# Presentation: 192962

## “Keeping Pace with Moore and Marconi”

**2005 International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies**
**Michael D. Gallagher**
- Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information
- National Telecommunications and Information Administration
- U.S. Department of Commerce
- www.ntia.doc.gov
- Boulder, Colorado
- March 1, 2005

**Notes:**
Good Morning and Welcome to the 7th Annual ISART Conference.  
On behalf of the Secretary Gutierrez and the Administration I would like to thank you for the invitation to speak with you today.  
I’ve been a participant in this conference for three years now.  Traveling to Boulder – is always invigorating –  and so is the opportunity to participate in technical discussions about the future of radio technology.
NTIA has two very important roles:
The first is to advise the President on telecommunications and information policy issues; 
and the second is to manage the Federal Government’s use of frequency spectrum. 
 Both policy duties require an understanding of the new and emerging technologies – which is essential for policy development, legislation and regulations for the sector.  
The unrelenting pace of technological innovation is rapidly transforming the telecommunications industry.  Inventors are busy creating technologies that will change the way we conduct business and live our lives. These are not the latest crop of gadgets and gizmos: they are completely new technologies which will have a tremendous influence in the near future.
Today, I will discuss:
some exciting advancements in telecommunication technology and services – as well as the significant challenges they pose for domestic and international spectrum managers, policy makers, and legislators.  
I’d also like to highlight some of the good work we’re doing at NTIA (and in this lab) to help advance technologies that improve spectrum efficiency – in addition to national priorities -  such as our work to support the Public Safety community.   
And finally, I would like to talk about how all this relates to the President’s Initiative on Spectrum Management – which is the Federal government’s effort to insure spectrum management policies are capable of harnessing the potential of rapidly changing technologies.  

## The Spectrum Challenge

- A Presidential Policy Board examining spectrum management summed up the urgent issues in stating:
- 	*"The development of so valuable a resource as the radio spectrum is a matter of paramount importance. Despite technical and operational improvements the demand for frequencies has steadily crowded the supply within the usable spectrum. The use of this resource should have the most careful planning and administration within the United States and in cooperation with other countries. Unfortunately, guidance and administration have often been inadequate."*

**Notes:**
We have a real challenge in the 21st century – and that’s to insure that spectrum management policies are capable of harnessing the potential of rapidly changing technologies. A Presidential Policy Board examining spectrum management summed up the urgent issues in stating:
	"The development of so valuable a resource as the radio spectrum is a matter of paramount importance. Despite technical and operational improvements the demand for frequencies has steadily crowded the supply within the usable spectrum. The use of this resource should have the most careful planning and administration within the United States and in cooperation with other countries. Unfortunately, guidance and administration have often been inadequate.“  
The statement sums up today's situation pretty well... except it was written in 1951 by President TRUMAN'S policy board. 

## New & Emerging Technology and Policy Challenges 

- Spectrum Management in the 21st Century
- Technology Highlights
- Smart antennas and MIMO
- Software-Defined Radio and Cognitive Radio
- Ultrawideband
- Wi-Fi, WiMax, Mesh Networks

**Notes:**
Radio systems are much more numerous and complex today—and over the last few years, there has been a step change in digital communications, which have had a dramatic effect on the way people live their lives and conduct business. 

Broadband technologies are becoming the base upon which people and IT systems are enabled to communicate electronically ubiquitously, rapidly and cheaply, resulting in a high level of innovation and a wide range of economic and social benefits. 

There are many new uses for frequencies -- all the way from Broadband over Powerline at the low end of the radio frequency band, to a brand new type of licensing activity at frequencies as high as 90 GHz.  All it takes is an Internet connection to sign up for a piece of the high-end frequency frontier.

MIMO technology, which combines an array of transmit and receive antennas and signal processing, promises to increase spectral efficiency and throughput over wireless connections.

UWB systems send data primarily via time instead of frequency -  
And everyday, there are new services appearing -  like DTV, Wi-Fi, VoIP, satellite sound for cars -  and the list goes on and on...

I’d like to spend a few minutes talking about four technologies which are particularly important today – and pose significant challenges for spectrum management: smart antennas, software-defined radio, ultrawideband, and wireless mesh networking.

## Smart Antennas and MIMO

- Smart Antenna Technology
- Benefits:
- Reduce multipath fading
- Increase system capacity
- Extend battery life of terminals
- Extend range of base stations
- Reduce interference
- Advanced antenna designs
- MIMO
- Increased system capacity
- ITS research

**Notes:**
Smart antennas can provide very useful extra capacity for cell-phone systems.  They send the radiowave energy where it is needed, and prevent it from going where it might cause interference.  This is a win-win situation for everyone. 

Smart antenna systems provide numerous benefits in wireless communications environments. They:
Reduce multipath fadingIncrease system capacityExtend battery life of terminalsExtend the range of base stationsReduce interference
Systems employing advanced antenna designs such as sectorized and phased array adaptive antennas are now being used as part of wide area network systems. Sectorized and phased array antennas are used to create dynamic communication links with associated mobile and fixed devices in any direction around an antenna structure. The FCC has issued a rulemaking (et docket no. 03-201) to address compliance measurement issues related to sectorized and phased array antenna systems.
Pushing the limits of technology even further is MIMO (multiple input, multiple output)  which carries multiple signals along independent channels without creating interference.
Potential applications for MIMO include mobile communications and WLAN.
MIMO antenna systems have the potential to increase communications system capacity by a factor of 10. (The theoretical limit is up to 100 times the capacity of present systems.) 
NTIA/ITS plans to work cooperatively with NIST to create a reverberation chamber for testing MIMO systems. NTIA/ITS is also using information theory to predict the impact of MIMO on real systems.

## Software Defined Radio (SDR)and Cognitive Radio (CR)

- SDR
- SDR-enabled devices can be dynamically programmed
- Alleviate interoperability problems
- CR
- Employs model-based reasoning based on its assessment of radio environment
- Regulation of SDR and CR

**Notes:**
SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO:
SDR can potentially solve problems facing the commercial wireless communication industry by easing the transition to new technologies. For example – SDR-enabled devices can be dynamically programmed in software to reconfigure the device’s characteristics for better performance, richer feature sets, and advanced new services that provide choices to the end users and new revenue streams for the service provider.
SDR has the potential to alleviate interoperability problems facing federal, state, and local public safety organizations, and spectrum access and deployment problems faced by the military
Current projects involved in the development of SDR include the Department of Defense’s Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS).
However, security issues need to be resolved before SDR technology can be fully accepted for commercial and public safety applications.
COGNITIVE RADIO:
An “emerging topic” within software radio, a cognitive radio employs model-based reasoning and a high level of sophistication in order to adapt its spectrum use in response to its operating environment. 
NTIA is addressing the following issues raised in the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on SDR and CR:
Ways that CR can facilitate opportunistic use of the spectrum by unlicensed devices while protecting incumbent licensed spectrum users;
Rules for CRs permitting additional flexibility for unlicensed devices operating in rural and underserved areas;
How CR can enhance interoperability between different public safety entities;
Changes to the FCC’s equipment authorization processes to better accommodate SDR and CR systems.

## Ultrawideband (UWB)

- FCC legalized UWB emissions in 2002.
- Competing proposals for primary standard: high data rate Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) or IEEE 802.15.3.
- NTIA/ITS performing research to help with decision.
- Freescale Inc. (Motorola) plans to deliver three UWB product families over the next year.
- Wide range of perspectives on future market size and growth potential.

**Notes:**
UWB – which started out as a super-strange, high-resolution, short-range radar – is starting to morph into an ultra-high-bandwidth data channel.
In April 2002 the FCC legalized intentional, low-power UWB emissions between 3.1 GHz and 10.6 GHz for communications devices operated indoors. 
The primary standard involving UWB is the high data rate Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) or IEEE 802.15.3. Proposals for the 802.15.3 Physical and Media Access Control standards have been made by Motorola and the Multiband OFDM Alliance (MBOA) which includes 120 companies such as Intel and Texas Instruments. 
NTIA/ITS has been a leader in research on UWB. Currently the Institute is involved in a cooperative research and development agreement with Freescale Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Motorola Inc., to study how the interference potential of certain types of UWB emissions could be quantified in terms of signal characteristics that distinguish UWB signals. 
There is a wide range of perspectives on the future market size and growth potential of UWB technology.  Some see 274 million chipsets by 2007, while others see only 24 million by this time.  A recent report by Parks Associates predicts that there will be 150 million UWB devices by 2008. 
Freescale has detailed the current and next generation UWB product family roadmap at the Wireless Connectivity (WiCon) World Expo in Amsterdam on June 7, 2004.  Over the next year, Freescale plans to deliver three advanced UWB product families, including the industry’s first 1 Gbps UWB solution.

## Broadband Technologies Helping to Achieve the President’s Goal...

- Wi-Fi
- As of Feb. 23, 2005, JiWire.com has calculated 59,811 Wi-Fi hotspots in 96 countries, with 24,027 hotspots in the U.S.
- Wi-Fi NICs are readily available for less than $50, and InStat/MDR predicts that 95% of laptops will have Wi-Fi as a standard feature by 2005.
- WiMax
- Intel plans to build WiMax into its Centrino chip platforms, which power 80% of all PCs, by 2006.  Motorola plans to commercially offer integrated radio access networks that can handle 3G, Wi-Fi, WiMax and other future wireless innovations.  AT&T, Siemens, and Alcatel are also backing WiMax technology.
- InStat/MDR estimates that a company could reach 97.2% of the US population with a $3.7 billion investment in Wi-Fi.  (Source: *Why Cheaper and Faster WiMAX will Force Convergence”, *Wireless Business Forecast, Dec. 16, 2004)

**Notes:**
+ Electronic numbering (ENUM) protocol promises true convergence by facilitating communications through email, fax, instant messaging, or voice calls by using a single telephone number for all transmissions. 
+ IPv6 will make available 1038 unique Internet addresses; literally trillions for every square inch of the planet’s surface.
+ Moore's Law = declining memory costs: Computer memory prices on the spot market have fallen about 24% since early April 2004 to about $4.80 at the end of May 2004 from an early-April peak of $6.30 for 256 megabits of DDR SDRAM (double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory).

+ PCs will continue to be the biggest driver of DRAMs. PC shipments are expected to increase 11% in 2004. In addition, the amount of memory in computers will rise. The average PC had 384 megabytes of DRAM in 2003. In 2004, that will increase to 512 megabytes, according to market researcher IC Insights.[Source: Electronics and Technology News, DRAM, Purchasing, July 15, 2004]

+ December 2004 factory-to-dealer sales of DTV products hit 927,000 units, marking a 45% increase over December 2003. 
+ Total DTV sales for 2004 reached $10.7 billion on 7.2 million units, an increase of 75 % compared to year-end 2003. (CEA 1/28/05).  
+ 2005 sales projection: 10.77 million DTV sets   2008 sales projection: 27.5 million DTV sets    [Source: Center for Media Research 2/7/05]

## Unlicensed Mesh Networking

- By linking nodes on an ad hoc basis, mesh technology promises to deliver high bandwidth at an order of magnitude lower cost than existing licensed wireless technologies.
- Mesh architecture permits the extension of wireless coverage to areas that do not have wire
- 	infrastructure, and can link
- 	diverse devices or networks.
- Mesh access points integrate with existing WLAN access points to extend wireless coverage to areas not readily accessible by cables.

- Self-Organizing Neighborhood Wireless Mesh Networks(Source: Microsoft Research)

**Notes:**
Wireless mesh networks implements links between nodes with a radio of some form rendering the number of possible links between a given node and any other potentially much greater than that of a wired network.  The actual configuration of a particular wireless mesh need not be determined until it is actually moving data. Paths through the network can change from moment to moment in response to varying traffic loads, radio conditions, or traffic prioritization. Wireless meshes are incredibly flexible network) structures, and amazingly adaptable to many different applications and markets. 

VoIP providers are currently looking at Wi-Fi mesh networks for carrying VoIP.

## New Communications Forces 

**Multiple Ubiquitous Digital Networks**
- 1’s and 0’s
- Single digital connection
- No more user classes – industry, private, government
- Multiple users share a big digital pipe
**Sharply increased intelligence at the edge**
- Software-defined Radio
- Cognitive Radio
- Smart radios: the bit-sources and bit-sinks that terminate the universal bit-pipes

**Notes:**
Standing back a little ways from the daily changes, you can begin to see some very fundamental ways in which the basic nature of communications is changing.
I have picked out a couple of the important paradigm changes for the next few slides.  Possibly you can pick out more...

Multiple Ubiquitous Digital Networks: 
Our communications systems no longer carry any services.  They only carry 1’s and 0’s.  The receivers turn the 1’s and 0’s into services. That means that a single “bit-pipe” connection to the Internet or some other data source can supply as many and as different services as can be built up from the stream of 1’s and 0’s pouring from the bit pipe. 
There are differences between various bit-pipes, which will matter differently to the various users... these differences include cost, maximum bit rate, robustness under wide variety of situations, availability in various environments (wireless or wired  geographical areas of availability, moving terminals), security issues, latency, etc.  But we are probably not interested in what type of service those bits will be expected to provide or to whom. The communications system just delivers the bits; the user changes the bits into a desired service. This is a huge change from the past.
Sharply increased intelligence at the edge:
Software-defined Radio – many radios in one.  Selected capabilities defined by software.
Cognitive Radio -  Smart enough to sense other signals to avoid interference and maximize performance.
Smart radios are the bit-sources and bit-sinks that terminate the universal bit-pipes. They are rapidly-changing chameleons that defy simple analysis for interference or performance levels.  

## Public Policy Focus: Public Safety

- NTIA/ITS Public Safety Program supports:
- PUBLIC SAFETY PRACTITIONERS
- On behalf of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES)
- Dept of Homeland Security’s SAFECOM Program
- National Institute of Justice’s CommTech Program (formerly known as the AGILE Program)
- Dept of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program
- Dept of Justice’s “GLOBAL” Justice Information Sharing Initiative
- Dept of Homeland Security’s CIO’s Office and Wireless Management Office

**Notes:**
The ITS Public Safety Program supports a number of Federal Government programs that are focused on facilitating telecommunications interoperability and information sharing for the public safety community at and among the local, state, tribal, and Federal government levels.  At the heart of the ITS program, and actually all of the programs shown here, are the practitioners who serve us all so very well every day.  ITS continues to work very closely with the law enforcement people, the firefighters, the EMTs, etc., to help these practitioners develop solutions that will be effective for them.  A structured approach is followed to find these solutions. 

## NTIA/ITS Public Safety Program

*Standardized interoperability work for wireless communications and information sharing --*
- Includes for the Long-Term Solution:
- Requirements Definition
- Architecture Framework Development
- Interface Specifications (Standards) Development
- Test and Evaluation
- R&D based on Gap Analysis (VoIP, security, MANET, etc.)
- Includes for the Short-Term Solution:
- Assessment of Interim Interoperability Products

**Notes:**
The long-term solution process encompasses a comprehensive, yet expeditious, approach to reaching standardized interoperability. Standards begin with requirements.  ITS is proud of its recent contributions in helping the practitioners and the Federal Programs define public safety’s wireless telecommunications requirements through Version 1 of a Statement of Requirements published in April 2004. And I am most pleased to note that Congress acknowledged this significant feat in language commending ITS in the FY 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Act.  During 2005, ITS will finish two more versions of the Statement of Requirements (SOR), providing more technical data that can be used by industry in developing products and services.  The SOR also drives the development of the Public Safety Architecture Framework.

The Architecture Framework, also to be completed this year, will establish “what” the overall structured approach is for facilitating interoperability, and through the details of this structure, indicates “how” the architecture (and its components) will operate through the development of interface standards.  While the framework is necessary before all standards can be identified, ITS represents the Federal programs in several standards development organizations, most notably Project 25 and TIA TR8, where standards, even now, appear to be key to a viable standardization strategy.

The Boulder laboratories are being used in a number of different ways to expedite both long and short term interoperability efforts. Activities range from assessment of architectural concepts, standardization approaches, and R&D ideas, to validation of standardized products and services.  In addition, work has been done to characterize the effectiveness of various products that have been commercially offered to public safety as interim solutions until the long-term interoperability approach has been finalized.

R&D work will become more of a priority for the lab once gap analyses are performed and it becomes apparent that more information is required to completely address technical issues related to the architecture framework or interface specifications.  Perhaps that R&D may be necessary for voice over IP, security, or mobile ad hoc network issues.  Mobile Ad Hoc Networks or MANETs (pronounced man-a) holds great potential for public safety and first responders.  The technology is still in development and a standard MANET protocol has not been adopted, but govt agencies such as NIST already have test programs underway.  MANETs provide “multi-hop” communication among autonomous nodes (such as PDAs, cellphones), creating a low-power network at a disaster site.  Each node acts as a source, relay point or destination, and can extend the range of radios in large buildings.  Companies such as Seattle start-up CoCo Communications and Cisco are currently developing MANETs. [Source: “MANET and the Art of Communication”, Federal Computer Week, 2/15/05]

In short then, the ITS Public Safety Program is providing the technical foundation on to which the practitioners and Federal interoperability programs can jointly design a successful and far-reaching enterprise that can benefit all Americans.

## Rethinking Spectrum Management Approaches

_**Old Way**_
- Command and control
- Specific rules ensure acceptable performance for specific service
- The way it has always been done...
_**Evolution**_
- Alternatives** **
- Low power non-licensed underlays
- Secondary markets
- Smart sharing algorithms to avoid interference – like DFS
- Wireless mesh networks to grow capacity as fast as consumption
- Flexible Use Spectrum Rights (ISART Tutorial)
- Initially deployed in targeted responsible manner

**Notes:**
Our approach to managing the spectrum has not changed in decades; therefore, we’re rethinking it.  The old way of managing spectrum frequencies was a command-and-control system, based on many different licensed bands, each one intended for a very specific service and technology and a very specific class of users.

The new paradigms suggest that few of these assumptions are true anymore.  Communications only moves bits, often with no specified set of services or classes of users.  Therefore, new spectrum bands must be allocated based on a different basis.  

Some alternatives to “Command and Control” licensing of frequencies we’re considering include:
Low power non-licensed underlays 
Secondary markets
Smart sharing algorithms to avoid interference – like Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS)
Wireless mesh networks to grow capacity as fast as consumption
Flexible Use Spectrum Rights – we have a tutorial on this subject coming up later today

## President’s Spectrum Policy Initiative 

*“**The existing legal and policy framework for spectrum management has not kept pace with the dramatic changes in technology and spectrum use.”*
- - President George W. Bush, Presidential Memorandum, May 29, 2003
- Committed the Administration to develop a comprehensive U.S. spectrum policy for the 21st century.
- The Secretary of Commerce was charged to lead this initiative.

**Notes:**
The goals of the President’s initiative are:
-  to foster economic growth; 
- ensure national and homeland security;
- maintain U.S. global leadership in communications technology development and services; and
- satisfy other vital U.S. needs such as public safety, scientific research, federal transportation infrastructure and law enforcement

The Initiative is intended to start on solid technical grounds and to bring in trusted stakeholder leadership.  Both industry and the federal government have worked hard over the past year to define recommendations in two reports to the President that they believe will result in meeting everyone’s future spectrum needs, provide access to spectrum for new technologies, and ensure certainty and protection to the existing incumbents.   

## Responding to the President’s Directive

- A Federal Government Spectrum Task Force proposed recommendations for improving the federal agencies’ use of the spectrum.
- A separate report, with input from a wide range of stakeholders, recommended improvements to overall spectrum management (including use by federal, state, local, and private sector entities).
- The recommendations included proposals to develop:
- A test bed for sharing spectrum between federal government and non-government users.
- Long range spectrum strategic plans.
- A process for reviewing cost effectiveness and efficiency in federal agencies’ selection of systems.
- Proposals for greater use of incentives in the management of government as well as non-government spectrum.
- A review of international spectrum policy and framework.
- In November, 2004 President Bush issued an Executive Memorandum that established the recommendations as national policy and called for their implementation.

## What’s Next: Implementation Plan Deliverables

- High-level federal government PPSG was created and provided advice on drafting of the implementation plan.
- Highlights for 2005:
- Establish a private sector FACA advisory committee
- Establish a spectrum test-bed for 20 MHz of spectrum from FCC and NTIA
- Catalog current/future spectrum engineering and analysis models to determine impact of technologies on spectrum environments
- Create an incentives plan to increase efficient and effective spectrum use
- Highlights for 2006:
- Federal and national strategic plan
- Recommend improvements to international spectrum management process
- Updated federal government frequency assignment process
- Outreach program to promote new engineering/analysis tools to federal and non-federal spectrum users

**Notes:**
In November, 2004 President Bush issued an Executive Memorandum that established the recommendations as national policy and called for their implementation by heads of executive departments and agencies.

Above are high points from some of the deliverables due in the next two years.  
PPSG = Policy and Plans Steering Group (members include Assistant Secretaries from DOD, USDA, Treasury, DOT, State, DOJ, Interior, Energy, DHS, and equivalents from NASA, OMB, FCC OSTP)
FACA = Federal Advisory Committee Act 

2006, bullet 2 - Recommend improvements to international spectrum management process – refers to the ITU and WRC process

## The most viral forces moving the digital economy are beyond the reach of state and federal regulators.
Change in the communications and information technology market continues to occur at a phenomenal rate.
U.S innovation leadership depends on the U.S creating President Bush’s environment for new technologies and entrepreneurship.
Are we creating an innovation culture open to dramatic acceleration in the market?

- Change in the communications and information technology market continues to occur at a phenomenal rate.
- U.S innovation leadership depends on the U.S creating President Bush’s environment for new technologies and entrepreneurship.
- Are we creating an innovation culture open to dramatic acceleration in the market?

**Conclusion**

**Notes:**
In closing:
Big changes are happening in technology today.

These changes are making it desirable to rethink several aspects of federal frequency management.

President Bush has asked NTIA to oversee a major re-examination of ways to ensure the efficient  licensing of federal frequencies, including incentives, increased sharing of systems and frequency bands, and more.

Big changes are also underway in the ways that the federal frequency bands are used.

The Administration is creating an environment to support technology innovation and we support a regulatory environment that can adapt to the dramatic changes brought about by these new technologies.