5
Look-Back at Previous Review
This chapter assesses the extent to which CTL followed the recommendations made in the National Academies’ 2015 report, Telecommunications Research and Engineering at the Communications Technology Laboratory of the Department of Commerce: Meeting the Nation’s Telecommunications Needs.
Recommendation: CTL should maintain a position of leadership in the 5G mmWave [millimeter wave] Channel Model Alliance, seek to expand the membership of the alliance, and engage in mm-wave work with other standard and industry bodies.
CTL has maintained and even enhanced its leadership in the 5G mmWave Channel Model Alliance. Launched in July 2015, the NIST 5G mmWave Channel Model Alliance helps accelerate the development and use of measurements and models for next-generation communications technologies. By bringing together researchers from multiple stakeholder groups, including communications technology companies, wireless service providers, academia, and government, CTL has developed consensus technical findings that benefit standards and best practices for 5G deployment. Currently, the Alliance includes participants from over 75 organizations, and this effort is a great success within CTL.
Recommendation: CTL should develop a more defined research agenda that outlines in detail its research goals and future plans.
CTL conducts an annual research planning process focused on its three program areas of public safety, trusted spectrum testing, and metrology for advanced communications. Group plans filter up to divisions for coordination and approval, while the division and CTL leadership set strategic direction and long-term planning based on NIST priority areas. CTL’s process consists of three major steps: (1) process review, (2) program review, and (3) resource allocation. CTL focuses its resources on meeting its priorities by asking, “What do you need to accomplish task x?,” rather than simply status quo funding of projects.
This approach to research planning appears sound, but CTL did not sufficiently explain how these plans might align with the needs of industry or how well the Divisions were able to meet these plans. Therefore, while CTL has defined a general research agenda setting process, the goals and future plans might be more readily shared with future National Academies panels.
Recommendation: CTL should quickly hire and train personnel to establish a leading-edge skill set in areas associated with their research goals and upgrade aging facilities and instrumentation.
CTL has done very well in terms of hiring junior personnel across its various research areas. CTL has also been successful in upgrading its buildings, facilitates, and laboratory instrumentation. These new
facilities include the NIST Large Antenna Positioning System, the NIST Configurable Robotic Millimeter-Wave Antenna Facility, the NIST Broadband Interoperability Testbed, as well as renovating an entire building to house the PSCR Division. Beyond the substantial federal hiring, CTL has also engaged in innovative use of contractors and detailees on loan from other federal agencies to fill hiring needs. The CTL has been using the NIST Professional Research Experience Program to attract staff.
Recommendation: CTL should further develop opportunities to quickly and frequently engage outside stakeholders and obtain frequent outside technical reviews as it moves its research plan forward.
Parts of CTL have been very successful in engaging outside stakeholders (e.g., NASTCN, PSCR, and NIST 5G mmWave Channel Model Alliance), but CTL might benefit from looking at how other groups can better engage outside stakeholders for technical review and input. Of course, there is the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (a FACA committee) that provides input, but this is limited in scope and not directly mapping to each of the research domains/divisions within CTL. There is considerable activity by the CTL staff in presenting research at conferences and in journals, but this may not directly engage the stakeholders most important to the industry-focused mission of CTL. CTL might consider establishing a broader structure for stakeholder engagement.
Recommendation: ITS and CTL leadership should work to build an environment of trust and collaboration across both laboratories.
There does not appear to be the amount of collaboration that had been envisioned in the 2015 National Academies report. While CTL does support ITS staff in a limited manner, the hope was that the Center for Advanced Communications (CAC) would serve as a vehicle for uniting CTL and ITS on common mission research planning and development. With the shutdown of the CAC, there appears to be a new opportunity to consider how best to enable engagement between these valuable research groups within the DOC.
Recommendation: The Public Safety Communications Research Program should be considered as a template for collaboration across the laboratories.
The PSCR continues to thrive. The nature of its outreach mission and the significant funding allows PSCR to engage both within DOC and with other parts of the government (including state and local government). PSCR continues to be an example of a successful collaboration template.
Recommendation: The National Advanced Spectrum and Communications Test Network should be made fully functional as soon as possible to be able to handle the important mission that it has been assigned. This includes the recruitment of customers and additional government, academic, and industrial organizations to utilize the skills in the various affiliated laboratories.
NASCTN has successfully ramped up operations and has completed several projects in the last few years. Its membership now includes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the NASA, NSF, the NTIA and DoD. NASCTN has brought together federal agencies and commercial operators to develop common measurement framework methods and has enabled technical input for sharing of valuable spectrum resources. NASCTN is encouraged to grow its membership and to engage in projects where multiple sides of a given debate might fund the research output. NASCTN will need to remain as a neutral body from the perspective of its stakeholders for conducting these important technical sharing efforts.
Recommendation: The Department of Commerce (DOC) should develop short- and long-term application and basic research plans that would provide the country with the necessary knowledge
base in spectrum areas and enhance the capability for spectrum sharing and repurposing analysis. The DOC plans should include opportunities for various users of spectrum to identify their needs and long-term objectives. A research agenda should consider the most efficient use of DOC’s—and the relevant laboratories’—resources and develop an effective organizational structure and funding strategies to ensure that research goals are met and resources are effectively used.
While CTL did provide evidence of long-term research planning, they did not provide input specific to this recommendation as it relates to spectrum sharing and repurposing analysis. CTL would benefit from further implementing this recommendation.
Recommendation: The Boulder telecommunications laboratories should expand their visible leadership roles by providing technical expertise for agencies and policy makers and providing objective scientific expertise.
The CTL has taken an active role in engaging with agencies on a variety of research engagements, leading advisory roles across federal agencies, standards development organizations, as well as industry consortium. These organizations include the NSF Millimeter-Wave Research Coordination Network Steering Committee, the NIST 5G mmWave Channel Model Alliance, the Telecom Infra Project, and other efforts. However, there remains a bigger opportunity for CTL to provide more input to policymakers outside of the DOC on a wide set of wireless and public safety issues.
Recommendation: The Boulder telecommunications laboratories should fully engage in the current and emerging work in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, and the Internet Engineering Task Force. This must be a long-term commitment, because the time constant for standards evolution is on the order of 3 to 10 years.
CTL has engaged with a number of standards efforts, including IEEE 802, 3GPP, Telecom Infra Project, and the Internet Engineering Task Force. PSCR won a NIST Bronze Medal for their contributions to 3GPP standards for mission critical voice for public safety. PSCR has worked to create dozens of standards that were ultimately accepted and met all public safety mission critical voice requirements. Nonetheless, there is still room for growth of CTL in terms of broader engagement in standards efforts, particularly beyond the impressive work related to public safety.
