PAWR Testbeds to Host FCC's First Spectrum Innovation Zones in Salt Lake City, Utah and West Harlem in New York City

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a consortium of more than 30 industry partners, today announced it will host the first-ever Innovation Zones for experimental research as designated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

These sites, which cover existing testbeds in Salt Lake City, Utah and the West Harlem neighborhood of New York City, NY are the first geographic areas that the Commission has defined and made available for experiments under the recent program license model put forth by the FCC. They were chosen as the FCC's first Innovation Zones because of the PAWR program's unique ability to support large-scale wireless experimentation, and the opportunity available in both locations to test new technologies across a wide range of spectrum bands.

"The FCC's announcement arrives at a time of massive innovation in the wireless industry," said Joe Kochan, Principal Investigator and Project Director for the PAWR Project Office. "The availability of new spectrum bands and opportunities for spectrum sharing promise advances in wireless communications that will take us far beyond 5G, and the fact that the agency is making it easier for researchers to test these new technologies at scale through the use of Innovation Zones can only accelerate that process."

How Innovation Zones Work
Using an existing Program License, qualified researchers have previously been able to conduct multiple experiments within select spectrum bands across a small, narrowly-defined geographic area. The Innovation Zones being announced today, however, extend access to a broader area of operation, allowing researchers to experiment in multiple locations and frequencies under a single license award. As a result, these Innovation Zones will provide new opportunities to test advanced technologies and prototype networks at scale in real-world environments. The goal is to enable research that will sustain US wireless leadership through 5G deployments and beyond, and economic competitiveness for decades to come.

"We are thankful to the FCC for establishing the new Innovation Zones and recognize that NSF will need to continue close coordination with the Federal Communications Commission, the PAWR Project Office, and other federal agencies managing spectrum resources," said Ashley Zauderer, Program Director of Electromagnetic Spectrum Management at the National Science Foundation. "Our intent is to ensure these two Innovation Zones within the PAWR program are used to explore and evaluate novel uses of wireless spectrum for both commercial/federal use and scientific research while also protecting existing implementations of spectrum that are already providing value."

"Access to spectrum is necessary to help researchers take full advantage of the PAWR wireless testbeds," said Kobus Van der Merwe, Associate Professor at the University of Utah and Principal Investigator on the POWDER-RENEW testbed, hosted as part of the PAWR program in Salt Lake City. "We are delighted to obtain the Innovation Zone designation from the FCC, and are now fully ready to support experimentation in these spectrum bands on our platform. The Innovation Zone designation, together with our open, fully-programmable, software-defined radio testbed infrastructure, will provide us with the flexibility to enable research that will be critical to our wireless future."

The PAWR Project Office, led jointly by US Ignite and Northeastern University, will serve as frequency coordinator for the new Innovation Zones, which will make significant additional spectrum assets available to researchers using the PAWR wireless testbeds. The following charts detail the newly available experimental spectrum at each location.

Salt Lake City Technical Limits and Band Information:

West Harlem, New York City Technical Limits and Band Information:

To learn more, visit the PAWR website at https://advancedwireless.org.

About the PAWR Project Office (PPO)
The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research Project Office (PPO) manages the $100 million public-private partnership and oversees the research platforms. The PPO is co-led by US Ignite and Northeastern University. It collaborates closely with the National Science Foundation, the wireless research community, local communities, and industry, in part through the Industry Consortium, in the design, development, deployment, and initial operations of the research platforms.

About US Ignite
US Ignite is a non‐profit organization accelerating the smart city movement by guiding communities into the connected future, creating a path for private sector growth, and advancing technology research that's at the heart of smart city development. Follow US Ignite on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

About Northeastern University
Northeastern University is a global, experiential, and top‐tier research university, with the world's most innovative cooperative education program. Research in the College of Engineering looks at critical issues in materials, processes, systems, and infrastructure at every scale—nano to macro to global—grounded in a translational approach that integrates the values of fundamental and applied research to meet societal needs.

About the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2019, its budget is $8.1 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 50,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR)

Related Links

https://advancedwireless.org