The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced today that it has signed a five-year cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the University of Colorado at Boulder for the development of a wireless test bed. “NTIA’s Boulder-based Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) will work with the university to install spectrum monitoring sensors throughout the CU Boulder campus, with data to be available to both parties for spectrum management research,” according to a new release. “The project will enable measurement of wireless spectrum and system occupancy and spectrum utilization, testing and evaluation of spectrum sharing scenarios, and validation of radio wave propagation models. It also will help to develop early interference detection, interference mitigation, and spectrum forensics techniques.”
“We’re excited that ITS is moving forward with this important test bed research that will provide analytics on how real-world spectrum sharing could work. The scientists and engineers working at ITS are experts in the field of spectrum measurement, and we expect the collaboration with CU to lead to new opportunities for government users to share spectrum with other agencies and commercial users,” said NTIA Administrator David J. Redl. “Access to this wireless facility will allow researchers to efficiently explore new technology and investigate spectrum properties over a city-scale area under real world conditions, providing significant benefits to government, academia, and industry. When it is completed, the test bed could be used not only to field-test spectrum monitoring technology but also to offer wireless technology trial and development capabilities. The test bed will also provide a glimpse of what it will take to prototype and build a nationwide spectrum monitoring network.”
“This will be a great motivator for students who use wireless devices on a daily basis but have little understanding of the underlying physical limitations associated with wireless technology. This testbed will enable measurement of the effects associated with the ever-growing demand for increased wireless communications,” said Peter Mathys, associate professor-electrical, computer and energy engineering at CU.
“Many facets of engineering education will be impacted as we develop the wireless test bed on campus,” said Dirk Grunwald, professor-computer science at CU. “Wireless networking will gain valuable information on utilization statistics and associated processing methods. Wireless engineering will have a test bed to perfect sensor development and learn first-hand about interference scenarios associated with spectrum sharing.” —Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com
Courtesy TRDaily