IIT-Delhi to establish lab to develop 5G equipment

To establish India as a key global player in standardisation, R&D and manufacturing of 5G equipment, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi is opening a Massive Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) lab on the campus.

IIT-Delhi said the lab will be the first of its kind in the country and has been set-up at the Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management.

Saif Khan Mohammed from the Electrical Engineering Department said, “This 5G base station prototype will be used to test and verify algorithms, and also to develop a complete 5G base station, which can possibly lead to manufacturing of 5G base stations in India with support/ collaboration from industry. It will also be instrumental in generating skilled manpower in this technology”.

5G technologies

Institute Director Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, who is a member of the high-level forum for 5G India 2020, said IIT-Delhi was committed to contributing towards national goals for establishing India as a major player in 5G technologies.

Explaining the underlying science behind the Massive MIMO lab and its advantages, Prof. Saif said, “In Massive MIMO, several antennas are deployed at the base station as compared to only a few antennas in 3G/4G. This large antenna array at the base station allows the network to communicate reliably with a very large number of mobile terminals simultaneously at the same time and on the same frequency channel.”

He added that the large antenna array also improves system power efficiency as mobile terminals will now be required to radiate 10 times lesser power than in 3G/4G systems.