REASON (Realising Enabling Architectures and Solutions for Open Networks) has awarded nearly £12m from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, to develop and industrialise technologies and solutions for future 6G mobile networks. The project will aim to bring together stakeholders from across the entire telecommunication R&D supply chain, developing a roadmap for open 6G networks which will set the framework for new developments across the entire technology stack.
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“Our project, REASON, is engaging a consortium of partners representing the entire telecoms R&D ecosystem, including leading UK Universities, large equipment vendors, service and content providers and innovative SMEs,” said project lead Professor Dimitra Simeonidou of Bristol’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
“REASON will address key technological challenges of delivering End-to-End Open Network solutions, considering all segments of the network. The project will pursue breakthroughs on elevating bottlenecks of current systems, such as interoperability, agility, sustainability, resilience, security, and will position UK-born technologies as candidates for delivering future solutions.”
The Bristol-led project is part of a wider £110m UK government spending package to boost 6G R&D, which includes £80m for a new UK Telecoms Lab in Solihull led by NPL, as well as a joint initiative with South Korea to accelerate the deployment of Open RAN and associated technologies. Open RAN allows operators to deploy equipment from several different suppliers within a network, and is central to the UK’s aim of ending its reliance on a small number of firms to build and maintain communications networks
“This government investment will see top UK universities join forces with industry to develop the nuts and bolts underpinning new networks, create skilled jobs testing the security of the latest telecoms tech, and ensure our plan for a more diverse and innovative 5G market is sustained in the future,” said Digital Secretary Michelle Donelan.
“The funding will also turbocharge our work to strengthen telecoms supply chains so we are no longer reliant on a handful of companies to develop and maintain our 5G networks.”
The full list of REASON project partners is:
- Bristol University
- Strathclyde University
- King’s College London
- Queens University Belfast
- Southampton University
- Compound Semiconductor Centre-CSC
- Digital Catapult
- British Telecom-BT
- British Broadcasting Corporation-BBC
- Ericsson
- Nokia
- Samsung
- Parallel Wireless Limited
- Thales UK
- Weaver Labs Limited
- Real Wireless Limited
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