Immediate Commercial Advantage to Military 5G Research
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Remote work and collaboration, the Internet of Things, multimedia, edge networks, and intelligent apps – all of these and more are dependent on network speed and scalability, achieved by the deployment of 5G technology. Now, commercial enterprises will probably enjoy the benefits of US military research on improving the signal quality and security of 5G.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded roughly $500,000 in “exploratory” funding to wireless startup MixComm to demonstrate whether silicon-based millimeter wave (mmWave) power amplifiers can economically boost radio signals so the Department of Defense (DoD) can leverage 5G wireless connectivity globally.
The company told breakingdefense.com that its radios amplify mmWave frequencies in a way that offers “tremendous bandwidth, capacity and low latency,” in part because mmWaves use higher frequencies than commonly used today.
For commercial enterprises whose digital transformation is largely dependent on high-performance networks, bandwidth and capacity breakthroughs can’t come soon enough.
The U.S. Air Force is eager to expand its use of 5G-enabled devices, but the military’s aerial branch is well aware that new technologies spawn new threats. To reduce its vulnerability as it integrates 5G-powered IoT devices into its network, the Air Force is collaborating with startups to develop IoT security solutions.
Commercial enterprises that may be deploying thousands of 5G-enabled IoT devices have a rooting interest in better (and automated) security. Not only does every device connected to a network represent a point of potential vulnerability, newer devices by definition are more likely to have undetected security flaws. Further, 5G networks are more vulnerable to cyberattacks than previous networks.
Whatever 5G solutions DARPA and the Air Force come up with in collaboration with their research partners, commercialization likely won’t be far behind, according to networkworld.com.
