6G for the Department of Defense (DoD) is now officially being looked at with discerning eyes by the Pentagon.
Last year, the Department of Defense launched three new projects for its Innovative Beyond 5G Program, including creating a research and development hub for 6G technology.
The 6G for DoD project is called Open6G. It’s a collaborative initiative between industry and universities, designed to be a catalyst for 6G systems research on open radio access networks, or Open RAN.
The goal of Open6G is to be the DOD’s center for development, testing and integration of trusted enhancements, supporting an industry and federal government NextG ecosystem pursuing 6G technology goals.
The project, led by a $1.77 million award from IB5G, will focus on Open RAN research and open source implementation of 5G protocol stack features to support 5G applications.
Pursuant to a cooperative agreement with the Army Research Laboratory, Northeastern University’s Kostas Research Institute is managing the project, and the university’s Institute for Wireless Internet of Things will house the technical work of the initiative.
The Pentagon’s 6G project comes after several other government initiatives exploring 6G. In October 2021, a proposed bipartisan bill sought to establish a council and implement 6G broadband access in the U.S.
As it turns out, 6G technology has been in the crosshairs of the DoD for some time now. A December 2021 report highlighted the national security importance of 6G technology and its deployment, particularly keeping an eye toward China.
A Center for Strategic & International Studies panel ha also stressed that the policy framework, development and deployment of 6G should be a priority sooner rather than later in order to not fall behind other nations and to learn from 5G mistakes.
DoD has been investing in 5G for years, getting about $338 million for 5G and microelectronics in the fiscal year 2022. However, watchdog groups, such as the Government Accountability Office, have warned DoD about the challenges such an investment could engender. These include high infrastructure costs, implementation difficulties and cybersecurity problems.
Want to learn more? Tonex offers 6G for DoD, a 2-day course that covers the key 6G technologies. Participants will learn how the sixth-generation standard for wireless communications technologies is expected to support DoD 6G communication networks.
Attendees will examine the 6G Vision, 6G Roadmap, and 6G Technologies being touted for 6G. There’s also a thorough look at 6G Applications, Use Cases that are part of 6G journey.
Participants also learn how 6G technology is expected to be designed to meet the revolutionary needs of our society, integrated into the 5G network architecture and related wired and wireless communications systems.
For more information, questions, comments, contact us.