Institute for Telecommunication Sciences
Visit ITS's Main Website.
The Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS), located in Boulder, Colorado, is the research and engineering arm of NTIA. ITS provides core telecommunications research and engineering services to promote:
- Enhanced domestic competition and new technology deployment
- Advanced telecommunications and information services
- More efficient use of the radio frequency spectrum
ITS also serves as a principal Federal resource for investigating the telecommunications challenges of other Federal agencies, state and local governments, private corporations and associations, and international organizations. In particular, this includes assisting Federal public safety agencies, the FCC, and agencies that use Federal spectrum. Current areas of focus include:
- Research, development, testing, and evaluation to foster nationwide first-responder communications interoperability
- Test and Demonstration Networks to facilitate accelerated development of standards for emerging communications devices
- Analysis and resolution of interference issues
ITS Director: David Goldstein
David's email
Contact
Institute for Telecommunication Sciences
325 Broadway, MC ITS.D
Boulder, CO 80305–3337
(303) 497–3571
ITSInfo
Related content
ITS Releases Best Practices Handbook for Propagation Measurements
Behind every initiative to share spectrum are models of how radio waves in a particular band travel, or propagate, through different environments. How far will a signal travel before it becomes too faint to be useful or to interfere with another signal? What happens when a signal encounters a tree, or a hill, or a house? If we can accurately model how radio waves will behave, it can dramatically increase the odds that sharing mechanisms will work.
Accurately measuring real-world spectrum usage and the performance of spectrum-dependent systems is the best way to improve and validate propagation models. NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) has been a primary resource in designing and conducting measurement campaigns, applying its decades of experience to ensuring measurements are accurate and provide meaningful data.
Now, ITS is releasing a handbook of best practices for propagation measurements, outlining how to calibrate, document, verify, and validate these measurements.
This handbook – “Best Practices for Radio Propagation Measurements” – builds on working papers developed while ITS was working with the Defense Spectrum Organization (DSO) to help improve propagation models used by the DSO’s Spectrum Sharing Test & Demonstration program.
Moving Closer to Making Spectrum Sharing at 3.5 GHz a Reality
In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) to accommodate sharing in the 3.5 GHz band between incumbent users — mostly Navy radar systems — and a variety of new commercial users.
The technology that will power this sharing, a new kind of dynamic spectrum access system, didn’t exist when the FCC adopted the rulemaking three years ago. To help test this technology as it was being developed, the FCC sought out the independent technical expertise of NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS). The data gathered via these laboratory tests will be provided to the FCC to support its certification processes for eventual CBRS field operations.
We have made significant progress in our work on testing the two technical linchpins of these CBRS systems: Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) sensors and Spectrum Access Systems (SAS). The ESC sensors are designed to alert the associated SASs when Federal radar systems are operating in the band, so that the SAS can take immediate action to manage the CBRS devices to prevent interference.
ITS has released a study guide for Spectrum Access System testing via GitHub. The guide consists of samples of tests that will be conducted on Spectrum Access Systems. The tests will include a wide variety of scenarios and situations to test the systems’ ability to manage CBRS devices.
Remarks of Assistant Secretary Redl at Silicon Flatirons
Remarks of David J. Redl
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information
Silicon Flatirons “Spectrum Hall of Shame: The Worst (and Best) Radio Policy Decisions”
Boulder, Colo.
September 6, 2018
--As Prepared for Delivery--
Thank you for the introduction, and the opportunity to participate in today’s policy discussions.