[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 34 (Tuesday, February 20, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12871-12872]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-03400]


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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Request for Information on the National Spectrum Research and 
Development Plan

AGENCY: Networking and Information Technology Research and Development 
(NITRD) National Coordination Office (NCO), National Science 
Foundation.

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Presidential Memorandum on Modernizing United 
States Spectrum Policy and Establishing a National Spectrum Strategy, 
November 13, 2023, the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the 
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), 
released a National Spectrum Strategy (Strategy), November 13, 2023. 
The word ``spectrum'' in this context refers to the radio frequency 
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Strategic Objective 3.2 of the 
Strategy directs the U.S. Government, through the White House Office of 
Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and in coordination with the 
Federal agencies, to develop a National Spectrum Research and 
Development Plan (R&D Plan). On behalf of OSTP, NITRD NCO seeks public 
input for the creation of the R&D Plan. The R&D Plan will act as an 
organizing national document, providing guidance for government 
investments in spectrum-related research and offering valuable 
insights. The R&D Plan will identify key innovation areas for spectrum 
research and development and will include a process to refine and 
enhance these areas on an ongoing basis.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
11:59 p.m. (ET) on March 21, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Comments submitted in response to this RFI may be sent by 
any of the following methods:
     Email: [email protected]; Email submissions 
should be machine-readable and not be copy-protected. Submissions 
should include ``RFI Response: National Spectrum R&D Plan'' in the 
subject line of the message.
     Fax: 202-459-9673, Attn: Mallory Hinks; or
     Mail: Attn: Mallory Hinks, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, 
Alexandria, VA 22314, USA.
    Instructions: Response to this RFI is voluntary. Each individual or 
institution is requested to submit only one response. Submissions must 
not exceed 10 pages in 12 point or larger font, with a page number 
provided on each page. Responses must include the name of the person(s) 
or organization(s) filing the comment and the following statement: 
``This document is approved for public dissemination. The document 
contains no business-proprietary or confidential information. Document 
contents may be

[[Page 12872]]

reused by the government in the National Spectrum R&D Plan and 
associated documents without attribution.'' Responses to this RFI may 
be posted online at https://www.nitrd.gov/. Therefore, we request that 
no business proprietary information, copyrighted information, or 
sensitive personally identifiable information be submitted as part of 
your response to this RFI. In accordance with FAR 15.202(3), responses 
to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government 
to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all 
expenses associated with responding to this RFI.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mallory Hinks at 
[email protected] or (202) 459-9674. Individuals who use a 
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal 
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 8 
p.m., eastern time, Monday through Friday, except for U.S. Federal 
Government holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The National Spectrum Strategy (Strategy), 
November 13, 2023, Strategic Objective 3.2 directs the U.S. Government, 
through the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and in 
coordination with the Federal agencies, to develop a National Spectrum 
Research and Development Plan (R&D Plan). The R&D Plan will act as an 
organizing national document, providing guidance for government 
investments in spectrum-related research and offering valuable 
insights. The plan will identify key innovation areas for spectrum 
research and development and will include a process to refine and 
enhance these areas on an ongoing basis.
    OSTP has tasked the NITRD Wireless Spectrum Research and 
Development Interagency Working Group (WSRD IWG) to draft and 
coordinate development of the National Spectrum R&D Plan. The R&D Plan 
is expected to be released in late 2024. Revisions will occur 
periodically.
    The NITRD WSRD IWG requests input from the public, including 
academia and industry, to assist in development of the National 
Spectrum R&D Plan.
    Topics: We encourage responses to be organized according to the 
following outline, although we also welcome responses that address only 
a subset of the items below. Submitters are encouraged to address the 
topics of this RFI clearly and concisely. Submitted information that 
does not directly address the RFI may be disregarded.
    1. Recommendations on strategies for conducting spectrum research 
in a manner that minimizes unnecessary duplication, ensures that all 
essential spectrum research areas are sufficiently explored, and 
achieves measurable advancements in state-of-the-art spectrum science 
and engineering. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:

 Methods/approaches to increase coordinated investment in R&D 
amongst government agencies, academia, civil society, and the private 
sector
 Structural and process improvements in the organization and 
promotion of Federal and non-Federal spectrum R&D

    2. Recommended priority areas for spectrum research and 
development, as well as productive directions for advancing the state-
of-the-art in those areas. Areas of interest include, but are not 
limited to, the following:

 Spectrum utilization efficiency
 Spectrum resilience and assured access for critical mission 
applications and passive scientific observation
 Dynamic spectrum access and management
 Spectrum situational awareness at scale
 Automatic and rapid mitigation of interference problems
 Modeling for coexistence analysis

    Topics relevant to each of the above include, but are not limited 
to, the following:

 Technical methods, designs, and processes
 Economic-, market-, social-, and human-centric concerns
 Business and economic models
 Protection of citizen privacy, sensitive government missions, 
and business proprietary data
 Cost-effective hardware supporting more dynamic spectrum usage
 Use of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques
 Testbed development
 Assessment and certification of advanced systems

    3. Recommendations on grand challenge problems for spectrum R&D. 
Grand challenges are selected research problems that if attacked will 
help motivate and coalesce R&D efforts. Such problems have the 
following characteristics:

 The goal can be concisely articulated to stakeholders outside 
the field
 Success or failure is clear
 Achieving success requires advancing the state-of-the-art in 
multiple areas

    4. Recommendations on spectrum R&D accelerators such as the 
following:

 Shared public datasets
 Open-source software/projects
 Cost-effective flexible radio platforms
 Benchmarks and competitions
 Testbeds, research infrastructure, and collaboration support

    5. Recommendations on near-term Federal activities to make progress 
towards anything identified in responses 1-4.
    6. Recommendations on a process to refine and enhance the R&D plan 
on an ongoing basis.
    7. Terminology and definitions relevant for spectrum R&D.

 One term of interest is ``Dynamic Spectrum Sharing'' which is 
a focus of the National Spectrum Strategy but was not defined.

    8. Other topics.
    Next steps: The NITRD WSRD IWG will consider submissions to this 
RFI when preparing the National Spectrum R&D Plan. The NITRD WSRD IWG 
will not provide responses to submissions. Submissions may be posted to 
the NITRD website listed above for public review. An open to the public 
meeting will be held in May 2024, for community engagement with the 
NITRD WSRD IWG on the R&D Plan. A notice of this meeting with how to 
participate will be published in the Federal Register and on the NITRD 
WSRD IWG web page, https://www.nitrd.gov/coordination-areas/wsrd/.

References

     Presidential Memorandum on Modernizing United States 
Spectrum Policy and Establishing a National Spectrum Strategy, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/11/13/memorandum-on-modernizing-united-states-spectrum-policy-and-establishing-a-national-spectrum-strategy/.
     National Spectrum Strategy, https://www.ntia.gov/sites/default/files/publications/national_spectrum_strategy_final.pdf.
    Submitted by the National Science Foundation in support of the 
Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) 
National Coordination Office (NCO) on February 14, 2024.

(Authority: 42 U.S.C. 1861.)

Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2024-03400 Filed 2-16-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P