At Ericsson, our purpose has long been to empower an intelligent, sustainable, and connected world. Most recently, our Group Function and Ericsson Research team in Silicon Valley has been working with the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and industry partners to deliver on that promise by looking to the next generation of today's cellular, Wi-Fi and satellite networks in NextG systems.
NextG systems will connect trillions of sensors, billions of people through devices and cloud services, and will enable enhanced data streaming, communications, analytics and automation. Just as 5G is becoming a platform for the new digital economy, these future networks and systems will serve as a catalyst for major leaps forward in education, transportation, public health and safety, defense and associated critical infrastructure.
Ericsson is partnering with the NSF, the Department of Defense (DoD),the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) , and eight private industry technology leaders to form the Resilient and Intelligent Next-Generation Systems program – RINGS, for short – that aims to accelerate research for NextG systems. The program was announced on April 27 by the White House Office of Science and Technology as “NSF's single largest effort to date to engage public and private partners to jointly support a research program.”
NextG networks will enhance the “handshake” between users' end devices, the cloud, and cloud-based services, enable enhanced data streaming, communications, sensing, analytics, and automation, and will also focus on advancing underlying technologies to ensure global availability, security, and reliability.
Resiliency and reliability will be critical for the networks of the future. By building in security from the start, ensuring the right policies are in place to foster the innovations and economic development these systems will provide, and bringing to bear our decades of experience in public-private partnerships, we can more quickly and effectively accelerate the development of research findings into new technologies and solutions.
In addition to RINGS, Ericsson is engaged in an ongoing sponsorship of the NSF PAWR Industry Consortium. Ericsson is contributing equipment and services for an end-to-end 4G/5G network to support application testing in a real-world environment. Specifically, Ericsson is supplying 4G and 5G radios, antennas, site infrastructure, front-haul infrastructure, 4G and 5G core network, and services to integrate, test, and deploy the network. The fully programmable system allows researchers to adjust network settings in a manner not previously possible, and it is unique to have a production grade operational network specifically available for research and experimentation.
Under the PAWR program, Ericsson recently contributed cutting-edge equipment to the Aerial Experimentation and Research Platform for Advanced Wireless (AERPAW) advanced wireless testbed platform for 5G application testing. The AERPAW platform is designed for experimentation with wireless communications and unmanned aerial vehicles, including a terrestrial network. This work will accelerate research and commercialization of wireless technologies.
Why are these projects important? Combined, Ericsson’s efforts across RINGS and AERPAW represent a substantial commitment from the company as one of the world’s leading wireless technology providers to help shape the networks of the future. NextG systems will be critical for addressing broad societal challenges, such as climate change and the digital divide to create a better, more sustainable world. We are committed to continuing this work to help connect people and transform industries.
The convergence of "communications, computing and control (AI/ML) will change the way networks are built. This exciting research program looks at what does resiliency mean and what are the enabling technologies to realize a convergence with four research vectors: 1) Security, 2) Network Intelligence/adaptability, 3) Autonomy, and 4) Exploratory Resiliency components, along with four enabling technologies: 1) Radio, 2) Spectrum, 3) Device-edge-cloud continuum, and 4) Merged digital, physical and virtual worlds.
Please check out the NSF RINGS program solicitation: https://lnkd.in/gujg5qm
