By Vaughan O’Grady
The Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur (IIT-K) and InterDigital, a mobile and video technology research and development company, have announced a bilateral research partnership to develop enabling technologies that impact future wireless standards.
Specifically, InterDigital says it will sponsor research and innovation at IIT-K that advances MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) systems to achieve the improved spectrum efficiency and network coverage required for 5G Advanced and 6G network deployments.
This research, it says, will support critical advancements enabling networks to scale and meet the growing bandwidth and coverage demands of advanced applications like metaverse experiences, holographic communications and digital twins.
The InterDigital and IIT-K partnership is described as aligned with the growing collaboration between India and the United States around 6G research and standardisation. In fact the partnership follows a joint statement from the two countries at the recent G20 Summit highlighting the importance of joint research and development in 6G technologies while acknowledging IIT-K as a key collaborator.
Professor Rohit Budhiraja, who will be leading the research effort at IIT-K, says: “The partnership comes at an opportune moment when India has released the Bharat 6G Vision Document and has laid the foundation to becoming a world leader in 6G technology. Academia has a major role to play both in terms of advanced research leading to 6G standardisation as well as developing technology components of 6G.”
Established in 1959, IIT-K describes itself as one of the premier institutions established by the Government of India. The aim of the Institute is to provide meaningful education, to conduct original research of the highest standard and to provide leadership in technological innovation.
