The Wireless Spectrum R&D (WSRD) Senior Steering Group (SSG) of the National Information Technology R&D (NITRD) program was stood up as a result of President Obama's June 2010 memorandum on "Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution." WSRD's purpose is to implement section 3 of the presidential memorandum, which directs the Secretary of Commerce, "in consultation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, NASA, and other agencies as appropriate, [to] create and implement a plan to facilitate research, development, experimentation, and testing by researchers to explore innovative spectrum-sharing technologies, including those that are secure and resilient." WSRD facilitates coordination and information exchange regarding federal government research in the spectrum domain.
Although WSRD is a committee of the federal government, it closely coordinates its activities with private industry, public safety, academic researchers, and state and local governments, as these sectors are major drivers of spectrum requirements, research, and development. It does so through a series of workshops which include the participations of representatives of all of these groups. Two workshops have been held so far: The first in Boulder, CO, in July 2011, which concentrated on coordinating the current and future federal spectrum R&D portfolio within the broader context; and the second in Berkeley, CA, in January 2012, which undertook a discussion of the need for a national-level wireless testbed capability.
A challenge with the previous two workshops was getting adequate and diverse representation from some sectors, because of the lack of travel funds. In this third workshop, to be held in Boulder, CO, in July 2012, limited travel funds will be available to invited participants who might otherwise have difficulty attending. Priority will be given to improving the gender and racial diversity of the workshop participants. The travel grant program will be led by Dr. Timothy Brown of the University of Colorado at Boulder, who is a key member of the workshop organizing committee.
The Wireless Spectrum Research and Development Senior Steering Group (WSRD SSG) was established in 2010 to assist the Secretary of Commerce in creating and implementing a plan to facilitate research, development, experimentation, and testing to explore innovative spectrum-sharing technologies. This proposal facilitated the third in a series of workshops to synthesize the results of Workshop I and II with work going on in related areas involving Congressional mandates, information from the National Broadband Plan, and NTIA’s 1755-1850 MHz Band Report. The goal of the workshop was to develop spectrum-sharing high-risk high-reward research, innovation, and experimentation activities that would improve access to broadband services consistent with the June 28, 2010 Presidential Memorandum: Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution. The workshop was held on July 24 2012 and had 52 participants coming in roughly equal parts from academic, industry, and government communities. The participants presented their assessment of research in the areas of Sharing Architectures, Spectrum Sharing/Public Safety, Spectrum Sharing/Radar, Security, Spectrum Sharing Across Heterogeneous Networks, and Models/Testing/Evaluation. The presentations of the workshop participants were synthesized into a report to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Intellectual Merit: The proposal assembled leading experts in the field of spectrum sharing who through their different perspectives were able to contributte to a coherent vision for future research in the area of spectrum sharing. Broader Impacts: The recommendations for the workshop will provide guidelines for future research investments in the area of spectrum sharing. Such spectrum sharing research has the potential for increasing the spectrum available to society for broadband access, public safety, and other critical areas.
