and its organisational partners’ meetings. In this capacity, the chair can influence global standards deliberations. This is a position that India can leverage to influence global standards.

India has seen one of the largest deployments of 5G networks, but the industry is still facing certain issues that need to be addressed such as coverage of remote and rural areas. TSDSI recently developed a standard on “Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces” (RIS), which has the potential to address this issue. TSDSI also aims to focus on “enabling B2B  use cases in 5G” by enhancing existing architectures.

TSDSI members have led several important technical activities (in the form of work items) within 3GPP, exemplifying India’s technical contribution at the global level. These include the NavIC LCS (Release 16) for NavIC L5 GNSS assistance in 4G networks, and the recent NavIC L1 for 5G in Release 19 to enable NavIC-assisted GNSS support in 5G NR and LTE specifications.

TSDSI has conducted spectrum coexistence studies to bring clarity and support government decision-making, contributing to ITU-R’s World Radio Conference 2023.

TSDSI is well focused on 6G activities. It was one of the first organisations to start work on 6G use cases, requirements and enabling technologies, parts of which are now incorporated into the ITU-R WP5D Report on Future Technology Trends and Recommendations on the IMT-2030 Framework.

In the Technical Performance Requirements phase, TSDSI members continued to contribute India-specific requirements to the ITU. Ongoing 6G efforts include integrated communication and sensing, and architectures for interface interoperability, that we call “compossibility”. Going forward, open hardware architectures for both RAN and core are considered important for the Indian telecom ecosystem.

TSDSI is also working on enabling principles for digitalising the key sectors of the Indian economy such as agritech, rural marketplace, transportation and manufacturing. An example is the recently published set of cloud interoperability and portability standards, which aim to support India’s smart cities programme.

What have been the key developments in 6G standards formulation?

Two key telecom developments globally are the flurry of 6G pre-standardisation discussions to evolve meaningful use cases and the progress on IMT-2030 work within the ITU-R WP 5D. The ITU-R WP5D has published two key reports – “Future Technology Trends” and “Recommendations on Framework and overall objectives of the future development of IMT for 2030 and beyond” which provide guidance for the development of 6G standards.

The discussions in some of the pre-standardisation forums are more focused on network optimisation (use of AI in networks, energy efficiency, etc.). However, the question of what an end user would get from 6G needs more attention. Any 6G pre-standardisation work should cover how the end user (B2C and B2B scenarios) would benefit from such a technology to avoid monetisation issues in 6G at a later stage, as being experienced in 5G.

What progress has India made in the development of 6G standards? What are your thoughts on the Bharat 6G Mission and the Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA)?

India has already been contributing to the ITU’s 6G efforts, with TSDSI leading the 6G standardisation efforts in India. We have published the first set of specifications on RIS (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces) and more work in this direction is underway.

Our “Cloud Interoperability and Portability” set of standards are expected to become an anchor for all API and data model related work while also supporting the Smart Cities programme in India. TSDSI is finalising a technical study on “Integrated Communication and Sensing Use Cases and Architectures”. In summary, we are well poised to assume a leadership role in global 6G efforts.

TSDSI is truly enabling the Bharat 6G Mission objectives. Along with the development of standards, the organisation is engaging with the Indian manufacturing ecosystem to promote the implementation of these standards. Original design manufacturers have the opportunity to prototype and develop products and solutions based on our standards, and provide valuable feedback for further improvement. For example, RIS technology is also relevant for 5G, as it can help address some of the coverage and signal strength fluctuation issues observed in current 5G deployments.

B6GA is focused on strengthening the pre-standards ecosystem through research and prototyping. It is in discussions with TSDSI to collaborate on various activities, including regular mutual exchange of information on topics of potential standardisation emerging from B6GA’s work, and promote the adoption of TSDSI standards through pilots and field trials.

What new initiatives are you focusing on?

One of the key items on TSDSI’s Standardisation Roadmap 3.0 is open systems, with open hardware emerging as a promising area. Exploring opportunities to advance the open hardware concept and actively engaging with relevant forums, such as the Open Compute Project, could help realise its potential.

Some of the other initiatives led by TSDSI cover technologies and topics related to  internet of things, V2X, drones, broadcast, spectrum studies, artificial intelligence, security,  etc., including addressing Indian regulatory requirements. We are also working on visible light communication, edge, quantum and use cases for diverse verticals.

What are the challenges faced in standards formulation?

Telecom standards formulation is complex, involving technological, regulatory and collaborative challenges across stakeholders. Balancing national requirements with global interoperability becomes a challenge. TSDSI addresses this by fostering dialogue among Indian telecom players, academia and global partners to create standards that meet both local needs and international norms.

What will be TSDSI’s key focus areas for the next two to three years?

As 6G technology is at the cusp of global development, our efforts over the next two to three years will primarily focus on 6G standardisation, with an emphasis on the “end user perspective”. Developing standards that are well supported by an open hardware ecosystem is important. Network flexibility is also critical given that new verticals will continue to be added to 6G specifications. Therefore, achieving the “compossibility” of networks will be a key objective. S