VIAVI 6G Forward Program to support academic and industry research worldwide

The program is designed to provide vital expertise, technology, and funding to promising avenues of research, which may lead to breakthroughs for the next generation of wireless technology.

Viavi Solutions, provider of network test, monitoring and assurance solutions for communications service providers, enterprises, network equipment manufacturers, government and avionics, today announced that it is supporting 6G academic and industry research worldwide through its new 6G Forward program.

The program is designed to provide vital expertise, technology, and funding to promising avenues of research, which may lead to breakthroughs for the next generation of wireless technology. According to the company, it has already supported three universities, Northeastern University and the University of Texas at Austin in the US and the University of Surrey in the UK.

According to VIAVI, at Northeastern University,it is supporting the Institute for Wireless Internet of Things and the Open6G cooperative research center led by Professor Tommaso Melodia. The group is exploring large-scale RF propagation channel modeling based on AI and ML technologies to develop a city-scale digital twin of a 6G network. The team is also developing a RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC)-enabled Massive MIMO beam-forming optimization test bed using the Colosseum 256-port RF channel emulator and the VIAVI E500 UE Emulator.

At the University of Texas at Austin, it supports 6G@UT, led by Professor Jeff Andrews, within the Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG). The key topic of the joint research is applying end-to-end machine learning, specifically deep reinforcement learning (DRL), using adversarial conditions to re-train more robust cellular traffic forecasters. “6G@UT is imagining the future of wireless connectivity at the intersection of immersive sensing and machine learning,” said Professor Andrews.

And at the University of Surrey in the UK, VIAVI is a founding member of the 5G/6G Innovation Centre led by Regius Professor Rahim Tafazolli FREng. The Innovation Centre addresses advanced communication systems and the key challenges in the development of a 5G, 5G+ and 6G infrastructure for providing connectivity for future technologies. Key research areas include: Antennas and signal processing; Artificial intelligence for wireless communications; Intelligent and high-performance networking and service delivery; Intelligent RAN technology and management; Mobile network security; New physical layer; Satellite communications; THz components and communications all under future Integrated communication and sensing.

“At the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things, we envision a future in which people and their environment are connected by a continuum of AI-powered devices and networks,” said Professor Melodia. “6G research initiatives require collaboration between academia and industry, and the technology, expertise and funding provided by VIAVI are critical to our contributions to making wireless communications exponentially faster, smarter, more energy efficient, and more secure.”

“Academic institutions play a vital role in exploring the potential of 6G,” said Dr. Ian Wong, CTO Office, VIAVI. “We believe it is important to get involved now and to allow disruptive and productive areas of research to see their ideas come to fruition ahead of formal standards definitions. We have had fascinating and beneficial exchanges with our academic partners and we hope to expand the scale of the program in the future.”

VIAVI further mentioned that is also involved with several other 6G-focused initiatives globally, including:

• The Next G Alliance- an ATIS-led industry initiative focused on advancing North American mobile technology leadership in 6G and beyond over the next decade.

• 6G BRAINS- which is developing AI-driven multi-agent Deep Reinforcement learning (DRL) to perform resource allocation in 6G networks for Industry 4.0, intelligent transportation, e-health and other applications. Supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020 Programme, 6G Brains initiatives include providing network operators with new options for using and combining sub-6 GHz, mmWave and THz spectrum, as well as optical wireless communications.

• The Beyond 5G Promotion Consortium- a forum for industry, academia and government in Japan to share information about research and development in areas such as integrating cyberspace with the real world, known as Society 5.0.