Wireless, Spectrum & Innovation

Workshop Overview

The purpose of this workshop is to collect community input and create a roadmap of transformative technologies on spectrum related issues that can serve as a strategic guide for future investments by the NSF. The workshop will cover research areas related to wireless communication, networking and spectrum use, looking ahead in a 5-10 year timeframe. The meeting will feature leading researchers with representation from academia, industry and federal agencies. There are no fees for attending the workshop. For this all-online workshop, we expect to invite approximately 40 attendees from academia. Participation is requested through the submission of one-page white papers with bold visions and challenges for the community to consider (see submission link below). At a minimum, the workshop will include technical discussions on the following thrusts:

• Emerging data-centric methods in wireless spectrum sensing, sharing and access -[non-deterministic techniques that are required to meet performance and operational thresholds; real time data gathering, storage and computation for large spectrum datasets; machine learning (ML) and ways to address trust and bias, model validation for guarantees; distributed design/training of statistical and ML models; transfer learning]

• Ultra-performance links -[ways to achieve sub-ms link delays; non-CSMA medium access methods; spectrum needs for autonomous vehicle; sensing-free medium access through non-RF modalities like weather reports, human activity patterns and smart city data; visible light; channel bandwidths and data rates that go beyond 5G standards; backscatter over long distances]

• Novel spectrum uses -[Practical and theoretical challenges in mmWave and THz communications; spectrum studies and coexistence in newly released sub-8GHz bands; spectrum utilization for UAVs, autonomous vehicles and networked robotics]

• Resources for reliable, repeatable, verifiable wireless research -[Datasets, experimentation, emulation, and simulation: topics include NSF PAWR platforms, Colosseum, ns-3 and other simulators, specific dataset needs and availabilities, available software resources like ORAN, ONAP and Open Air Interface]

• Industry and government collaborations-[interactions with industry and government representatives, gap assessment, funding and collaboration opportunities beyond the NSF]

• Spectrum policy and economics-[economic models of spectrum sharing/leasing in sub-8GHz and mmWave/THz bands, policy for certifying and managing spectrally agile devices, cost effective infrastructure deployment for spectrum use, incentives for crowdsourcing spectrum measurements and data sharing, industry perspectives on barriers towards commercially exploiting spectrum]

Participation

Interested participants are requested to submit a one page "vision" statement on an important problem that will drive the future of wireless research via the link below.

We would like to request attendees to commit to the complete program, spanning both days.