The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) and IIT, Mandi in collaboration with IIT, Jammu have signed an agreement for developing semiconductor chips of wideband spectrum sensor for dynamic spectrum access.

The agreement is signed under the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) scheme of the Department of Telecommunications, Government of India. This scheme, designed to fund Indian startups, academia, and R&D institutions, is a crucial enabler for designing, developing, and commercialising telecommunication products and solutions. It aims to enable affordable broadband and mobile services, playing a significant role in bridging the digital divide across India.

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The project aims to develop a reliable and implementation-friendly wideband spectrum sensing (WSS) algorithm to improve spectrum efficiency by leveraging spectrum holes to deliver broadband services in rural India. Spectrum sensing enables cognitive Radio users to adapt to the environment by detecting spectrum holes without causing interference to the primary network. This is a significant step towards developing indigenous state-of-the-art next-generation telecommunications technology, “Wideband Spectrum-Sensor ASIC-Chip for Enhancing the Spectrum Utilization”.

This project will focus on the design of communication algorithms which are hardware friendly for sensing the wideband spectrum (beyond 2 GHz of bandwidth) for detecting and utilising the under-utilised bands (or white spaces), thus enhancing the spectrum utilisation efficiency of any communication system. In addition, efficient hardware architectures of such spectrum sensors will be developed in this project that achieves short sensing time, high data-throughput and enhanced hardware efficiency. The initiative will provide a hardware solution capable of scanning over 2 GHz of spectrum with minimal sensing time, thereby boosting the throughput of cognitive radio networks.

Additionally, it will demonstrate a wideband cognitive radio module targeting the 6 GHz satellite band (5.925–7.125 GHz) for spectrum sensing and communication. These designs will be emulated in the field-programmable gate-array (FPGA) environment initially and subsequently an application-specific integrated-circuits (ASIC) semiconductor-chip will be taped out that will lead to achieving better spectrum efficiency. The project will also lead to creation of intellectual properties (IPs) for the wideband spectrum sensing technology which is the key component for the dynamic spectrum access.

The agreement was signed during a ceremony attended by the CEO, C-DOT, Dr Raj Kumar Upadhyay; Principal Investigator, IIT Mandi Dr Rahul Shrestha; Co-Investigator, IIT Jammu Dr Rohit B. Chaurasiya, and Directors of C-DOT – Dr Pankaj Kumar Dalela and Ms Shikha Srivastava.

Dr Upadhyay underscored the key role of indigenously designed & developed spectrum sensing technologies in meeting the specific requirements of our diverse country, reaffirming the commitment towards “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.