Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the facility is expected to play a key role in driving innovation in 6G by bringing together academics and industrial partners and giving them the specialist equipment needed to collaborate and develop globally leading 6G solutions.
In a statement, facility director Professor Timothy O'Farrell, Professor of Wireless Communication at Sheffield University, said: “6G is the next generation of telecommunications technology and has fast become a strategically important area for research and development.
“If the UK is to maintain its place as a global leader in telecommunications then we need the specialist equipment that our academics and industrial partners can use to innovate and develop next generation 6G technologies. The national facility we are creating at Sheffield University will play a huge role in the UK's 6G capabilities.”
Research into many aspects of 6G radio systems, including candidate waveforms, transmitter and receiver circuits, digital acquisition and signal processing, antenna arrays and over-the-air (OTA) propagation measurements will be enabled by the new facility based in the University’s Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. It will be capable of supporting research into 6G radio systems spanning all of the operating frequency bands - from sub-6GHz to sub-THz - including the 6G pioneering band at 220GHz.
The facility’s key equipment will support multiple over-the-air transmissions simultaneously, facilitating research into novel advanced radio systems. According to the University, this set up will place the UK at the forefront of global research into 6G radio systems.
The facility will be straightforward to use, yet versatile, and will have the capability to enable a very broad range of novel research to support the delivery of future 6G services, taking society closer to realising immersive communications services delivered over energy efficient infrastructure.
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