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Assessment of the Communications Technology Laboratory
The Communications Technology Laboratory was formed in mid-2014 within NIST and consists of the Boulder Laboratory Director Office, the Communications Test Coordination Office, the Public Safety Communications Research Division, the RF Technology Division, and the Wireless Networks Division (located at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland). Given its recent start, CTL’s early efforts were focused on operational basics, including acquiring space and hiring personnel and developing programmatic plans.
CTL’s current annual budget is $20.7 million; approximately 82.8 percent of this comes directly from NIST, with the balance reimbursed by federal agencies or CRADAs with private firms. At present, the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, FirstNET, the U.S. Army, the Department of Energy, and the National Security Agency fund projects at CTL.1 The majority of the current research staff has expertise in electrical engineering, and most of the technical staff have Ph.D.s.
FINDING: CTL has adequate and sufficiently stable financial resources to carry out its mission. The high portion funding that comes from appropriations provides significant stability to CTL.
CTL’s current funding is being applied to establish CTL and build the CAC collaboration. CTL has identified four areas in which it would like to build capability: (1) personnel and facilities to support NASCTN, (2) situational awareness measurement and analytics for public safety communications, (3) metrology for next-generation wireless networks, and (4) optical communications metrology. Funding is in place to support the first three initiatives, and CTL is seeking funding in fiscal year (FY) 2016 for the fourth initiative. Chapter 4, on collaborations between the Boulder telecommunications laboratories, discusses CTL’s work to support CAC, NASCTN, and public safety.
CTL’s commitment to developing metrology for next-generation wireless networks is commendable, as this will seed the laboratory with expertise in a likely area of future high demand. Relevant topics include the metrology needed to support expansion of spectrum sharing and coexistence and channel propagation and modeling expertise. Much of CTL’s current work focuses on mm-wave technologies. To advance this work and maximize its impact, CTL sponsors the new 5G Millimeter Wave Channel Model Alliance2 with participation of government, industry, and academic researchers. To facilitate the formation of the Alliance, CTL convened a kick-off meeting in Boulder in July 2015. At the meeting, the alliance created a steering committee and six working groups that will meet virtually several times a year.
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1 The committee was asked to review customer needs; however, limited information was provided to the committee regarding CTL’s current customers or CRADAs.
2 For more information on the 5G Millimeter Wave Channel Model Alliance, see https://sites.google.com/a/corneralliance.com/5g-mmwave-channel-model-alliance-wiki/home, assessed September 3, 2015.
FINDING: Channel models play a key role in the design and deployment of wireless systems and in the adoption of standards. Mm-wave radio frequency technology is a promising tool for meeting future demands for wireless system capacity. Participation in the 5G Millimeter Wave Channel Model Alliance contributes to the quality and visibility of CTL’s mm-wave model research.
RECOMMENNDATION: CTL should maintain a position of leadership in the 5G Millimeter Wave Channel Model Alliance, seek to expand the membership of the Alliance, and engage in millimeter-wave work with other standard and industry bodies.
While technical advances in mm-wave spectrum are valuable in advanced new wireless communications, other technologies will be of importance, including MIMO, spectrum sharing and management techniques, interference at boundaries, bi-directional transmission on the same channel, and channel bonding techniques, including bonding between license and unlicensed services. Several of these are noted in CTL’s technical plan.3 However, CTL’s technical plan is a list of broad potential research areas and lacks sufficient specific tasks and research goals. CTL will need to quickly develop a more specific and deeper research plan. The committee notes that although the anticipated work is important, the current spectrum-related research being conducted at CTL—with the exception of mm-wave channel modeling—does not seem to be at the cutting edge compared to that being conducted in commercial and academic laboratories, especially related to spectrum sensing, spectrum-agile hardware, sharing algorithms, and next-generation dense networks. A more specific research plan would help identify areas where deeper work is needed by CTL (and where work might be best done at commercial or academic laboratories). Because the range of possible research is so large, this plan should be developed with careful consideration of what is being done elsewhere in order to define what CTL can do that needs doing (within its charter), what its people are capable of doing (at the state-of-the-art level), and what only NIST can do.
CTL identified a handful of challenges, most of which stemmed from the newness of the organization. The committee anticipates that an increase in technical staff would further CTL’s research agenda in positive ways. For example, CTL identified optical communications metrology as a fourth priority but noted that they have not yet built the capacity to perform this work. Several advances in optical metrology would support next-generation communications. For example, CTL could work to develop fundamental parameters that would support interoperability at 400 GB/s Ethernet (and beyond, over time) by the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet Working Group. In addition, the Boulder laboratories are aging, and CTL does not currently have the most current technical equipment. To advance their stated research goals, CTL will need to quickly hire and train personnel to establish state-of-the-art skills in their areas of focus, and they will need to upgrade their aging facilities and instrumentation. This should be done with a specific research agenda in mind, so that personnel and facilities provide capabilities consistent with the highest state-of-the-art research.
FINDING: CTL staff have identified an appropriate set of communication technology priorities and have begun building the appropriate research activities to support future communication needs. This work is centered on solving fundamental problems (with an eye toward application) and verification, measurement, and testing. However, this research agenda does not outline specific tasks to advance these problems.
RECOMMENDATION: CTL should develop a more defined research agenda that outlines, in detail, its research goals and future plans.
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3 National Institute of Standards and Technology, Program Coordination Office, “Laboratory Planning: Communications Technology Laboratory FY2015,” 2014.
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.
It is important for a laboratory like CTL to stay engaged with the R&D community at large and in particular be attuned to the research and technology needs of the private sector. The committee is encouraged by CTL’s development of the 5G Millimeter Wave Channel Model Alliance, which may serve as a model for further engagement with relevant R&D communities so that CTL can truly serve as an informed and engaged resource for the government as spectrum sharing technologies advance. CTL should also seek out additional opportunities for engaging with the private sector, including increased participation in key standard-setting organizations, such as the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee (standardizing lower-layer Internet network interfaces), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP; standardizing cellular infrastructure and end devices), and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF; standardizing higher-layer Internet protocols.
Another way in which NIST can ensure that it understands the need for the private sector is to utilize outside review. Outside technical reviews ensure that technical work aligns with national priorities and industry needs. NIST has put in place several procedures to review CTL’s work and make recommendations regarding its program. One example is the work of the NIST Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), which is made up of external scientific and engineering experts. CTL presented to VCAT in fall of 2014 and the committee’s report is supportive of its current plans.4 NIST also commissions regular reviews of its laboratories by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on an approximate 3-year cycle (but has not yet reviewed CTL under this regular process). As a new organization that is building its technical plans and capacity, a more frequent review through some mechanism may be warranted.
FINDING: CTL has put in place opportunities to engage with stakeholders and receive outside technical reviews.
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.
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4 U.S. Department of Commerce, 2014 Annual Report, Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, March 2015, http://www.nist.gov/director/vcat/upload/2014VCAT-Annual-Report_final.pdf.
