Finnish project to speed up the transition from 5G to 6G
A consortium comprising nine companies and three research institutions aims to strengthen Finland’s competitiveness in radio technologies by accelerating the transition from 5G to 6G communications technology.
The RF Sampo project will use funding from Business Finland to develop breakthrough RF and antenna communications technologies.
The project will see Nokia, Flex, Bittium, Optenni, Keysight Technologies, SAAB, Senfit, Okmetic, ExcellAnt, University of Oulu, Aalto University and VTT, leveraging €14 million ($15.7 million) in funding to ensure the growth of the 5G ecosystem cycle.
The project will run under the theme Optimised Antenna Technology as part of Veturi programme, a research and innovation project initiated by the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy which aims to support the rollout of innovative solutions such as 5G to enhance digitalisation and business processes across multiple sectors including energy, mining and industries.
RF Sampo will focus on enhancing 5G infrastructure and devices, and how radio technologies can be optimised to improve access to frequency sprectrum by wireless businesses.
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The access to frequency spectrum needs to be efficient in regard to resources and energy use for network technologies to be commercially competitive and acceptable rapidly on the market, according to the statement.
The need to optimise communications technologies comes as the demand for secure, fast and resilient IoT networks is increasing owing to the rapid deployment of wireless devices and the rapid innovations linked to disruptive technologies.
The rapid development of disruptive technologies has resulted in the identification of new artificial intelligence and machine learning-based frequency bands such as mmWave and Tera-Hz frequencies, according to the statement.
The RF Sampo project will enhance future radio platform design by introducing a modelling concept supporting the design of complex wireless solutions and investigate new RF solutions for 5G and 6G including antenna structures, integrated circuits, RF related architectures and algorithms.
Saila Tammelin, industrial lead of the project from Nokia said: “Finland has a strong tradition in radio technologies which is in the core of wireless systems. RF Sampo targets strengthening Finland’s competitiveness in radio technologies while moving beyond industrial 5G and toward 6G.
“RF Sampo includes the development of radio subsystems, components, and algorithms. It also addresses the development of the ways of working that enable taking innovations into use faster, for example, by more efficient simulation and modelling methodologies. Solving challenges of more and more complex wireless systems calls for close R&D collaboration between companies and research organisations – to enlarge and renew the knowledge base and innovation capacity in Finland.”
Aarno Pärssinen, project coordinator and professor at the University of Oulu added: “This project focuses on the most relevant core technologies in the field and can take a deep dive into many relevant details for future communications and sensing as well as a high-level synthesis from technologies to products and future applications. Both system architecture modelling and underlying key technologies are absolutely needed to maintain the high quality and enable the wireless industry’s growth and research in the core industrial segment for Finland. I’m happy to see the vital ecosystem working together with key players from academia to industry.”
