Month: June 2016

S&T Press Release: DHS to Hold Mobile App Security Research and Development Industry Day

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WASHINGTON—The Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) will hold an Industry Day to present information and answer questions regarding Broad Agency Announcement BAA call HSHQDC-16-R-B0006, which solicits proposals for mobile application security research and development.

DHS S&T’s BAA is seeking to identify innovative approaches that extend beyond app deployment to provide continuous validation and threat protection as well as enabling security through the mobile app lifecycle. All capable parties—including universities, businesses and laboratories—are invited to attend this session.

Thursday, June 9

9 AM – 12 PM EDT   The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) Cyber Security Division will hold an Industry Day for mobile app security.

Hyatt Regency Crystal City 2799 Jefferson Davis Highway Arlington, Va. OPEN PRESS*

*Credentialed media planning to attend must register by 12 p.m. June 7 and check in at the onsite registration desk the day of the event.

Visit http://www.cvent.com/d/wfqtz4 for details and to register.

S&T Press Release: DHS Announces $40M Funding Opportunity for New Criminal Investigations Center of Excellence

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WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), today announced a $40 million funding opportunity for an institution to lead a new DHS Center of Excellence (COE) for Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis. DHS S&T is additionally searching for potential partners to work with the lead institution in support of the Center’s activities.

These two related funding opportunities, posted at http://www.grants.gov/, are open to receive proposals from accredited U.S. colleges and universities. The deadline for submitting proposals is September 1, 2016.  DHS intends to fund this new COE for 10 years for a total of approximately $40 million through a cooperative agreement.

This new COE will conduct end user-focused research to enhance investigation strategies of transnational criminal organizations’ (TCO) activities and other homeland security-related crimes. The overarching goal of the Center will be to develop methods, tools, knowledge products, and technology-based solutions for agents, officers and investigators to better predict, thwart and prosecute these crimes.

DHS is soliciting proposals from multi-disciplinary research teams that have research experience and concentration in criminal investigations and network analysis. The research teams will work closely with DHS and other criminal investigators to develop successful innovations to dismantle TCOs. The teams will need to cover a variety of academic disciplines including criminology, engineering, and mathematics.

The S&T COEs are university consortia that work closely with DHS operating components to conduct research, develop and mission-relevant science and technology, and educate the next generation of homeland security technical experts. Each COE is led by a U.S. college or university and has multiple partners from universities, industry, DHS, federally funded research and development centers, and other federal state and local agencies.

The notice of funding opportunities for the Center for Criminal Investigations lead institution and partner institution are available at grants.gov.

For additional information about the DHS COEs, visit DHS S&T Centers of Excellence. DHS will conduct a webinar for interested applicants available at Informational Webinar on June 21, 2016 at 3 p.m. EDT.

Continue reading →

DHS Announces $3 Million in Small Business Innovation Research Awards

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WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) today announced a total of $3.1 million in competitive research awards for 29 small businesses located across 12 states, and Washington, D.C. Each business was awarded approximately $100,000 in preliminary funding through DHS S&T’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Thirty-one contracts were awarded in 10 topic areas: Continue reading →

FirstNet Weekly Update to the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) – June 6, 2016

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FirstNet News

Last week, FirstNet conducted a Washington State Quality of Service, Priority, & Preemption (QPP) Consultation Task Team (CTT) Pilot in Seattle with about 40 attendees from Washington OneNet and SPOCs from Region 10. The FirstNet team gathered feedback from stakeholders to help inform future QPP network policies and learn about the unique needs of the public safety community. Some of the items discussed included the QPP CTT timeline, the conceptual QPP framework, priority and preemption, and responder roles versus broadband needs.  A robust dialogue ensued between attendees and FirstNet, with meeting participants posing questions about local control of the network, the different network states, and the prioritization of users, devices, and applications in real-world scenarios.  FirstNet collected valuable feedback ahead of the anticipated regional QPP CTT engagements that will take place across the nation, including the Region 10 engagement planned for August. Continue reading →

TRDaily Reports: Updated NPSTC T-Band Report Says “Little Has Changed” in 3 Years

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June 3, 2016–An updated report released today by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) on the impact of a congressional mandate that requires the FCC to reallocate the T-band by 2021 says that “little has changed” since a report prepared more than three years ago estimated the cost of relocating public safety T-band operations to other frequencies would total more than $5.9 billion (TRDaily, March 15, 2013).

The earlier report said Congress should reconsider its T-band reallocation mandate, which was included in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, which also established the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet).

“The NPSTC T-Band Report, issued March 15, 2013, detailed the lack of alternative spectrum and significant cost impact public safety entities on T-Band would face as a result of the provisions in Section 6103 of Public Law 112-96. As shown in this T-Band Update Report, little has changed over the last 3 years,” the report released today concluded. “Public safety’s strong demand for T-Band spectrum is virtually unchanged, as indicated by analysis of FCC T-Band licensing records. On the spectrum supply side, the Commission has made an additional 24 narrowband channels available in the 700 MHz band. However, the resulting 700 MHz narrowband channels available to licensees for potential T-Band relocation still pales in comparison to the channels to be re-accommodated in at least the top five T-Band areas.”

The report continued, “Although there has been significant progress in the development of mission critical voice standards for LTE broadband technology, much work remains to provide a viable broadband mission critical voice-over-LTE solution with sufficient coverage and reliability.” The report added that “many unanswered questions remain, and it is premature for public safety to plan to abandon battle-tested T-Band voice systems.

“Finally, even if public safety was to vacate the T-Band, it is unclear what public interest benefit would be gained by reallocating the T-Band spectrum for commercial use,” the report argued. “The T-Band also supports critical industrial and business systems on T-Band channels outside the public safety spectrum, not addressed in Section 6103 of Public Law 112-96.”

“While most of Public Law 112-96 is positive for public safety, Section 6103 of that law which requires auction of the T-Band spectrum will impose a negative impact on public safety communications and interoperability,” the report stressed. “In turn, this also could negatively impact the operations of public safety agencies that provide emergency response to a population of more than 90 million people in the 11 T-band areas.”

The report “also provides additional detail on the 325 full power and Class A television stations on TV channels 14-20, i.e., the 470-512 MHz T-Band spectrum. The presence of these stations could seriously impair use of the T-Band spectrum for nationwide commercial wireless operations even if public safety systems were cleared from the band. The update study confirms the conclusions from the original NPSTC T-Band Report remain valid.”

FCC licensing records show that public safety T-band spectrum is still in high demand, according to the report.

“Analysis of FCC licensing records shows only 6 out of a total of 925 licensees, i.e., fewer than 1%, cancelled a T-Band license,” it said. “License expirations are higher with 68 of 925, i.e., 7.4% of licensees allowed a T-Band license to expire without renewal. However, that needs to be placed into context. Thirteen of those 68 licensees have pending applications for replacement authorizations. That indicates these expirations without renewal could have been accidental rather than intentional. Furthermore, a number of the licensees with expired licenses also already have other T-Band licenses. Therefore, they cannot be counted as no longer relying on the T-Band spectrum. In addition, the FCC has issued a few Special Temporary Authorities (STAs) to cover continued T-Band operations pending any issuance of replacement licenses.” – Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com
Courtesy TRDaily

 

Entities Pleased with FCC’s 5.9 GHz Public Notice

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June 2, 2016–Cisco Systems, Inc., Public Knowledge, and WifiForward said today they are pleased with the FCC’s release yesterday of a public notice seeking to refresh its record in the 5.9 gigahertz band proceeding ahead of planned testing to analyze whether connected-vehicle and Wi-Fi applications are able to share the spectrum (TRDaily, June 1). The public notice sets a July 30 deadline for the submission of prototype unlicensed devices and a Jan. 15, 2017, deadline for the completion of testing.

“The 5.9 GHz Public Notice is an important milestone in advancing the robust use of the U-NII-4 band,” Mary Brown, Cisco’s senior director-government affairs, told TRDaily. “Primary users need to understand what rules unlicensed devices will follow so that they can evaluate how the sharing technique will impact their use of the band.  At the same time, the unlicensed industry needs clarity on what approach is acceptable to regulators and incumbents in order to provide developmental focus on the preferred approach.  The Public Notice sets up this process quite nicely.  Continue reading →

APCO Pans Use of SAS in 4.9 GHz Band

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June 1, 2016–The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International today panned the proposed use of a spectrum access system (SAS) to maximize use of the 4.9 gigahertz band. In a filing last month, Federated Wireless, Inc., suggested the Commission approve an SAS in the spectrum, saying it would maximize use of the frequencies (TRDaily, May 19). The company pointed out the Commission adopted a three-tiered sharing framework and SAS use in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service in the 3.5 GHz band.

“Federated Wireless’s proposal ignores the importance of frequency coordination for public safety,” APCO said in its filing today in WP docket 07-100, PS docket 06-229, and WT docket 06-150. “Clear and interference-free operation is a fundamental requirement of public safety communications. The [APCO] 4.9 GHz Task Force found that this is especially true for this band, given its ability to handle broadband data and thus carry large amounts of sensitive, mission-critical information.” Continue reading →

New York City: Regulations Needed to Ensure Wireless Network Resilience

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June 1, 2016–The FCC has received mixed views on a voluntary framework signed by the largest wireless carriers to improve wireless network resiliency before, during, and after disasters and other emergencies, with New York City and the New America Foundation questioning the effectiveness of self-regulation but the Competitive Carriers Association committing to some of the framework’s principles. Comments were filed by yesterday’s deadline in PS dockets 13-239 and 11-60 in response to the voluntary framework, which was announced in April by the wireless industry and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D., N.J.), the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee (TRDaily, April 27).

A news release on the framework said it was the result of five months of discussions among Mr. Pallone, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, and CTIA. The discussions began after Mr. Pallone introduced legislation (HR 3998) to bolster communications networks during emergencies (TRDaily, Nov. 16, 2015). The congressman agreed to remove wireless provisions from his bill once the framework was hammered out.

The framework was agreed to by CTIA, AT&T, Inc., Sprint Corp., T-Mobile US, Inc., Verizon Communications, Inc., and United States Cellular Corp.  An ex parte filing with the FCC noted that the framework involves “(1) Providing for reasonable roaming under disasters arrangements when technically feasible; (2) Fostering mutual aid during emergencies; (3) Enhancing municipal preparedness and restoration; (4) Increasing consumer readiness and preparation; and (5) Improving public awareness.” Continue reading →

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, June 3, 2016

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Any and all FirstNet RFP responses were to have been submitted by this past Tuesday. However, there seems to be some confusion over if and when FirstNet will release names of the bidders. I have spoken to several people who regularly submit RFPs to various federal agencies and have been told that the names but not the bidding prices are made public soon after the RFP due date. Even so, it appears from information I received third-hand that the Contracting Officer for the U.S. Department of the Interior is treating this differently and has thus far, I am told, stated that in this case the names of those submitting bids will not be released. This should make for a very interesting PSCR meeting.

Monday, June 6 is an open meeting of the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) and the PSCR event itself starts on Tuesday with the FirstNet Chairwoman, Sue Swenson, delivering the opening keynote address. I doubt if we will hear anything of substance relating to the RFP responses but you never can tell. Perhaps FirstNet will use this keynote to publically announce the bidders. Meanwhile, it has been fun taking part in the many email, Twitter, and even voice conversations about who may be bidders. One should be Rivada Networks whose CEO supposedly announced it responded to the RFP early and is 100% compliant. While I have heard that statement from several sources, I have not seen it on the Internet so perhaps it was relayed to me in error. Be that as it may, the consensus is there were four bidders. I think there might be a couple more and would not be the least bit surprised if someone no one expected showed up. I hope more than four companies responded so FirstNet and the myriad of others who will be engaged in the process of selecting the best bid will have more choices and will select the one vendor that has taken the time to provide a response that is more about what the Public Safety community can expect from the network rather than how much money they think they will make using FirstNet’s spectrum on a secondary basis. Continue reading →

FCC Sets Deadlines for 5.9 GHz Band Prototype Devices, Testing Completion

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June 1, 2016–The FCC today finally released a public notice seeking to refresh its record in the 5.9 gigahertz band proceeding ahead of planned testing to analyze whether connected-vehicle and Wi-Fi applications are able to share the spectrum. The public notice, which was adopted May 25, sets a July 30 deadline for the submission of prototype unlicensed devices and a Jan. 15, 2017, deadline for the completion of testing. Comments on the notice are due 30 days after “Federal Register” publication and replies are due 15 days after that in ET docket 13-49.

The public notice seeks views on the FCC’s proposed test plan, as well as on pros and cons of two proposed approaches for sharing the 5850-5925 megahertz band between dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) and Wi-Fi operations.

Under Cisco Systems, Inc.’s proposal, in which the two services would share the entire 75 MHz, unlicensed devices would detect DSRC operations and vacate the spectrum. Under Qualcomm, Inc.’s plan, DSRC safety-of-life applications would use the upper 30 MHz of the spectrum, while non-safety DSRC and Wi-Fi would share the rest. The public notice calls this option “re-channelization.”

The Commission is also inviting comments on alternative ways to share the frequencies.  And it solicits views on specific DSRC use cases, including when stakeholders expect them to be deployed.

In December, the FCC and the Commerce and Transportation departments announced a plan to test whether Wi-Fi devices can share the 5850-5925 MHz band with connected-vehicle applications without causing interference (TRDaily, Jan. 12). But first the FCC said it would update the record in its proceeding, which was launched in 2013 (TRDaily, Feb. 20, 2013).

The first phase of the testing is to occur at the FCC’s lab “to determine the technical characteristics of prototype unlicensed devices and how they are designed to avoid causing harmful interference to DSRC,” the public notice observed. “As part of the Phase I tests, the agencies will assess the devices’ emission characteristics as well as parameters such as the threshold at which a U-NII device detects DSRC signals on a channel and the amount of time required for a device to vacate the channel so as to avoid interference for devices that will implement ‘detect and avoid’ approaches.” Continue reading →