Technology Platgorm

Enabling 6G network technology.

Using 6G network technology could improve both low-power technologies for communication and machine learning analytics for preservation.
IMDEA Networks has recently been awarded the coordinated project ENABLE-6G of the national call UNICO 5G. The project consists of two sub-projects, RISC-6G and MAP-6G, and it will be developed by a group of researchers collaboratively led by Dr Domenico Giustiniano and Dr Joerg Widmer. This grant will allow the Institute to continue with pioneering research in the field of networks and contribute to the development of the next generation of 6G technology.

6G network technology
Future 6G networks are estimated to go far beyond the capabilities of 5G network technology, involving a vast number of connected devices, significantly higher performance requirements, and support for detailed object and environment sensing in addition to communication. As a result of this, 6G networks will need to embrace new capabilities.

RISC-6G sub-project
The RISC-6G sub-project will address this problem by aiming to improve wireless communication, provide environmental sensing, and significantly lower the per-device energy footprint to avoid a huge increase in overall network power consumption.

Two key technologies will be explored to achieve these ambitious objectives, namely low-power visible light communication (using LED lights to transmit data across the visible spectrum), and reconfigurable intelligence surfaces (retrofitting surface on walls with communication capabilities).

“Integration of intelligent reflective surfaces (RIS) will improve network capacity and more import resilience to link disruption, thus improving mobile services on which citizens and industry rely,” explained Joerg Widmer, PI of one of these projects. “At the same time, the improvement in wireless sensing made possible through RISs will enable entirely new services, for example in remote healthcare and environment monitoring.”

Discussing Australia’s growing battery industry.

Dr Rosalind Gummow, Dr Adam Best, and Neeraj Sharma, Directors of the Australian Battery Society, explore the global opportunity of Australia’s growing battery industry and its role in the battery revolution.
Australian companies and innovations are readily found in the battery space. For example, Professor Maria Skyllas-Kazacos’ development of the vanadium redox flow battery at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO) development of the Ultrabattery, and companies such as Cap-XX (supercapacitors), Redflow (Zn-Br flow), and Tritium (chargers) have started up in Australia and are growing.

Australia is one of a few countries in the world that currently mines or is about to mine all the raw materials required to produce lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The country is the largest producer of lithium ore for the battery industry and has significant reserves of iron, cobalt, nickel, aluminium, and copper. This builds on a rich history of mining and raw material production in Australia, representing one of our largest sectors offering employment to many Australians. At the other end of the battery value chain, Australian expertise in battery management systems and battery pack design feeds into several companies that are assembling battery packs locally for specific applications in the Australian environment (Energy Renaissance and Redback, for example). Currently, these manufacturers are using imported cells for their designs due to a current lack of local cell production.

With the uptake in LIBs, raw material processing, electrode manufacture, and cell production are becoming key opportunities for Australian miners, businesses, and the government. There is ample opportunity to value-add onshore, whether it be a more purified or tailored starting material (e.g., spheriodised graphite) for upstream electrode or battery manufacturers or the development of electrodes and battery manufacturing facilities. There are companies engaged across the development spectrum and various government initiatives that help grow mining, processing, and manufacturing capabilities. For example, moving up the value chain, VSPC, a subsidiary of Lithium Australia, has an established pilot plant to manufacture LiFePO4 (LFP) cathode powders and plans for commercial production of 10,000 tpa of LFP by 2025.

The Australian advantage stems from a stable government and a clear structure and approach for carrying out business. The rules and regulations are in place, and businesses need only to abide by them to conduct their work. Furthermore, there is a highly-skilled workforce, and the advantages of onsite, in-country processing are starting to outweigh gains from processing offshore. The notion of a wholly Australian made battery, with any chemistry, from ores to cell might not be too far off and something that we aspire to.

This is part of the vision of the not-for-profit Australian Battery Society, to bring researchers, industry across the battery value chain, and government together to grow the Australian battery industry. In the case of LIBs, we believe we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something for the betterment of the world – produce safe and reliable batteries that minimise damage to the environment.