AN INDIGENOUS TECH

NEW DELHI: With the launch of 5G services, India has become one of the first countries to deliver indigenous technology.

The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) has been working towards evolving an indigenous technology framework driven by synergistic collaboration amongst R&D, academia, industry, start-ups and other relevant stakeholders. This has resulted in development and production of globally-competitive, cost-effective and market-ready telecom technology systems for wider reach and deployment in diverse scenarios.

An innovative use-case of extending remote medical assistance to the citizens was demonstrated to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by making video calls to primary health centres atBhora Kalan village in Haryana and Matiana village in Himachal Pradesh using the wholly indigenous 5G NSA system and e-health solutions of startups. The Prime Minister launched the 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) Core, indigenously designed and developed by C-DOT, at its pavilion in India Mobile Congress (IMC), at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. End-to-end 5G call was demonstrated using C-DOT 5G NSA Core installed at BSNL Chandigarh and 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) developed in collaboration with Wisig Networks, VVDN Technologies and Radisys India.

“This is a true manifestation of the harmonious spirit of ‘Gati Shakti’ leading to the creation of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” PM Modi said. He pointed out that digital infrastructure plays a critical role in our society, with communication technologies helping to address social, environmental, and economic challenges all across the globe. At the launch event, PM Modi also spent time understanding the indigenous development of end-to-end 5G technology and different use cases of the service.

For consumers, 5G promises higher data speeds over 4G. At its peak, internet speeds on 5G could touch 10 Gbps, compared to the 100 Mbps peak of 4G. The technology offers latency as low as 1ms. For the unversed, latency is the time taken by the device to send packets of data and get a response. The shorter the latency, the quicker is the response.

C-DOT, at its booth at IMC 2022, staged a live demonstration of its diverse telecom products and solutions spanning a wide array of technologies including Optical Communication, Switching & Routing Systems, Wireless Communication – WiFi, 4G & 5G, Cyber Security, Quantum Communication, Network Management and a host of telecom software applications.

“The equipment that we are using now for 5G has never been used before. 2G, 3G, and 4G network in the country was always imported from outside,” said Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Union Minister of State for Information Technology. “It is an important milestone for India that the spectrum’s latest generation 5G network has been made available to the citizens with the equipment designed in India,” he added.

Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay, Executive Director & Chairman, C-DOT, pointed out that it was the launch of ‘Digital India’ by PM Modi in 2015 that inspired the Indian researchers. “Few expected India to develop its own technologies within such a short time,” he said. “But he inspired and motivated the young engineers and research community to usher in a new revolution by giving India a distinction amongst the top technology hubs in the world,” added Upadhyay. He reiterated C-DOT’s firm commitment to building an indigenous Telecom ecosystem powered by novel research, cutting-edge innovation and mutually-productive collaboration.