C-DOT, IIT Mandi join hands to develop chip for spectrum efficiency

New Delhi, Jan 13: The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) on Monday said it has signed an agreement with the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (IIT Mandi) -- in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology Jammu (IIT Jammu) -- for the development of “Wideband Spectrum-Sensor ASIC-Chip for Enhancing the Spectrum Utilisation”.

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.

Dr Raj Kumar Upadhyay, CEO, C-DOT underscored the key role of indigenously designed and developed spectrum sensing technologies in meeting the specific requirements of our diverse country, reaffirming the commitment towards “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.

Spectrum sensing enables cognitive radio users to adapt to the environment by detecting spectrum holes without causing interference to the primary network, according to a Ministry of Communications statement.

The agreement is signed under the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) scheme of the Department of Telecommunications. The scheme is designed to fund Indian startups, academia and R&D institutions and aims to enable affordable broadband and mobile services, playing a significant role in bridging the digital divide across the country.

The 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 utilization 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.

According to the government, 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.