The University of Liverpool’s project secures £9mn to tackle challenges of digital connectivity
Joe Spencer of The University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool’s project, has been awarded £9 million (€10.48 million) funding from department of science, innovation and technology. It aims to tackle challenge of poor digital connectivity in places where there is a high user demand such as busy railway stations, football matches or large concert venues. The Liverpool City Region High Demand Density (Liverpool City Region HDD) project aims to demonstrate benefits of open RAN (radio access network) technology to support large number of users accessing mobile and internet services in settings such as sports and music venues.
Open RAN is gaining worldwide interest as a way of enhancing connectivity infrastructure by enabling low-cost and unnoticed small cells to meet demands of high density areas. The Liverpool City Region HDD project will test open RAN technology in a simulated environment before trialling it at five test bed sites across region, including a mixture of indoor and outdoor sites with a variety of uses, to see if recent HDD network can safely and securely provide connectivity to high number of users in same environment.
Joe Spencer from University of Liverpool’s department of electrical engineering and electronics is managing the Liverpool City Region HDD project. “This is an innovative and ambitious project which aims to showcase open RAN technology can support agile and easily managed secure networks in and around Liverpool and demonstrate vastly enhanced connectivity in real-life high-density usage environments. Working with our project partners, we hope to demonstrate a new solution to address the issue of digital connectivity and exceed the performance of current and traditional technology solutions. This project will put Liverpool at the forefront of open RAN technology development and demonstration and we hope the outputs from this project can be adopted in the UK and overseas.” says Spencer.
“Since I was elected mayor, I’ve been on a mission to make our region the most digitally connected anywhere in the country. Building on our record of innovation, I’m really glad that we are playing a role in this pioneering project that will help to place us, once again, at the cutting edge of digital connectivity. Alongside the work I’m doing, such as LCR Connect, our half-publicly owned gigabit capable network, we’re creating what I hope will be a better-connected future where no one is left behind.” says Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region.
“Whether you’re in a busy city centre or a rural village, a fast and reliable mobile connection is vital to staying in touch, accessing services and doing business. In order to secure that, we need to embrace a diverse and secure range of technology that will underpin the network. The projects we’re backing today with £88 million (€102.48 million) in Government research and development investment will use innovative open RAN solutions to make our mobile networks more adaptable and resilient, with future-proofed technology to support bringing lightning-fast connections across the country for many years to come.” says John Whittingdale, minister for data and digital infrastructure.
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