Aledade made a bold claim last week: that its value-based care network has helped save the U.S. healthcare systemsave more than $1.2 billionover the past eight years.
Bethesda, Maryland-based Aledade partners with more than 1,000 independent primary care practices, including more than 140 federally-qualified health centers, across 36 states and Washington, D.C. The company works with a variety of payers, including Medicare, Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and commercial insurance companies.
More than 65% of practices in Aledade’s network are located in areas that have been federally designated as having a shortage of primary care health professionals. In theMedicare Shared Saving Program (MSSP)specifically, practices in Aledade’s networks serve more than twice the average of patients living in low-income communities.
Aledade said that in 2021, it helped the traditional Medicare program alone save more than $390 million through its network ofaccountable care organizationin MSSP — with four of the top 10 performing accountable care organizations in MSSP for per-beneficiary savings being a part of its network.PMA Enhanced, an accountable care organization in Pennsylavnia that works with Aledade, was the top performing MSSP accountable care organization in the U.S. last year.
Dr. Lee Fleischer, a primary care physician at PMA Enhanced, testified that being a part of Aledade’s network was a decision that has yielded significant shared savings that have led to better care outcomes.
Partnering with Aledade allowed Dr. Fleischer’s practice to focus more on avoiding unnecessary hospitalization and re-hospitalization for patients, he said.
“If somebody went to the emergency room or was hospitalized, a lot of data shows that the post-hospital follow up is extremely critical for better patient care as well as for shared savings,” he said. “Being able to invest in that was huge for us, and I think a tremendous benefit to the patients. We avoided a ton of hospital readmissions over the last five years because of it.”
Using Aledade’s population health technology, PMA Enhanced reached out to 98% of recently hospitalized patients last year. The practice conducted medical visits with 50% of those patients within 14 days of discharge, which led to a 9% readmission rate, compared to the average readmission rate of 15.4% across MSSP.
Instead of feeling like he’s on a hamster wheel and needs to conduct an endless slew back-to-back 10-minute patient visits to generate enough income, Dr. Fleischer said partnering with Aledade allowed his practice to focus more on individual patients and keeping them healthy.
Mat Kendall, president of Aledade, said that he often hears this kind of feedback from accountable care organizations in the company’s network.
“I think our program allows our doctors to invest in their practices and allows them to give bonuses to their staff, and it allows them to expand their services so they can help more patients,” Kendall said in an interview. “So it really is a virtuous cycle.”
Nine out of every 10 practices in Aledade’s network will receive a shared savings check this year, and those checks will total more than $117 million, according to the company. Aledade said that on average, member practices earned shared savings payments equal to more than 20% of their annual Medicare fee-for-service revenue.
Things were tough enough for Nelly Munyasia, the executive director of Kenya’s Reproductive Health Network. Then came a surge of hateful propaganda targeting her and others working in reproductive health.
Munyasia says that as she saw her face appear on social media posts calling her a killer, she and her fellow targets were able to identify the strange driving force behind this sudden tide of hostility.
CitizenGO is an online community that claims to “promote life, family, and liberty.” It is also the main online outlet for an unlikely coalition of the U.S. Christian right, militant European Catholics, Russian orthodox hardliners and even sanctioned oligarchs, all working in a concerted campaign to undermine reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights around the world.
“CitizenGO led on petitions, especially on the organisations that worked on sexual and reproductive health,” Munyasia said. “They led petitions to [target] activists that supported the abortion agenda, that supported LGBTQ rights and comprehensive sexual health education.”
Even as relations between Russia and the global West grow ever-more sour, this unlikely alliance of religious rightwingers — from Moscow to Madrid to Washington D.C — is accused of mounting a campaign of massive misinformation and intimidation that amounts to “transnational opposition to reproductive rights across the globe.”
An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and evidence collected by the data science company Signify shows how the network mixed digital campaigns, political lobbying and protests on the ground to fight against reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights in Kenya and Ghana. It claimed victory when legislation to extend access to abortion in Kenya was blocked, and played a key role in pushing a bill in Ghana that would impose lengthy prison sentences for LGBTQ+ people.
Munyasia said that she and her colleagues had been directly targeted by CitzenGO online. “We have seen CitizenGO troll us on social media … my photo being shown on social media as a killer, being called names, being called organisations that are funded by the whites, advancing the white agenda.” She added: “We have a hotline that we use for women and girls to call in when they need services, and they’ve called in to even threaten on these lines.”
From Russia with Hate
Attempts by the US Christian right to export anti-reproductive health and abortion beliefs globally are well documented. But, unusually, CitizenGO incorporates an activist element of Russian Orthodox adherents with close ties to sanctioned oligarchs.
The group was founded in 2013 by Ignacio Arsuaga, a far-right Madrid lawyer. He had previously established HazteOir to promote a hardline Christian agenda in Spain, but CitizenGO was built for a global crusade.
The organisation’s key link to Russian oligarchs is Alexey Komov, who has served as a board member and is a leading campaigner against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights in Russia. He has made no secret of his aims, or where his support comes from.
In a 2019 interview with the U.S.-based conAn unlikely alliance of the U.S. Christian right, militant European Catholics, and even sanctioned Russian oligarchs are working to undermine reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights around the world servative YouTuber Steve Turley, a well-turned out and self-assured Komov described his global ambitions: “Russia should become the prime defender of faith of conservatives of the world.” He went on: “It took me several years, and I really got support of large foundations, sponsored by large entrepreneurs like Mr. Yakunin and Mr. Malofeev … You wouldn’t believe, we have hundreds of American conservative leaders coming in the Kremlin like dear guests.
“Mr Malofeev” is Konstantin Malofeev, a banker and media baron who was sanctioned by the EU, U.S. and Canada in 2014 for funding separatists in Ukraine and was recently indicted by the US for conspiring with an American citizen to transfer a $10 million investment that Malofeyev made in a U.S. bank to a business associate in Greece and hiring the American to work on his TV network. Komov is regularly described as Malofeev’s right-hand man or aide, and has worked for the oligarch’s charity, the St. Basil the Great Foundation. “Mr. Yakunin” is Vladimir Yakunin, another sanctioned oligarch heavily involved in hardline Christian foundations.
Komov was listed as one of CitizenGO’s board members until March this year, but was removed from the website shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His bragging about wealthy supporters undermines CitizenGO’s claims that its roughly $5 million in annual income entirely by donations from the public, as does evidence dating back to its founding that suggest financial ties via Komov to Russian oligarchs.
Ignacio Arsuaga, President of ‘Hazte Oir’ posing during a protest at the entrance of the Popular Party summit to demand Pablo Casado the elimination of what they call ‘ideological laws of the left’ such us abortion law, gender violence law, historical memory law and LGTBI. January 18th, 2019. Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket/Getty Images
A hack of 17,000 documents relating to CitizenGo and Hazte Oir, published by Wikileaks and outlets in Europe and Mexico in 2021, shows how Arsuaga courted Christian fundamentalists on both sides of the great schism. In a letter from 2013 when he was setting up CitizenGO, Arsuaga asked Malofeev for €100,000 in seed funding to add to the €170,000 he had already raised. That same year he asked Brian Brown, a prominent American Catholic campaigner, if his ActRight conservative organising and fundraising platform would provide $50,000 per year to CitizenGO.
Targeting people all over the world?
Without a trace of irony, CitizenGO declares itself a network of citizens “stopping radical lobbies from imposing their agenda on society.” The policies it supports, however, are extreme – advocating increasingly strict restrictions on abortions, for example, and declaring that “tens of millions of children are slaughtered in the womb each year.”
“When you look at CitizenGO, we are talking about transnational opposition to reproductive rights across the globe,” said Martin Onyango, the associate director for legal strategies for Africa at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
“It is disinformation and misinformation and very outrageous misinformation based on no facts,” he added, pointing to false claims that abortion is murder and that Kenyan sexual health education was designed to encourage children to have sex. “That then drives emotions that trigger stigma, hate and dislike for reproductive health in the region.”
Kenya, along with Ghana, has proved a particular focus for the organisation. Of the 52 petitions analysed by the Bureau on the CitizenGo Website concerning African nations, 34 were aimed at Ghana and Kenya. There were 15 anti-abortion petitions, four of which specifically targeted abortion providers such as the international reproductive health charity Marie Stopes.
“They’re clear on what they want to do: get people to hate the subject, and basically then find a fertile ground to stretch the stigma and spread the dislike,” said Onyango, adding that “intimidation of public officials has been a key tactic CitizenGO has used – and intimidation comes in the form of doing public petitions.”
The petitions are often addressed to government ministers or officials. One in 2021, which claimed that Marie Stopes, had “spat in the face of all Kenyans,” attracted 150,000 signatures. It was not the first time Marie Stopes had come under fire from CitizenGO: in 2017 its campaign to force a government investigation led to an official order temporarily closing its clinics, which offered reproductive services including abortions.
More recently CitizenGO lobbied against a landmark reproductive healthcare bill that would have extended sexual health education. The group’s efforts helped to get the legislation shelved and delayed for at least two years.
Ann Kioko, CitizenGO’s lead in Africa, “leads a lot of opposition conversations in the country in terms of mobilising, mobilising the allies, organising for TV shows, organising for conferences, meetings,” said Munyasia of the Reproductive Health Network. “And these are not cheap, these are very expensive.”
A recent report from the Mozilla Foundation has also alleged that CitizenGO had secretly manipulated online conversations around reproductive healthcare in Kenya, including providing individuals with “money, content, and instructions” over WhatsApp about what to tweet.
The report found evidence of a coordinated campaign to attack activists and politicians on Twitter, and spread misinformation about abortion and other aspects of reproductive health. Interviews with a network of Twitter users who take money to make topics and opinions trend found that CitizenGO was paying for their services. Twitter subsequently removed 240 accounts after being presented with the report’s findings.
Family values
One of the narratives pushed by CitizenGO in Africa has been that reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights are Western values being imposed through colonialist structures. Yet as our investigation shows, CitizenGO is established and driven by foreign figures seeking to impose their own agenda.
CitizenGO has close ties to the World Congress of Families, an annual conference of religious leaders founded in the late 90s that was itself designed, after a trip to Moscow, to unite eastern and Western conservative Christians. Brian Brown, a CitizenGo board member, is a key figure and Komov has been its coordinator for Russia.
When approached, Brown told the Bureau that the characterisation of the activities of CitizenGO and World Congress of Families, as well as his involvement, were “made up garbage and lies”.
In this Jan. 28, 2014 file photo, National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown speaks in Salt Lake City. With their champion, Sen. Ted Cruz, now out of the presidential race, groups opposing abortion and same-sex marriage say they’ll bide their time and warily assess Donald Trump before deciding whether to back him as the Republican nominee. Rick Bowmer/AP
Requests for comment from Arsuaga, Komov, Malofeev and Yakunin received no response.
The support of Russian oligarchs has been welcome. In 2011, the WCF organised the Moscow Demographic Summit, which was supported by Malofeev and Yakunin. Both also spoke, along with Arsuaga, at the 2013 WCF held in Sydney, Australia. Yakunin and Malofeev’s foundations were also listed as official partners of the WCF as late as 2017.
Had it not been for Russia’s invasion of Crimea, the 2014 WCF would have been held in Moscow. A planning document features quotes on “the importance of the Natural Family and Demographic problems” from Vladimir Putin, former Russian president Dmitri Medvedev, Malofeev and Yakunin’s wife Natalia.
In Ghana, the WCF has played a particularly important role in laying the groundwork for a piece of virulently anti-LGBTQ+ legislation currently before parliament, primarily through an event it held in 2019. That year a WCF regional event was put on in Accra, Ghana’s capital. Among the key supporters of the event were CitizenGO; Ann Kioko — the group’s African lead — was a keynote speaker.
“They had come to town, they had meetings and they had this conference where they had all these influential people talking about how they need to deal with this thing and this threat in all the fanaticism that comes with it,” said Kojo Asante, the director for advocacy and policy
engagement at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development. “It was immediately after that the bill was presented to parliament.”
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill would force Ghanians to report any LGBT person to authorities and legalise discrimination. It would outlaw gay sex, and implement sentences of up to 10 years for producing content deemed to promote homsexuality.
At least one of the bill’s authors attended the WCF conference.
The bill is already being blamed for a rise in homophobic attacks, as reported by the Guardian. Asante told the Bureau: “At the moment I think the real concern is the daily attack on persons suspected to be members of the LGBT community. It’s almost every day that you hear of somebody beaten. Just recently there was a case where somebody was stabbed.”
Though it appears to have had less direct influence on the formation of the bill, CitizenGO has amplified support for it and attacked LGBTQ+ rights more generally. A petition on CitizenGO’s site by Advocates for Christ Ghana in March 2020 called for an LGBTQ+ conference in Ghana to be cancelled – which eventually it was, after direct government intervention.
The petition itself received more than 19,000 signatures and was reshared by more than 2,000 accounts. It reached a large audience in Ghana’s religious and political Facebook groups, being shared on pages with a combined audience of 1 million people.
One group supporting the Church of the Pentecost, which had 150,000 members. The church, which began as a British mission, was identified as one of the “most prominent supporters” of the bill by Signify.
Neither Kioko, nor Advocates for Christ Ghana responded to requests for comment.
Western values
CitizenGo may preach a cohesive set of hardline conservative Christian values, but its leading figures have varying motivations, according to Kristina Stoeckl, professor of sociology at the University of Innisbrook and the author of a forthcoming book on the Russian religious right.
Stoeckl says that for Arsuaga, the Catholic lawyer, CitizenGO was in part a response to the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. Whereas for Brown, she says, WCF and CitizenGO were a continuation of longstanding opposition to LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights by elements of the U.S. Christian right domestically and around the world. “The American story is the least surprising because they’ve been doing it since the 70s,” she said.
The involvement of figures from Russia is more unusual, and perhaps more individualised. “Komov is actually very open about his motivations he’s looking for, basically for a career as a lobbyist for something,” Stoeckl said. “And then he moves into that whole universe of Molofeev’s financing with and he carves out his space in there being the pro-family lobbyist.”
Malofeev, she believes, wants to create a globalised network for himself, in part to further his political ambitions and prepare for a post-Putin landscape.
The U.S. supreme court decision overturning Roe vs Wade would only spur them on to apply more pressure on institutions and governments around the world, she added. “I think it will embolden them. Because in a way, it shows that the strategy they’ve pursued has been successful.”
By Jasper Jackson, Misbah Khan, Niamh McIntyre, Antoaneta Roussi, and Selase Kove-Seyram. Follow on Twitter @TBIJ
NBA training camps are supposed to begin, which means that it’s time for general managers and team presidents to do their annual talk with the media. With most franchises, that means a press conference; with the Knicks, that means team president Leon Rose talks with MSG network.
I don’t really care that Rose doesn’t talk to the media, since he would end up giving the same canned answers he ends up giving to Alan Hahn in this interview, which you can watch below.
Rose shocked Knicks fans this summer by allegedly including RJ Barrett in a deal for Donovan Mitchell. Also, Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley were available. That’s a lot of bruised egos. Leon tried to smooth things over, apparently.
RJ has more than 100 million reasons to feel better about the front office — even if he feels like he should have gotten more money — but I wonder how Obi and IQ will deal, especially since both are likely to be buried in the rotation by Tom Thibodeau again this season. Speaking of Thibs, Leon reiterated that the front office will not interfere in his coaching the team.
Again, this is basically a cliché at this point — there was no way the team president was going to throw the head coach under the bus before the start of training camp. That will come later, if at all. Maybe they really are in Thibs’ ear, telling him to cut the shit and play the kids. Who knows? It’s still a little sad to hear all this out loud, however. Will Thibs change anything from last season? That’s not his style. We’ll just have to wait and see.
We didn’t learn much — if anything — from Leon Rose Friday night. That’s fine. We’ll find out soon enough whether anyone in the organization learned from their mistakes.
Bloomington, Ind. –Since Meridiam announced its plans in May 2022 (https://bton.in/nX5Mr) to bring high-speed internet access to all of Bloomington, the City of Bloomington and Meridiam have activated the operations phase of this transformational project.
Hoosier Networks, the fiber network utility provider established by Meridiam, announced on September 13 its partnership with GigabitNow as the primary ISP (Internet Service Provider) under the Hoosier Networks agreement with the City (https://bton.in/0lATD).
Hoosier Networks plans to break ground on the $50-million-plus network next month and GigabitNow will deliver fiber-based broadband services to the first residents by the end of January 2023. GigabitNow will offer service of at least 1 Gigabit per second symmetrical speed (equal upload and download) everywhere the Hoosier Network network reaches. The cost-of-service rates with the initial ISP will be competitive locally and regionally.
Hoosier Networks and the City continue to collaborate on a groundbreaking digital equity program, one of the most innovative broadband public-private collaborations in the country, to help low-income and digitally-disadvantaged households access top-quality internet services. Eligible low-income residents will qualify for the Affordable Connectivity Plan (ACP) to get a symmetrical 250 megabits per second (Mbps) plan at reduced or no cost to them. The City and Hoosier Networks will together provide the “drop” connection to qualifying households, which combined with the Biden Administration’s new $30 Affordable Connectivity Program means eligible low-income residents can receive high bandwidth fiber-based internet service at zero net cost. Hoosier Networks will also contribute $85k annually for digital equity funding and will be part of the City’s new Digital Equity Fund established as part of the 2023 budget. This fund will support the new Digital Equity Specialist and Navigator position.
Under the Hoosier Networks agreement with the City, GigabitNow is the exclusive ISP for at least a five-year term. After the exclusive period ends the network will become a full open-access network, open to other ISPs, including local providers, for the lifetime of the network. GigabitNow staff have visited Bloomington and continue to meet with City staff.
“Digital inclusion and digital literacy are basic tools that all Bloomingtonians need in our daily lives and to participate fully in community and civic life,” said Mayor John Hamilton. “We are pleased to work with Hoosier Networks and GigabitNow to help meet those needs and to improve the quality of life for everyone in Bloomington —now, and for the future.”
Hoosier Networks will establish an office in Bloomington in the coming weeks and brought on a CEO on September 12. Existing interim leadership will continue through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition period.
Hoosier Networks is based in Bloomington and plans to grow here as its footprint expands within the state. Columbus, Shelbyville, and Bartholomew County now have Hoosier Networks projects underway and are moving forward following Bloomington’s lead.
Hoosier Networks is now evaluating several other Indiana and regional locations for potential further rounds of fiber infrastructure projects. “As eventful as the lead-up public approval process was, the operational phase has been even more intense,” said Rick Dietz, Director of City of Bloomington Information & Technology Services. “There are parallel activities on many tracks that are now converging. Network construction, network management, digital equity programming, and ISP service are all coming together. We’re especially excited that visible work on the network will begin soon and services should be available at the beginning of 2023.”
The Hamilton administration prioritized establishing a community-wide high-speed fiber network to provide broad and equitable access to this essential 21st-century technology. Since 2016, Bloomington has sought a partner to build and operate a city-wide FTTP network. The primary goals have been broad community coverage, a voice at the table for the City, a financially feasible business model, open access and net neutrality, and commitment to digital equity.
After several explorations of prospective partnerships, and after nearly a year of discussions and site visits from Meridiam, the City signed an LOI with Meridiam. Because of Indiana’s business personal property tax structure, a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district will support the city-wide build. Bloomington’s Hoosier Networks Tax Increment Finance (TIF) process and master agreement review culminated in July 2022 with near-unanimous support from the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission (RDC), Plan Commission, City Council, Bloomington Digital Underground Advisory Committee ( BDUAC), and Board of Public Works (BPW).
In 2020 the City Information & Technology Services (ITS) Department conducted a Digital Equity Survey, which informs the City’s Digital Equity Strategic Plan. Related to the Meridiam project, the City’s digital equity plan calls for the City to:
Continue to pursue potential fiber infrastructure partners to achieve the City’s Goals.
Reduce financial barriers to adoption through support and promotion of subsidy programs like ACP (US Affordable Connectivity Program).
Expand the City’s digital equity funding to further support digital equity initiatives. (The fund currently supports annual digital equity grants to nonprofit organizations and was first established under the Recover Forward initiative in 2020.)
About Digital Equity & Net Neutrality
Digital Equity is defined by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) as “a condition in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy, and economy.”
Net Neutrality is the idea that Internet Service Providers should treat all internet data equally. This means not blocking access to lawful sites, services, and content, and not offering paid prioritization or otherwise prioritizing, discriminating, or charging differently based on user, content, website, platform, application, type of equipment, source address, destination address, or method of communication.
Learn more at the National Digital Inclusion Alliance at digitalinclusion.org. Bloomington has been recognized by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance as a 2021 Digital Inclusion Trailblazer.
About Meridiam
Meridiam is a public infrastructure developer, investor, and manager specializing in greenfield infrastructure and committed to delivering sustainable and resilient projects that positively impact communities for the long term. As a mission-driven firm built on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Meridiam believes sustainability can be best achieved if it is incorporated into the financing, design, building, operating, and the long-term maintenance of infrastructure projects, and is rigorously measured.
Meridiam operates in primary key sectors of sustainable mobility (including roads, rail, tramways, airports, electric buses, and electric vehicle charging points), innovative low carbon solutions (including water and waste facilities and energy efficiency projects), and critical public services (including healthcare, schools, public buildings, and digital infrastructure). Meridiam invests globally in approximately 100 projects and assets under development, construction, or operation, in 26 countries representing $18 billion USD in assets under management.
Meridiam is active in North America with a significant investment and project portfolio, a 15-year track record, and extensive industry expertise. At present, Meridiam manages 19 different infrastructure projects in the US and Canada and continues to develop new projects.
LAWRENCE — Look closely at any mobile service provider’s map of nationwide 5G coverage, and you’ll notice huge swaths of the country — rural areas — don’t have 5G service.
A new three-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation will support a University of Kansas researcher’s work to improve the design of 5G connectivity and computing for rural areas — communities with unique network demands based around agricultural and community patterns of living and working.
It’s one of a trio of new NSF-funded projects to be headed by Taejoon Kim, assistant professor of electrical engineering & computer science and researcher at the Institute for Information Sciences (I2S) at KU.
“The 5G network system was developed by companies with a profit motive,” Kim said. “Because of this economic incentive, all these 5G networks have been deployed in urban areas, but people living in rural areas still need to pay subscription for their cellphones, including for 5G service. But they haven’t benefited as much as people in urban areas — from the spread of information, the faster speeds, the ability to transfer large amounts of data that really transform our life at a different level.
“How can a company solve the problem in a way that allows them to produce more revenue?”
The KU researcher said a major hurdle in deploying 5G to rural communities has been “nonuniformity” in the spatial distribution of people as well as the demand for data on the network over time.
“In a city, the population is spread out in a way that is mostly uniform, but in rural areas you have a cluster of population there, another cluster there — that’s spatial nonuniformity,” Kim said.
Then there are needs of agriculture. Automated machinery, like combines controlled by GPS, are performing high-level computation and require a lot of communication.
“A huge amount of data must go to the cell tower and then the core network,” Kim said.
“They’ll also want to collect all those data to get statistics,” he said. “But this heavy data use only happens during harvesting time. That's temporal nonuniformity.”
Kim and his team – KU EECS assistant professor Morteza Hashemi and collaborators from Purdue University – plan to streamline design of rural connectivity and computing, partnering with California-based commercial firm Blue Danube to run tests on a massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) platform — an advanced antenna technology for wireless communications. Kim and his colleagues will use machine learning to understand how 5G can be better deployed to meet rural spatial and temporal demands.
“What’s the main technological approach or hardware or software that will be different in a rural area than in urban areas?” Kim said. “Artificial intelligence can learn this complicated and nonuniform behavior.”
The group will explore using AI to learn uniform and nonuniform behaviors and will seek approaches tailored for rural areas. Kim said one idea is to focus 5G signals more like a beam at specific communities and agricultural operations rather than providing coverage throughout vast, mostly unpopulated regions to get service to a town or two.
“Because it's nonuniform, it’s more efficient if we focus the energy to a specific direction,” Kim said.
In addition to re-imagining rural access to 5G, two additional NSF awards to Kim will enable him to harden commercial 5G networks for U.S. government, military and infrastructure operator use and develop technology for sixth-generation (6G) wireless technology.
Kim is the principal investigator for a yearlong $750,000 phase one award from the NSF’s Convergence Accelerator program to assist the Department of Defense with enhancements to end devices and augmentations to 5G infrastructure, providing capabilities to U.S. military, government and infrastructure operators to operate through public 5G networks while meeting security and resilience needs.
“The key motivation for this project is the pursuit of ‘Zero Trust’ principles (an approach to designing information technology requiring all devices on a network to be verified) to combat design weaknesses of 5G networks, so we’ll integrate various security solutions to increase the level of trust of 5G,” Kim said.
A third NSF grant for three years and $285,000 will support Kim’s work helping define 6G wireless communications requirements, using artificial intelligence to design advanced wireless-network architecture for the microwave spectrum.
Kim said 5G can provide orders of magnitude improvement in speed, connectivity and latency reduction. However, this improvement hasn’t come from work within the millimeter wave, part of the electromagnetic spectrum that has had limited research success in the U.S. Rather, a boost in network throughput has come from acquisition of new frequency bands and advances in massive MIMO technologies.
Instead of using today’s radio access network architecture, which depends heavily on cellphone towers, Kim will explore how to efficiently use large-scale cellfree massive multiple-input multiple-output (CFmMIMO) networks.
“We must still be looking into using the neighborhood around 5 gigahertz — still microwave, but using a different architectural network,” Kim said.
The current cellphone network is based on all the cellphone towers designed to serve the user within that cell.
“There's a new concept of ‘cell-free MIMO’ involves removing all the cell boundaries, but we’d have a very strong central unit that controls a massive number of distributed base stations as access points,” Kim said.
He said this work also would encompass cybersecurity aspects, strengthening the resilience of AI algorithms and architecture, as well as cloud radio access networks.
Photo: A University of Kansas researcher’s work will improve the design of 5G connectivity and computing for rural areas, communities with unique network demands based around agricultural and community patterns of living and working. Credit: iStock.com.
Photo: Taejoon Kim is the principal investigator for a yearlong $750,000 phase one award from the NSF’s Convergence Accelerator program to assist the Department of Defense with enhancements to end devices and augmentations to 5G infrastructure, providing capabilities to U.S. military, government and infrastructure operators to operate through public 5G networks while meeting security and resilience needs.
“The 5G network system was developed by companies with a profit motive,” Kim said. “Because of this economic incentive, all these 5G networks have been deployed in urban areas, but people living in rural areas still need to pay subscription for their cellphones, including for 5G service. But they haven’t benefited as much as people in urban areas — from the spread of information, the faster speeds, the ability to transfer large amounts of data that really transform our life at a different level.
