The Open-Access Research Testbed for Next-Generation Wireless Networks (ORBIT), a 400-node radio grid testbed at WINLAB, Rutgers University, N.J. (USA) that provides a proving ground for experiments with network topology and code. [Image: WINLAB, Rutgers University]
On 15 July, the U.S. National Science Foundation announced plans to invest more than US$400 million over the next seven years to support research and development of the next generation of wireless technology. The announcement—a keystone of the Obama Administration’s “Advanced Wireless Research Initiative,” unveiled the same day—aims at providing testbeds, enhanced spectral resources and targeted research efforts that will “accelerate the deployment of a new generation of wireless networks that are up to 100 times faster than today,” according to a White House press release.
The IOT Factor
Underlying much of the announcement, and the new program, is an attempt to provide tangible support for the emergent “Internet of Things” (IOT)—the constellation of connected devices, appliances and other items that has rapidly proliferated. Intel Corp. has estimated that some 200 billion of such so-called devices—“around 26 smart objects for every human being on Earth”—could be tied to the internet by 2020.
NSF in particular cites vehicle-to-vehicle communication by self-driving cars, prospects for remote medicine, and immersive video and VR/AR as bandwidth-hungry game changers. The growth of such technologies, the agency argues, will increasingly strain current wireless resources, and sharpen the need for high-speed, low-latency wireless connectivity.
The growth of that next-gen wireless, of course, will require more spectrum. An important decision on that head came in an announcement from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just the day before the NSF announcement. FCC’s decision on its “Spectrum Frontiers” initiative will open up a wide, 11-GHz swath of licensed and unlicensed spectrum above the 24-GHz frequency band, “for flexible, mobile and fixed-use wireless broadband.”
Creating a testbed
The new US$400 million NSF funding commitment, along with the commitment of industry and association partners, will focus on areas such as millimeter-wave networks, dynamic spectrum sharing and network virtualization. A particularly interesting part of the new program is the Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) collaboration, in which NSF will work with leading wireless industry companies to create four city-sized research platforms to support the development and testing of next-gen wireless technologies at realistic scales. More than 20 private-sector partners, ranging from equipment and device manufacturers to wireless carriers, have pledged some US$35 million to the program; NSF will kick in another US$50 million.
In addition to the PAWR program, NSF’s plans for its funding largesse embrace a hodgepodge of other initiatives tied to growth of the next-generation wireless communications infrastructure. These range from research to optimize wireless edge networks, develop radios with “advanced machine-learning capabilities,” and advance software-defined networking and other advanced virtualization strategies to building industry-academic-federal partnerships on high-speed millimeter-wave network development, the creation of a US$5 million partnership with the Academy of Finland on cutting-edge wireless research, and even a research challenge to “seek innovative ways to provide low-cost, seamless connectivity in urban areas by leveraging fiber optics in light poles.”
Government and industry partners
In addition to the NSF announcement, the White House touted the participation of other partners in both government and U.S. industry. On the government side, efforts by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), for example, will focus on “reimagining spectrum access strategies” and roadmapping future R&D strategies in the millimeter-wave domain.
Industry partners, meanwhile, are focusing particularly on building the PAWR test platforms. These partners include some household names in the wireless access, equipment and fiber optics realms, such as AT&T, CommScope, Juniper Networks, Nokia, Samsung, Verizon and a variety of others. In addition to the US$35 million in PAWR funding that they’ve committed, according to the White House, “these entities will be providing design support; technical networking expertise; networking hardware, including next-generation radio antennas, software-defined networking switches and routers, cloud computing, servers, and experimental handsets and devices; software; and wireless network testing and measurement equipment.”
More information on the program can be found at the White House and NSF websites.