NTIA Blog

Leading spectrum policy experts in government and industry are among the speakers for the 17th International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies (ISART) to take place July 24-26 in Boulder Colorado.

This year’s symposium will examine propagation challenges for ultra-dense wireless systems. Plenary talks and panel discussions will focus on the urgent need for accurate, reliable, validated, and trusted propagation models that can be used to predict signal strength across a wide variety of rapidly changing environments and conditions. Being able to accurately predict radiofrequency propagation is key to building and supporting the ultra-dense network environments of the future.

Leading the conversation as keynote speakers will be David Redl, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, and Heidi King, National Highway Traffic Safety Deputy Administrator. Google executive Preston Marshall will participate in a “roadside chat” moderated by Mark Gibson of CommScope on what could lie beyond next-generation wireless if technology, policy, and economics can be aligned. Other plenary speakers include:

The digital divide is showing signs of giving way as more Americans from all walks of life connect to the Internet. Several historically disadvantaged groups showed significant increases in online adoption, according to initial results from NTIA’s most recent survey on Internet use conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Most modern software is a creation of existing components, modules, and libraries from the open source and commercial software world. A detailed accounting of components isn’t always available, which can create obstacles when protecting against security risks. This challenge is compounded by the growth in Internet of Things devices, as companies add “smart” features or connectivity without clear visibility into a product’s underlying software components.

To address this problem, NTIA is convening a multistakeholder process to develop greater transparency of software components for better security across the digital ecosystem. While the majority of libraries and components do not have known vulnerabilities, many do, and the sheer quantity of software means that some software products ship with out-of-date components that may never be updated.

Through an open, transparent, and consensus-based process, NTIA will work to identify how software component data can be shared, what practices can be easily and voluntarily adopted, and what policy and market challenges should be addressed by the broad community. This initiative builds on prior work by NTIA stakeholders on IoT cybersecurity best practices. It is also NTIA’s first step in implementing the actions put forward by government and industry stakeholders in the Report to the President on Enhancing Resilience Against Botnets.

Giving voice to all stakeholders in an open and transparent decision-making process is a core goal of NTIA’s international engagement. We are working on a number of issues, from protecting the availability of WHOIS information to pushing for more effective membership oversight of the International Telecommunication Union. As we look to further build out our international agenda, we want to hear from stakeholders about the critical global policy areas we will face this year and beyond.

In a notice of inquiry, we are asking all interested stakeholders – businesses, civil society groups, the technical community, academics, and the general public to provide us with comments and recommendations. The input we receive will inform NTIA's international Internet policy priorities going forward.

While we are open to comments and policy suggestions on any issue, we have identified four broad topic areas and some key questions we think are especially important:

Across the country, Americans use broadband to learn, shop, grow their businesses, and connect with friends and family around the world. Communities that gain access to affordable, high-speed Internet see improvements to economic growth, educational opportunities, and public safety and health care services.

Much of America has been reaping the rewards of broadband for years, but there are still areas of the country that don’t have the connectivity needed to keep up with the modern economy. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), more than 30 percent of rural Americans live in areas that lack broadband availability.

We know these gaps exist, but what we don’t know is precisely which areas of the country have insufficient broadband capacity. That makes it difficult to ensure that public investments in infrastructure are efficient and effective. Right now, the FCC’s Form 477 data, which is collected from broadband service providers, is our only source for nationwide broadband availability information. The Form 477 data program is valuable, but the data is not independently validated or verified. It is also reported at the Census block level, so that can lead to inaccuracies that overstate availability – especially in rural areas where Census blocks are large.

One of NTIA’s most important responsibilities is working with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to find spectrum to support competitive and ubiquitous 5G broadband wireless service in America. Efficient use of spectrum is critical as we look to get more spectrum into the hands of wireless innovators while protecting federal users. To help achieve this goal, NTIA engineers have facilitated the creation of a new concept in flexible spectrum sharing, Dynamic Protection Areas (DPAs), to enable increased access to the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band.

On May 22, in response to a letter from NTIA, the FCC issued a waiver Order that allows each spectrum access system (SAS) administrator in the 3.5 GHz band to use DPAs. This action will allow more devices to operate in the band more quickly than anticipated, promoting efficient spectrum use and more investment.

On May 9, 2018, the U.S. Commerce Department brought together more than 100 small businesses for matchmaking opportunities with AT&T and five first-tier vendors helping AT&T build FirstNet, a nationwide broadband network and related services for first responders. In March 2017, the Department entered into a 25-year contract with AT&T for constructing and operating FirstNet.

The matchmaking event attracted diverse small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans, minorities, and women, as well as firms that are part of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) program. Commerce procurement officials from the Census Bureau, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and Enterprise Services shared information about upcoming federal contracts.

NTIA is pleased to announce it has completed making 46 grant awards under the State and Local Implementation Grant Program (SLIGP) 2.0, which will help states and territories prepare for FirstNet’s buildout of the nationwide public safety broadband network. NTIA announced the initial awards on March 1, 2018, to 12 states, and continued making additional SLIGP 2.0 grants in March and April. 

The grants are an outgrowth of The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, which directed NTIA to establish a grant program to assist states and territories with planning for FirstNet, a nationwide wireless broadband network for public safety that that launched last year under the leadership of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Between July 2013 and June 2014, NTIA awarded $116.5 million in grants to 54 U.S. states and territories to consult with FirstNet and perform outreach to public safety stakeholders.

Registration is now open for the 17^th International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies (ISART), which will take place July 24 to 26, 2018, in Broomfield, Colorado. David Redl, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator, will deliver the opening keynote address. NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) and NIST’s Communications Technology Laboratory are co-sponsoring the event.

This year’s symposium – Path Lost: Navigating Propagation Challenges for Ultra-Dense Wireless Systems – will explore the current state of the art in radio propagation prediction and map the path forward to the next generation of foundational propagation models. Leading experts from government, academia and industry will explore the technical, economic, and regulatory impacts of network densification in response to the explosion in demand for wireless data.

As demand for spectrum for commercial use continues to grow, policymakers are exploring spectrum sharing as a way to expand capacity while still fulfilling the needs of federal agencies. This model can work only if rules are designed to maximize the value of spectrum resources without compromising the quality and reliability of telecommunications.

To minimize the probability of interference, spectrum managers separate systems in distance and frequency. The amount of separation is determined by interference protection criteria (IPC), which can be estimated through analysis, measurement, or computer simulation.

Although the analytic method is fast it can also be highly inaccurate. Accurate and repeatable measurements may also be difficult to obtain. One reason is that IPC measurements are often hindered by restrictions on equipment availability. In some cases, spectrum managers need estimates for systems that have not been built yet, so measurements are not possible. In other cases, the systems can only be tested for a brief period of time to avoid service interruptions.

To overcome the limitations of measurement, NTIA’s Office of Spectrum Management and Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) have made significant investments in computer simulation capabilities. This has provided a tool to use when measurements are not possible, especially when trying to assess a multitude of spectrum sharing scenarios. ITS is NTIA’s spectrum engineering laboratory.