DOE Funds $6M to 5 Labs for Science Applications over 5G Networks

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today said it will provide $6 million in funding for five research and development projects to advance 5G wireless networking for science applications.  A list of awards is below.

The national laboratory-led projects will conduct research aimed at adapting the nation’s emerging fifth generation, or 5G, mobile network to the needs of science, with potential applications in areas including gathering climate and environment data and modeling wildfires. The 5G network is significantly faster than previous network generations and has the potential to improve connectivity across scientific infrastructure. Other potential applications include linking remote sensing instrumentation with supercomputing resources, facilitating the transport and management of huge volume of data generated by today’s scientific experiments.

“Telecommunication networks based on 5G technologies have the potential to transform how we design, build, operate, and optimize scientific facilities and experiments,” said Barbara Helland, Associate Director of Science for Advanced Scientific Computing Research. “Advanced wireless networks will make scientific facilities more mobile and agile, while creating a pathway to the development of new sensing instrumentation for the collection of data in remote, inaccessible locations.”

The projects will support high-risk, high-reward research aimed at reinventing the digital continuum, or the connections linking sensors, detectors, and more at the wireless edge to advanced high-performance computing and data centers.

Projects were chosen by competitive peer review under DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement, “5G Enabled Energy Innovation Advanced Wireless Networks for Science,” sponsored by the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) within DOE’s Office of Science.