NTIA has awarded nearly $5.5 million in the first round of grants from the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. The $1.5 billion fund stems from the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and supports the development of open and interoperable wireless networks. Open and interoperable wireless equipment will help drive competition, strengthen global supply chain resiliency and lower costs for network operators and consumers, according to officials.
The funding totaled $5,482,052 and was awarded to projects at Northeastern University, New York University, and DeepSig Inc. The grants will support R&D and testing activities related to evaluating energy efficiency and measuring performance of interoperable equipment. The money will also be used to test spectrum sharing methodologies.
“This first round of Wireless Innovation Fund awards will accelerate the transition to more open and resilient 5G and 6G wireless networks,” said NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. “These grants will fund important research and testing to catalyze greater adoption of open wireless equipment. This in turn will promote resilience, innovation, and efficiency in the mobile networks so important to our economy.”
NYU received the largest grant at $2 million. “This project seeks to develop testing and evaluation procedures for next-generation cellular wireless systems in the upper mid-band, a promising new frequency range that has attracted considerable interest from wireless carriers,” said NYU WIRELESS Associate Director Sundeep Rangan. “Systems in these frequencies will likely need to be adaptive and agile to utilize the wide bandwidth and directionally communicate. The project will investigate how this spectrum agility can be tested for both dynamic spectrum sharing and resiliency to attacks— two vital features of these bands.”
Northeastern University Provost and SVP Academic Affairs David Madigan says the $1.9 million grant will be help the school “continue to pioneer critical research in wireless systems and networks, ensuring that the next generation of the Internet of Things will be a continuum of connected devices able to interact in new and exciting ways.”
DeepSig Inc. focuses on the convergence of advanced AI and machine learning with wireless signal processing. DeepSig CEO Jin Shea says its $1.4 million grant will be used to improve the performance and competitiveness of the Open RAN Air-Interface by leveraging DeepSig’s Generative AI and tools for modeling and measuring the wireless environment under real-world conditions. The company believes developing new generative AI tools for Open RAN will accelerate the adoption and performance of Open RAN for 5G, and future AI-Native 5G Advanced and 6G.
The Innovation Fund will invest $1.5 billion over the next decade to support the development of open and interoperable networks. NTIA will make up to $140.5 million in grants available on a rolling basis from the first round of funding.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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