Research and Development Priorities for American Leadership in Wireless Communications

This report on recommendations for national spectrum research and development (R&D) priorities sets a vision to improve the national economic impact of electromagnetic spectrum for an increasingly wide range of communications, networking, location, and other applications while preserving and protecting national security and public safety. This priorities report is one step in defining an overall approach to position the United States as a world leader in next-generation spectrum technologies that more effectively leverage time, frequency, space, code, waveform, and networks. The report recommendations identify R&D actions in three priority areas that can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of spectrum utilization through (1) spectrum agility, (2) near real-time spectrum awareness, and (3) adaptive spectrum decision making. The Wireless Spectrum R&D (WSRD) Interagency Working Group (IWG) recommends a whole-of-government approach to electromagnetic spectrum R&D and advocates public–private partnerships to achieve these priorities.