Workshops: Efficient Spectrum Utilization for Wireless Networking and PI Meeting

Stevens Institute Of Technology, Hoboken NJ

Investigators

Abstract

In the past few years the wireless industry in an endless search for more bandwidth efficient modulation schemes, spectrum and bandwidth efficiency have become synonymous due to the limitations of legacy communication systems. These limitations have traditionally bounded the communication system to a specific frequency band with a pre-selected modulation scheme that exhibits the best tradeoffs for the relevant application. Emerging technologies like Software Definable Radios (SDRs), Cognitive Radios (CRs) along with ultra wideband transmissions, smart antennas and ad hoc architectures promise unprecedented flexibility of spectrum access. In unison with these technological innovations, a report from the FCC Spectrum Policy Task Force challenges for the first time the assumption of sparse spectrum resources, by suggesting that at any given time and place, less than 10 percent of the available spectrum is utilized. In order to improve spectrum utilization, the FCC Spectrum Policy Task Force proposes the concept of dynamic spectrum access (DSA). Stevens Institute of Technology proposes to support the National Science Foundation in developing innovative research projects to radically improve spectrum utilization and spectrum efficiency for wireless networks. This project proposes to help develop these concepts through (1) a Principal Investigator Meeting involving the leading technologists and researchers contributing to NSF wireless networking programs and (2) a workshop focusing on physical and network technologies for enhanced spectrum efficiency.