WASHINGTON – Today, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded nearly $80 million in the third round of grants from the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund’s first Notice of Funding Opportunity. This round includes the first awards in the Testing & Evaluation (T&E) category, designed to expand industry-accepted T&E activities, making testing more accessible to the entire wireless ecosystem.
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.
“As part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, the research and innovation supported by the Wireless Innovation Fund will bolster America’s global technology leadership,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “The awards today will help stand up new facilities to usher in new wireless networks, ultimately leading to more jobs and lower costs for Americans.”
By investing in open, interoperable networks, NTIA is laying the foundation for a stronger, more secure and more resilient telecommunications supply chain. The transition to open networks will enable the U.S. and its global partners to lead the next generation of wireless innovation.
What They're Saying
A diverse group of stakeholders have offered their support for these awards. Click below to read their statements.
“The Wireless Innovation Fund’s historic investments will lay a foundation for the next generation of wireless technology to be built by the U.S. and its global partners,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. “The new facilities we fund with this round of grants will help move open technologies from the lab to the field.”
This third round of funding will support building new testing and evaluation facilities, and additional research and development efforts. The testing and evaluation facilities will make industry-standard testing more accessible to new market players – both in the U.S. and in partner nations – and encourage greater collaboration across different industries. The research and development projects focus on advancing cybersecurity, automation, energy efficiency and improved testing.
The funding totals $79,652,945 and was awarded to six projects across five states. So far, NTIA has awarded more than $98 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 $140.5 million in grants available on a rolling basis from the first Notice of Funding Opportunity.
DISH Wireless
Applicant |
Award Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Title and Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| DISH Wireless | T&E Facility |
$50,000,000 |
Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID): DISH Wireless will collaborate with Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc., Mavenir Systems, Inc., and VMWare, Inc. to create the Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment (ORCID). The Center is further supported by technology partners Analog Devices, ARM, Cisco, Dell, Intel, JMA, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Samsung. ORCID will serve as a “living laboratory” that combines both lab and field testing activities. |
VIAVI Solutions
Applicant |
Award Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Title and Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| VIAVI Solutions | T&E Facility |
$21,714,112 |
VIAVI Automated Lab-as-a-Service for Open RAN (VALOR): VIAVI Solutions, Inc, proposes to establish a hybrid physical lab infrastructure and cloud-based testing lab-as-a-service (LaaS) or VALOR. VALOR aims to create a fully automated, cooperative, open and impartial testing-as-a-service (TaaS) offering that is dedicated to Open RAN interoperability, performance and security. |
Virginia Tech
Applicant |
Award Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Title and Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia Tech | Security/Cybersecurity |
$2,000,000 |
A Holistic Cybersecurity Testing Framework for 5G Radio Access Networks: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University proposes to develop a novel and comprehensive cybersecurity testing framework and demonstrate its effectiveness using 5G O-RAN Proof-of-Concept (PoC) testbeds. |
Cirrus360
Applicant |
Award Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Title and Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cirrus360 | Improved Testing Methods – Network Functions |
$1,999,140 |
A Digital Twin Approach to Testing Multi-Vendor Open RAN Solutions: Cirrus360 proposes to develop a new test method that uses a digital twin of integrated RAN components to model their implementation. Cirrus360 will assess these network components against automated test cases meant to simulate system failure. The digital twin model can predict potential implementation issues and offer suggestions for corrections. |
Northeastern University
Applicant |
Award Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Title and Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northeastern University | Automation |
$1,996,592 |
AutoRAN: Automated End-to-End Continuous Testing for Open and Disaggregated Cellular Systems: Northeastern University aims to develop and operationalize AutoRAN, a new testing methodology based on a collection of automated and continuous software pipelines designed to automatically test disaggregated Radio Access Network (RAN) components. |
Rice University
Applicant |
Award Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Title and Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rice University | Energy Efficiency |
$1,943,101 |
ETHOS: A Multidimensional Approach to Testing Stability, Energy Efficiency, and Performance in Machine Learning-Enabled 5G Radio Access Networks: The proposed research will develop the ETHOS testing framework. This framework will examine communication performance along with the impact that the computing environment and machine learning domain have on RAN software performance. |
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About the National Telecommunications and Information Administration
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is the Executive Branch agency that advises the President on telecommunications and information policy issues. NTIA’s programs and policymaking focus largely on expanding broadband Internet access and adoption in America, expanding the use of spectrum by all users, advancing public safety communications, and ensuring that the Internet remains an engine for innovation and economic growth.