The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded more than $117 million in the second batch of grants from the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund’s second Notice of Funding Opportunity. The $1.5 Billion Wireless Innovation Fund supports the development of open and interoperable wireless networks. Open and interoperable wireless equipment will help drive competition, strengthen global supply chain resilience, and lower costs for consumers and network operators.
“Wireless innovation is a major driver for U.S. competition,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “The Biden-Harris Administration’s investments in open and interoperable wireless networks will help secure global leadership and increase competition in the wireless market.”
This batch of awards will support projects focused on open radio unit innovation and commercialization. Applicants were required to partner with a mobile network operator to help produce products that would be commercially viable.
“Our awards today are tackling a major wireless network expense head-on with support to bring more open radio units to market,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. “These projects will shore up the hardware supply chain and create new opportunities for companies from the U.S. and its allies along the way.”
The funding totals $117,369,604 and was awarded to nine projects. So far, NTIA has awarded more than $530 million from the Wireless Innovation Fund.
Funded by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, the Innovation Fund will invest $1.5 billion over the next decade to support the development of open and interoperable networks. NTIA will make up to $420 million in grants available on a rolling basis from the second Notice of Funding Opportunity.
Applicant | Funding Amount | Project Title and Description |
Airspan Networks Inc. | $42,729,740 | Highly Efficient 4G/5G O-RU Extensible Platform: This project seeks to build a platform that will integrate the latest advanced radio unit features to maximize power efficiency. |
Analog Devices, Inc. | $9,979,097 | Rakino Direct RF Radio Platform: Analog Devices intends to integrate their Rakino Baseline Chip with multiple interface variants. |
DeepSig Inc. | $9,998,638 | AI-Enabled O-RU Spectrum Awareness: This project will fill a critical gap in the application of AI/ML techniques which will improve the ability to use Open Radio Units for spectrum sensing to support future spectrum-sharing capabilities. |
EpiSys Science, Inc. | $8,168,674 | Sidelink + ULPI: Unlocking O-RAN for 6G: This project will develop, demonstrate and evaluate the performance of a software-defined radio system that integrates 3GPP Sidelink with a 7.2b Open RAN split that supports Uplink Performance Improvement splits. |
New York University | $9,960,960 | Spectrally Agile and Scalable Open Radio Units for the Upper Mid-Band: This project will advance the rapid growth and deployment of massive multiple input, multiple output Open Radio Units into current and future networks. |
Otava Inc. | $9,974,504 | Advancing RF Component Design for New FR3 Spectrum: This project will accelerate the deployment of commercial radios for the important frequency range from 7.125 GHz to 24.25 GHz. |
Rampart Communications, Inc. | $9,971,458 | ASPEN - Advanced Signal Processing Enhancement for Next-Generation Open Radio Units: Rampart will partner with Virginia Tech to create a novel 6G physical layer technology for mobile wireless network providers to leverage. |
SecureG, Inc. | $6,468,420 | Unlocking O-RU Adoption and Growth with Supply Chain Traceability (SCT) Registry Platform: This project will develop a high-fidelity Proof of Concept that demonstrates the feasibility and measurable impacts of Public Key Infrastructure on Open Radio Unit security compliance and interoperability. |
Skylark Wireless | $10,118,112 | ArMORED: Architecture for Massive-MIMO Open RAN Energy-efficient Devices: This project aims to integrate and scale a wholly new Software-Defined Radio transceiver architecture within a 5G new radio massive multiple input, multiple output system prototype. |
