Open Call: SONIC Labs -Technology Access Programme (UK)

This programme is funded by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and aims to facilitate experimentation, unlock innovation and help accelerate the adoption of Open RAN technology in the UK industry.

Participating companies in this programme will build solutions to accelerate the diversification and adoption of Open RAN products in the UK market and carry out their own research to develop and implement solutions and algorithms relevant to address the two Open RAN energy efficiencies challenges presented under the following two Themes:

• Theme 1: RIC enabled Advanced Sleep Modes
  • The goal of this theme is to optimise the sleep mode patterns of the RAN through the utilisation of xApps and rApps. These applications receive real-time usage and load patterns from O-RAN network nodes through RIC, a platform that allows different software applications to work together with the radio network. xApps and rApps can use AI and ML techniques to evaluate, diagnose, and learn to improve the performance and resource utilisation of the radio network.
  • In Theme 1, the testing will involve three sleep modes with different transition times:
    • Micro sleep power state with instantaneous (i.e. per symbol basis) transition time
    • Light sleep power state with transition times between 6 ms and 640 ms
    • Deep sleep power state with transition times between 50 ms to 10 sec
  • Participants will be provided with the opportunity to upskill application developers with highly transferable expertise to start or expand new value propositions in telecom and provide UK MNOs and private network providers with a pipeline of innovative and competitive suppliers and products to choose from.
  • Participating companies will receive a contribution of £30,000 per startup/SME developing xApp/rApp solutions on the programme.
• Theme 2: Optimising CU/DU Power utilisation of server CPU cores
  • UK operating companies participating under Theme 2 will be expected to provide, deploy and integrate O-CU/O-DU software solutions within an energy monitoring and optimisation test platform. The goal of this theme is to optimise O-DU and O-CU solutions for providing energy-efficient solutions to the MNOs and private network provider community.
  • Participating companies will explore innovative solutions and optimise their products’ energy consumption using standardised testing methodologies. During this programme, Digital Catapult will provide access to an energy consumption monitoring test platform. Companies will be expected to deploy O-DU and O-CU software on a Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) server and integrated with an O-RU and Core network simulator and a Power Analyser.
  • Participating companies offering either an O-DU and/or O-CU with a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7-9 will receive a contribution of £20,000 on the programme.

Benefits

Successful applicants will:

• Receive development support through education, training and workshops
• Have access to Digital Catapult’s commercially-neutral, multi-tenancy open network testbed
• Be exposed to potential clients and key players of the Open RAN ecosystem
• Have the opportunity to share learnings and collaborate with other innovators on key Open RAN challenges
• Have the opportunity to continuously engage with the programme
• Have regular sessions with your leadership team
• Networking events, roundtables and introductions to Programme Industry Partners
• Become part of the TAP Alumni upon successful completion of the programme
• Have access to additional commercialisation support through a bespoke support stream

Who should apply?

• This programme is designed for UK operating startups, SMEs, and companies who want to demonstrate that they have developed a viable energy efficiency product for their business and the industry. If you have taken part in a previous SONIC Labs programme, you are eligible to apply again as long as you meet the relevant criteria highlighted below.
  • Theme 1: RIC enabled Advanced Sleep Modes
    • Theme 1 is accepting applications from UK startups/scaleups, SMEs, Academics and software developers who work in the following industries but are not limited to:
      • Telecoms
      • Academia
      • Gaming
      • Information Technology and services
      • Computer software
      • Industrial automation
      • Computer hardware
      • CPU semiconductors
      • Energy
      • Automotive
  • They are looking for participants who:
    • Are interested in developing xApps and rApps applications that can be run on a RIC platform
    • Able to deliver innovative RIC applications that help to reduce energy consumption for Open RAN deployments
    • Are keen to explore and advance learnings on requirements that will assist MNOs and private network providers to minimise energy cost operating expenditure
    • Are interested in realising the business benefits of Open RAN in their own business and have already started to explore the area
    • Can demonstrate their interests and practices towards sustainable solutions for their business/industry and will be able to show they will benefit from the Programme.
    • Want to upskill application developers with highly transferable expertise to start or expand new value propositions in telecom
  • Theme 2: Optimising CU/DU Power utilisation of server CPU cores
    • Theme 2 is accepting applications from UK operating companies, that:
      • Can provide, deploy and integrate O-CU/O-DU software solutions within an energy monitoring and optimisation test platform
      • Will enable optimising Open RAN network solutions, that will benefit the MNO and private network provider community
      • Are interested in benchmarking and improving the energy consumption for Open RAN components (O-DU and O-CU)
      • Can explore learnings that will assist MNOs and private network providers to reduce operating expenses related to energy costs
      • Are able to provide software for O-DU and O-CU and inclined towards optimising the energy consumption of their products
      • Can display a genuine interest in realising sustainable solutions
      • Can show how they will benefit from TAP in the future for the O-RAN industry

Requirements

• All applicants must have adequate technical resources to engage in development, integration, testing, and porting processes, as well as other resources for participation in knowledge-sharing and dissemination activities. Additionally, applicants must have a UK business bank account for payments, be a UK operating company, or prove they are a company that has an establishment in the UK and conducts all activities within the UK. Applicants must not be considered high-risk vendors.
  • Theme 1: RIC enabled Advanced Sleep Modes
    • The minimum requirements needed from Theme 1 participants are as follows:
      • Aim to prove out with emulated CU/DU/RU if supported by vendors otherwise shall be proven with RIC tester which shall simulate CU/DU/RU/UE/Core
      • Participants are expected to develop/enhance xApps/rApps during TAP
      • Preferably have prior experience in developing AI-driven applications that can be used for optimising wireless networks
      • Interested in exploring innovative solutions and integrating their solutions in disaggregated Open RAN systems
      • Must be able to demonstrate that they have developed a viable energy efficiency product for their business/industry and will be able to show how they will benefit from the Programme
      • Able to demonstrate they have the technical capabilities to develop an xApp/rApp for an end-user
  • Theme 2: Optimising CU/DU Power utilisation of server CPU cores
    • The minimum requirements needed from Theme 2 participants are as follows:
      • Provide support to integrate the O-DU and O-CU with the O-RU and Core Simulator in the Energy consumption monitoring and test platform
      • Utilise UE/RU Emulator with built-in channel emulation to generate ETSI traffic profiles for low, medium, and busy-hour levels
      • Provide support for benchmarking Energy Consumption of the O-DU/O-CU under established and repeatable traffic conditions
      • Provide support for Optimising energy-saving gains based on the characterisation tests using variations in the Uncore Frequency Scaling technique, Voltage-Frequency control states (P-state), Traffic profiles and C-State.

For more information, visit Digital Catapult.