SII Planning Grant: National Center for Radio Spectrum Innovations (NCRSI)

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

Investigators

Abstract

This award is a planning grant for the Spectrum Innovation Initiative: National Center for Wireless Spectrum Research (SII-Center). The focus of a spectrum research SII-Center goes beyond 5G, IoT, and other existing or forthcoming systems and technologies to chart out a trajectory to ensure United States leadership in future wireless technologies, systems, and applications in science and engineering through the efficient use and sharing of the radio spectrum. The radio spectrum should be utilized to the greatest public benefit at national and global scales. Spectrum shortages, both real and perceived, are leading to conflicts between existing users and anticipated new uses – some of which were not imagined when existing spectrum allocations were made decades ago. Many stakeholders seek to protect and advance their interests, with aspects of these interests overlapping and conflicting with each other. Hence, the public debate over the optimal model for managing spectrum is a complex interplay of technology, economics, law and regulation, policy, and the history of past successes and failures. This project is aimed at the development of a comprehensive plan for an SII-Center which would help maintain and extend US leadership in future wireless technologies, systems, and applications in science and engineering through the efficient use and sharing of radio spectrum. The project team is led by the University of Notre Dame, with partners from Northwestern University, Clemson University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, New York University, and Stanford University. The team has an extensive record of successful research, as well as significant and relevant industry and implementation experience. The project seeks to develop plans for a multi-disciplinary center that emphasizes instrumentation of the radio spectrum; collecting and sharing accurate regulatory, usage, and economic data; and developing data-rich system designs and regulatory policies for more efficient spectrum utilization. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.