Weaver Labs, the Web3 startup democratising access to telecoms infrastructure, today announces that it is part of a University of Bristol-led consortium, granted nearly £12 million from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, to develop and industrialise technologies and solutions for future 6G mobile networks.
The project, Realising Enabling Architectures and Solutions for Open Networks (REASON) brings together an ecosystem representing the entire telecommunication R&D supply chain, including three major mobile network equipment vendors, Ericsson, Samsung and Nokia.
REASON will develop a roadmap for open 6G networks, which will set the framework for new developments across the entire technology stack. The project will provide novel solutions to effectively integrate multi-technology access networks and to advance their performance in line with the emerging 6G KPIs. New concepts will be proposed to support unprecedented network densification. Smart technologies will be developed that aim to use multi-technology access networks to extract sensing information and support 6G use cases.
In addition, advanced solutions for network-edge and network-wide automation will be developed leveraging state-of-the art artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. REASON aims to provide end-to-end service optimisation through cognitive orchestration tools to enable edge-to-edge and domain-domain functionalities for a wide range of use cases.
Maria Lema, Co-founder at Weaver Labs commented: “Weaver Labs is committed to breaking down silos in the telco sector and opening the marketplace back up to new owners of infrastructure – to achieve this it’s important to foster collaboration. With this in mind, we’re proud to be leading on the project’s cybersecurity strategy (which includes governance and risk assessment) and working with some of the world’s biggest telco vendors and institutions in order to drive real world impact.”
The grant is part of the government’s strategy to reduce the UK’s reliance on a small number of suppliers to build and maintain telecoms networks, and the funding will support the roll out of lightning-fast mobile connectivity by making it easier for more firms to enter the market.
Digital Secretary Michelle Donelan visited Bristol University’s Smart Internet Lab ahead of the announcement last week. She said: “The technology powering our phone and internet networks is evolving rapidly and with 6G on the horizon we must stay ahead of the curve.
“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.
“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 move will bolster the UK’s status as a global leader in telecoms research and follows Ericsson and Samsung’s recent decision to set up cutting-edge 6G research centres in the UK.
Project Partners:
University of Bristol
University of Strathclyde
King’s College London
Queens University Belfast
University of Southampton
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
