CEWiT research may get incorporated into the global standards of 4G

CHENNAI: India, one of the largest and fastest-growing telecom markets, has at last started finding its pride of place in the world of global wireless standards, thanks to a public-private initiative housed in IIT Madras.


A piece of research by the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology ( CEWiT) is expected to get incorporated into the global standards of the fourth generation ( 4G) mobile communication, or Long-Term Evolution ( LTE).

"CeWiT has done what was unthinkable in the past," says Ashok Jhunjhunwala, professor at the department of electrical engineering at IIT Madras. "Getting Indian IPR into standards is critical to building India's product industry."

This will be only the second time an Indian innovation makes it to the global wireless standards, after WiMAX patents from CEWiT.

The country has a long way to go in developing intellectual property in the telecom space. Experts say India needs to emulate China in creating enough patents to avoid paying royalties.

"We need to increase India's IPR into the standards so that net royalty flow-out from the nation becomes zero," Jhunjhunwala says. "CEWiT has shown the path of what can be done and how it can be done."

The organisation's LTE patent applications deal with techniques to reduce interference in networks when transmission towers, or cells, are close to one another.

This is a major challenge for 4G operators because in LTE networks many cells cater to small areas of high density. This allows operators to reuse the frequency within the jurisdiction of each cell. The smaller cells are necessary for efficient use of the spectrum, and they reduce power of transmission and improve quality of service. But too many of them close to each other cause interference.

This is where CEWiT comes into the picture. Its patent applications are for managing interference in networks that operate with smaller cells within a macro cell, often called heterogeneous networks or hetnets. Multiple techniques are required to reduce or manage this interference, and the CEWiT patents would provide some of them.

The patent applications have been filed three years ago in Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)-a multi-country treaty to reduce repeated filings-but are yet to be granted in any country.

CEWiT is a public-private partnership between the Department of Information Technology and Indian telecom industry. Set up in 2005, its research focus is on broadband wireless technologies. It aims to capitalise on the LTE-4G revolution and is working towards standards in this domain.

The centre has applied for 25 Indian patents and 15 patents in other countries. Of the 15 overseas patent applications, two have been granted and nine have got into global WiMAX standards.

Currently, the firm is working on small cell solutions and building solutions for cellular coverage within buildings. "We want to focus more on LTE release 12. We are also working on solution to bring down radiation levels," said Klutto Milleth, chief technologist at CEWiT.