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Assessment of Communications Technology Laboratory Responses to the Key Recommendations of the 2019 Assessment
This chapter assesses the extent to which the Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL) followed the key recommendations made in the 2019 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report An Assessment of the Communications Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology: Fiscal Year 2019.1 The recommendations in this chapter are from Chapter 6 of the 2019 report.
PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATION
Key Recommendation: The PSCR [Public Safety Communications Research] Division should develop a research and development roadmap for mission-critical voice, considering how the various activities it includes therein can be used as integral elements. CTL should consult on the roadmap’s development with other organizations, both government and commercial, to determine overlap of technology development. CTL should conduct its own critical technology assessment to inform its roadmap.
The PSCR group has built a broad stakeholder community that spans government, industry, and academia. They have leveraged this community to collect input on mission-critical voice (MCV) strategic priorities and measurement research, particularly around quality of experience for public safety users. Each year at the annual stakeholder meeting, MCV results are presented along with future directions to enable continual feedback that PSCR can use to refine priorities as necessary. PSCR has identified the MCV portfolio as a key priority for support moving beyond 2023.
Key Recommendation: CTL should develop a roadmap for public safety analytics, taking into consideration projected future areas of interest.
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1 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2019, An Assessment of the Communications Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology: Fiscal Year 2019, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, https://doi.org/10.17226/25602.
After fiscal year (FY) 2022, the future of PSCR’s public safety analytics portfolio is uncertain since it is not one of the CTL PSCR priorities for ongoing support. To ensure continuity, PSCR has verified that the core analytics research areas are included in recent technology roadmaps developed by its partners at the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet). PSCR will continue to collaborate with FirstNet in this area.
Key Recommendation: The PSCR Division should consider integration of the UI/UX (user interface/user experience) research and prize challenges with the other PSCR portfolios as appropriate, provided efficiencies can be gained by such integration. The division should consider developing a methodology and process for studying UI/UX along with study of new technologies.
PSCR has successfully integrated user interface and experience research with its other research portfolios and projects through prize challenges and both intramural and extramural research projects. There are many examples of this, and it is clearly a strength of PSCR. Given the importance of user interface and experience to the eventual deployment of public safety technology, it would be useful for PSCR to document lessons learned and formalize a process for integration based on its recent experience. This could be valuable to the community as well as to PSCR as project funding becomes more competitive.
Key Recommendation: CTL should evaluate the possibility of a strategic expansion of PSCR’s internal research staff aimed at ensuring continuity of research in key priority areas in particular after fiscal year 2022 when the spectrum auction funds will have been spent or no longer be available. In addition, CTL should develop a plan for leveraging the expertise developed through the prize challenges.
PSCR has done significant planning and analysis with a goal of maintaining continuity in key research activities beyond FY 2022. It has secured funding to retain permanent federal staff. The CTL effort to manage the transition is admirable, but the concern of funding for key public safety research priorities remains.
Although the prize challenges have not been used as a recruiting tool, they have been part of expanding the public safety ecosystem through building technology capabilities and a marketplace.
METROLOGY OF ADVANCED COMMUNICATION
Key Recommendation: CTL should develop a 3-year or 5-year strategic plan for its activities in metrology for advanced communication, to include: identifying and evaluating new research directions and opportunities for growth; developing strategic partnerships with other NIST laboratories for pursuing new areas; identifying resource needs (equipment, facilities, staff) for pursuing strategic growth areas of research; identifying and pursuing internal and external sources of funding to support the plan; and developing measurable criteria and metrics for annually evaluating progress toward 3-year and 5-year goals. The strategic plan should explain how its execution will support the successful attainment of the CTL priorities.
CTL engaged in strategic planning and underwent a reorganization in 2021. The reorganized CTL leverages existing strengths in research and development, metrology, and standards coordination with an expanded scope. CTL expanded from four focus areas to six research focus areas—Core Network Technologies, Fundamental Electromagnetic Technologies and Standards, Next-Generation Wireless Systems, Public Safety Communications, Smart Infrastructure and Manufacturing, and Spectrum Sharing and Sensing. Metrology is now integrated throughout the focus areas and has a prominent role in the strategic plans and roadmaps for these areas.
Key Recommendation: CTL should undertake planning and resource allocation for renewal and renovation of its measurement facilities with a degree of urgency to support their functioning as a “paid service” to the research and business communities.
Because this assessment was conducted remotely, the panel did not have the opportunity to visit CTL facilities. It is clear that there is still an urgent need for planning and resource allocation for the renewal and replacement of measurement facilities.
Key Recommendation: The Radio Frequency Technology Division should broaden its research portfolio into the areas of optical communications technology and quantum information science and engineering—both of which it has identified already—while leveraging strategic collaborative partnerships with other NIST laboratories, including the Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) and the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL).
As a result of the CTL reorganization and strategic plan, the Emerging Network Technologies program within the Radio Frequency Technology Division has expanded its research portfolio to include quantum optical networking. The Quantum Optical Networking program develops new measurement techniques, tests and performance procedures, standards, and best practices. This is part of a larger quantum networking effort that spans a number of organizations at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), including the Physical Measurement Laboratory and the Information Technology Laboratory. There are significant opportunities for NIST to provide leadership in this area, but coordination between the different organizations is critical.
Key Recommendation: To develop closer partnerships with industry, academia and governments and to explore new sources of revenue the Wireless Networks Division and Radio Frequency Technology Division should integrate and build on the recent accomplishments in 5G millimeter-wave channel modeling, millimeter-wave propagation channel sounding and measurements, on-wafer measurements, over-the-air measurements, and a new design framework for future vector network analyzers.
CTL has been heavily focused on 5G and millimeter-wave efforts. The recent reorganization has broadened the scope of work in the Wireless Networks and Radio Frequency Technology divisions by adding application perspectives to these efforts. The Wireless Networks Division has been focused on 5G technology, metrology, and applications and is the steward for NextG Channel Model Alliance. The Radio Frequency Technology Division is currently leading an Innovations in Measurement Science program to develop new vector network analyzers to support quantum communications.
Key Recommendation: Consistent with its future staffing levels, NASCTN should take a more proactive role in advising on future spectrum allocation decisions. NASCTN should engage impartially with all sides of the debates on emerging and urgent issues.
The National Advanced Spectrum and Communications Test Network (NASCTN) is currently hosted within CTL in the Spectrum Technology and Research Division. As the technical lead for NASCTN, CTL provides measurement methods and validated data to enable spectrum sharing technologies. CTL is also involved in disseminating new measurement methods and validated data that result from NASTCN projects.
The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (P.L. 117-167), includes authorization language that would allow NIST to independently fund projects that have met the NASCTN selection criteria and receive a majority vote from the NASCTN Steering Committee.
Key Recommendation: CTL should continue vigorous support for the spectrum sensing and sharing activity, which has delivered impactful results.
As part of the CTL reorganization in 2021, a new Spectrum Technology and Research Division was established to expand spectrum sharing and sensing activities. The mission of this new division is to “research, develop, and deploy innovative measurement methods and tools to promote novel and efficient use of spectrum through improved access, sharing, atmospheric sensing, and precision timing. The division creates new metrology to understand and improve sharing and sensing wireless communications that use and harness the spectrum by utilizing tools in sensing (such as greenhouse gases), precision time, and future optical networks.”2
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2 See https://www.nist.gov/ctl/spectrum-technology-and-research-division.
