The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the National Institute of Standards (NIST) two agencies within the Department of Commerce, co-sponsored the “Innovative Spectrum Sharing Technology Day held in Washington D.C on November 5th.
The day showcased advances in spectrum sharing technologies and other innovations needed to deal with the nation’s surging demand for wireless services, devices, and applications.
Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information a keynote speaker at the event remarked, “NTIA is already making good progress to free up spectrum across several bands for new and innovative broadband applications and devices.”
He explained that NTIA has been working with the FCC and other federal agencies with the goal to repurpose 500 megahertz of federal and nonfederal spectrum to wireless broadband use by 2020.
The FCC expects to bring spectrum to the wireless market from several sources. This includes the 5 GHz band to be used for high-speed Wi-Fi devices, use the 3.5 GHz band to explore database-managed shared broadband to open up new spectrum sharing opportunities, and the 1755 MHz band to enable mobile providers to use the next generation of global consumer wireless services.
Strickling pointed out that that there is a need to look at the challenges associated with sharing agency information and data that is not releasable to the public because it contains classified or non-public information. At the same time, industry faces similar challenges with sharing proprietary and other confidential information with the agencies.
He added, “The Department of Defense and industry representatives have negotiated non-disclosure agreements to exchange information about the characteristics of each other’s wireless systems. However, we need a simpler and more predictable approach to this problem and we plan to explore alternative approaches at an upcoming Commerce Spectrum Advisory Committee meeting to be held December 13, 2013.”
The second issue is the need for research and testing as the President has tasked NIST and NTIA along with other agencies to publish an inventory listing federal test facilities that is now available at www.data.gov.
Also, at the Spectrum Technology Sharing event, Jason Boehn Director of the Program Coordination Office at NIST, discussed how NTIA and NTIA signed a Memorandum of Understanding this year to establish the Center for Advanced Communications. The objective is to better coordinate research and testing functions, promote interdisciplinary research, and develop and test advanced communication-related areas, in order to provide a single focal point to engage both industry and other government agencies.
Go to www.ntia.doc.gov/other-publication/2013/agenda-11052013-innovative-spectrum-sharing-technology-day for the event speakers and a list of the participants taking part in the demonstrations and exhibiting at the event.