DoD's Innovate Beyond 5G Program embarks on three new projects
NewsAugust 08, 2022
ARLINGTON, Va. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Innovate Beyond 5G (IB5G) Program recently launched three new projects as it attempts to advance DoD collaborative partnerships with industry and academia for 5G-to-NextG wireless technologies.
The first of the projects is Open6G, a newly established industry-university cooperative effort that aims to jump-start 6G systems research on open radio access networks (Open RAN), focusing on Open RAN research and open source implementation of 5G protocol stack features to support emerging beyond/enhanced 5G applications. The project is managed by Northeastern University’s Kostas Research Institute through a cooperative agreement with the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and is set to be housed at the Northeastern University Institute for Wireless Internet of Things (IoT).
Another new project is the Spectrum Exchange Security and Scalability project with Zylinium Research, under which the partners will study spectrum-sharing technologies, which are becoming more critical as wireless networks face increasing user demand. Zylinium Research recently demonstrated its "Spectrum Exchange" network service appliance for dynamic spectrum allocation on the Platform for Open Wireless Data-drive Experimental Research (POWDER) at the University of Utah,part of the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Also under the IB5G umbrella is the large-scale Massive Multi-Input/Multi-Output (MIMO) project, a collaboration with Nokia Bell Labs, which aims to establish Massive MIMO as a critical tool for the warfighter due to its ability to increase resiliency and throughput for wireless tactical communications. This project was awarded $3.69 million by Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) under an Open Broad Agency Announcement solicitation for Advanced Wireless Communications research. The project will explore key technology components that enable scaling MIMO technology across different bands and bandwidths and DoD-focused use cases.
