UK and India join forces to shape the future of telecoms
By: Computing Science
Revolutionary UK-India research initiative, led by University of East Anglia, secures £1.1m to drive 6G, AI-enabled networks, and satellite connectivity.
The UK and India are teaming up in a landmark £1.1 million project to revolutionise the future of telecoms.
With demand for ultra-fast, secure, and scalable networks at an all-time high, the UK-India Future Networks Initiative (UKI-FNI) will drive cutting-edge research into next-generation telecoms, exploring innovations in the supply chain for hardware and software systems that provide access, connectivity and services for future telecoms networks.
Led by Prof Gerard Parr of the University of East Anglia (UEA), the initiative brings together leading researchers from University of Surrey, University of Southampton, University College London, and King’s College London, alongside key partners from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.
The UKI-FNI project, collaborating with scientists, policy makers and engineers in UK and India, will also develop a joint vision and research strategy for the future integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial telecoms networks, covering 6G, optical, sub-sea and satellite systems and their security management.
There are several technologies and services that are attracting media coverage on a weekly basis, namely the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) by companies and governments, building of large-scale data centres for data storage and cloud services and the importance of quantum computing and quantum security.
While these technologies have separate hardware and software requirements, they all share a common need in that they require connectivity to a high-performance telecoms network that is robust and fast enough to cope with increasing amounts of data at scale.
India is the world’s second-largest telecommunications market and the telecoms sector is strategically important to the UK.
In July 2024, the governments of UK and India announced the UK-India Technology Security Initiative (TSI), which states that “the UK and India will build a new and enhanced future telecoms partnership in order to collaborate on joint research on future telecoms, focused on Open RAN systems, testbed linkups, telecoms security, spectrum innovation, software and systems architecture”.
It is against this backdrop and our long-standing track-record of UK-India collaboration that UEA and partners have been awarded a project worth £1.124 million over the next four years.
Prof Gerard Parr, Chair in Telecommunications Engineering at UEA, is leading the project.
Partners include Regius Prof Rahim Tafazolli at the University of Surrey; Prof Lajos Hanzo at the University of Southampton; Prof Steve Hailes at University College London and Prof Toktam Mahmoodi from Kings College London.
Key partners in India are Prof Rajesh Sundaresan (Dean of the Division of Electrical, Electronics, and Computer Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore), Prof Subrat Kar and Prof Brejesh (both from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi).
The project is funded by UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), through the International Science Partnership fund, and forms part of a larger programme of collaboration in future telecoms with the Government of India Department of Science and Technology.
Maisie England, Head of Future Communications from EPSRC, said: “It is an exciting time for our future telecoms research.
“This international collaboration plays a key part in advancing our telecoms technologies of tomorrow. We look forward to seeing the outcomes of this important UK-India Future Networks Initiative.”
The project will encourage and support new interdisciplinary collaborations and connect researchers to the wider telecoms stakeholder community to capitalise on the UK’s and India’s internationally leading position in telecoms technologies.
The project will leverage the track record and partnerships that have been formed over many years and will forge new connections with India partners, to mutually strengthen advances in systems required for future 6G, optical, satellite telecoms integration.
India has an excellent research and innovation base in networking systems software and telecoms hardware and has the complex testbeds required for proving new technologies.
Indeed, under a previous £20 million EPSRC initiative led in the UK by Prof Parr (the India-UK Advanced Technology Centre), the team collaborated for more than 10 years with partners across India – an experience that will be leveraged in the UKI-FNI project.
Lead Investigator Prof Parr said: “I am absolutely delighted with the award of this grant from EPSRC.
“It is a testament to the long-standing track record our project team has between both countries and to our shared vision to contribute to the development of scalable, resilient and cost-efficient solutions for the integration of future telecoms systems and technologies that will enable areas such as future AI applications through network-enabled AI, streaming services, smart transportation and critical network infrastructure protection and recovery from damaging climate change events.
“Our team will also explore new opportunities to develop the important skills pipeline for future telecoms domain by working closely with both governments and the UK-India Telecoms industry to bring forward new initiatives to promote the exciting career opportunities in the sector.”
While the UK and India have different policies regarding telecoms security, regulation/standards and related legal and operational environments, there are also key areas of mutual importance.
These are primarily related to innovations in the technical and functional requirements of future networks, for example the equity of access to digital services, improved rural coverage and connectivity, reduction in the cost of network infrastructure component deployment, and cost-effective provision of secure digital services at scale to all citizens.
Alongside these drivers is the need to improve and sustain economic prosperity across all regions of both nations.
This is a challenge in the UK, but especially in India considering its geographical scale and its wider social and environmental challenges.
Prof Rajesh Sundaresan from IISc Bangalore said: “For the telecoms service providers there are important considerations in providing all these systems across regions and nations, including system performance, cyber security, energy efficiency, scalability and operational costs for maintenance and upgrades.
“By collaborating in this UK-India Future Networks Initiative (UKI-FNI) with our stakeholders from industry and government, we hope to develop our partnerships further as part of future initiatives.”
To find out more about the strategic partnership, as well as the work of the UKI-FNI, visit the website.
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