IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur & SAMEER come together for largest tech transfer deals, to license 5G RAN to Tejas Networks

The three institutions are jointly licensing the 5G RAN technology to Tejas Networks, that will play a vital role in leveraging it for further advancements.

IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, and the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER) have joined forces to launch one of the largest technology transfer deals from academia in India, a ‘5G RAN sub-system’ at the 5G Test Bed.

IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur & SAMEER collaborate to license 5G RAN to Tejas Networks (A Tata Group Company) for ₹12 crore

According to a press release, the three institutions are jointly licensing the 5G RAN technology to Tejas Networks, owned by the Tata Group, which will play a vital role in leveraging it for further advancements and commercial applications.

The release highlighted that Tejas Networks will be paying a sum of ₹12 crore as a Transfer of Technology (ToT) non-exclusive, license fee, in multiple instalments based on technical milestones.

Notably, a special ceremony was held on Monday at the IIT Madras campus which was attended by a host of representatives from the three institutions. These included Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, Dr. Kumar N. Sivarajan, CTO of Tejas Networks, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi of IIT Madras; Dr. P. Hanumantha Rao, Director General of SAMEER, and Prof. Rohit Budhiraja of IIT Kanpur and Dr. Radhakrishna Ganti of IIT Madras, who are the Principal Investigators of 5G Test bed from their respective institutes, among others.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director lauded the initiative by Tejas Networks to adopt the 5G RAN technology developed indigenously by a multi-institutional team of researchers. He said, “This is an outstanding example of how translational research must happen in an inter-institutional, inter-disciplinary manner.”

Likewise, Prof. S. Ganesh pointed out that IIT Kanpur has been a pioneer in communication research in India, and the faculty have played a pivotal role in the development of the indigenous 5G Test bed, specifically by developing the Baseband Unit (BBU) of the 5G NR base station at the institute

“This collaborative effort not only complements India’s stride in ground-breaking transformative innovation but also opens up tremendous growth prospects for India’s rapidly evolving telecommunication industry,” Prof. Ganesh said.

Dr. P. Hanumantha Rao also spoke on the occasion and said, “We at SAMEER, an autonomous R&D organization under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), are pleased to be part of this journey of building an Indigenous end-to-end 5G solution as a home-grown technology in India.”

He added that the knowledge sharing of fully functional 5G RAN technology of SAMEER in collaboration with IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur to Industry is a breakthrough achievement to create a secured 5G eco-space in the telecom sector.

Dr. Kumar N. Sivarajan, CTO and Co-founder, of Tejas Networks, said, “We are delighted to conclude a comprehensive 5G RAN technology licensing agreement with IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, and SAMEER. This sets a new benchmark in industry-academia collaboration in India’s high-technology sector.”

What is the 5G Test Bed:

• The 5G Test Bed was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2022 and has since been used extensively by industry and academia for testing new 5G products and use cases.
• The 5G Test Bed was developed indigenously through a collaborative project involving eight institutes and funded by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications.
• The hardware, firmware, and software are being developed for the 5G base station in India at the 5G Test Bed.
• The 5G base station forms the radio access network that is a part of the 5G system.
• The base station is connected to the core network on one side of an IP network and the user equipment (cell phones) on the radio side.

(For more information, visit the official website)