NTIA and CU Boulder work on wireless test bed

A five-year agreement for the development of a wireless test bed has been announced between the University of Colorado Boulder and the US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

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.

The project will enable measurement of wireless spectrum and system occupancy and spectrum utilisation, 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 David Redl, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator.

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 in Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, CU.

Many facets of engineering education will be impacted as the wireless test bed is developed on campus. Wireless networking will gain valuable information on utilisation 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.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Sergey Nivens

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