November 2020

Broadband Research Workshops 2020

Technology, Economics and Digital Inclusion

Defining the networking research agenda across disciplines

A series of invitation-only workshops will provide input to a new National Broadband Research Agenda for the next half decade: What are the key research questions for broadband for the next roughly five years? Why are they important to reaching societal goals? What can the federal government, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions do to advance these research objectives?

The workshops will reflect on and help update the 2017 National Broadband Research Agenda report.

The draft report is now available.

Workshop 1: Technology

Nov. 4 and 5, 2020 (We/Th)

Network switch; Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels
The first workshop will consider broadband technology. How will emerging technologies such as 5G wireless, millimeter wave unlicensed bands, low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites, autonomic and software-defined networking impact access network reach and cost?

Workshop 2: Economics

Nov. 10 and 12, 2020 (Tu/Th)

Spreadsheet; Photo by Lukas from Pexels
The second workshop focuses on network economics, including economic models for network costs, network deployment and broadband adoption, as well as economic impacts of broadband availability and adoption.

Workshop 3: Digital Inclusion

Nov. 17 and 18, 2020 (Tu/We)

Photo by Julia M Cameron from Pexels
The third workshop covers the broad topic of digital inclusion, addressing issues of network availability, network affordability, broadband adoption hurdles and digital literacy, as well as the impact of broadband on societal goals.

The position papers have been posted at https://edas.info/p27906.

The position statement is most helpful if it addresses one or more of the following questions:

  1. What have we learned in the past five (or so) years? For example, where have we made progress in technology, economic models and policy ideas? (Please cite papers as appropriate.)

  2. What questions and which issues from the 2017 report are still particularly relevant?

  3. Which approaches and directions are likely to be less productive?

  4. Which questions should research efforts address in the next five years? (Stating hypotheses or goals can be more helpful than simply saying "study digital inclusion" or "conduct research into wireless networks.")

  5. What additional data sources would be particularly helpful to make such research possible (and reproducible)?

  6. If applicable: Should there be shared software tools, testbeds or pilot projects that further our collective research efforts?

  7. Where can collaboration across disciplines be particularly effective and should be strengthened?

Please submit your position statement at https://edas.info/N27906.