| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 23, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 23, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1520453 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Muralidharan Nair
TI Translational Impacts TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | December 31, 2015 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $148,808.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $148,808.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2420 MIDTOWN PL NE STE D ALBUQUERQUE NM US 87107-3232 (505)338-2380 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
2350 Alamo Ave. SE, Suite A Albuquerque NM US 87106-3225 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | SBIR Phase I |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
The broader impact/commercial potential of this project includes three market segments and domestic/international collaboration in technology development and engineering training. The first market segment will be to provide first responders with a way to improve reliability in the communication for incident management through the deployment of on-the-scene smart self-configurable communication systems. This is expected to improve first responder reliance on communications equipment at times of disasters and crisis. The second segment is to target the proposed small cells to domestic carriers for use by enterprise customers and consumers to increase capacity and coverage locally. Finally, the third segment is to provide key spectrum management capability to the deployment of a 4G/5G system in emerging markets through partnerships. The program will also enable training programs for graduate students and complex research & development partnerships with domestic and international partners.
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a cognitive carrier-neutral small cell for mobile communications. The ability to effectively use wireless spectrum is becoming more prevalent, and even more of a requirement, as time goes on due to regulatory issues and spectrum scarcity. However, current communication systems are not sufficiently spectrum-efficient, which is why there is a land-grab for spectrum. A critical improvement needed in communication technology to address spectrum scarcity is smart spectrum reuse. This proposal seeks to develop a cognitive small cell capable of providing smart reliable coverage, and sustained data rates to users in the vicinity. The main advantages of this communication system will be to: 1) Operate as a plug-and-play access point; 2) Provide carrier neutral 4th generation/5th generation (4G/5G) wireless coverage; 3) Provide seamless coverage and sustained data rates to mobile users when multiple cells are deployed in contiguous areas; 4) Operate in multiple bands simultaneously through bandwidth aggregation; and 5) Offload traffic from the carrier network through an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) backhaul.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The ability to use wireless spectrum effectively is becoming more prevalent, and even more of a requirement, as time goes on due to spectrum scarcity and related regulation. It is estimated that there will be 7.6 billion mobile users globally with 50 billion devices by 2020, which includes the Internet of Things devices. This number of users will need approximately 5000 times today's capacity, out of which, 20x is expected to come from new spectrum above 6GHz, 50x from spectrum reuse, and 5x from performance improvement. In this project we take on the spectrum reuse challenge, specifically for Internet of Things applications, through the development of a Spectrum Intelligence capability with the main purpose of providing real-time spectrum occupancy information to Internet of Things networks. This optimizes frequency selection and therefore communication reliability in single gateway and networked gateway applications.
Incorporating IoT with spectrum sensing will focus on information surety in wireless opening up applications where critical information transfer will be improved (like in first responder communication applications). This has many applications in regulations (e.g. FCC regulations for 3GHz band), situational awareness (in the first responder community) and enhanced spectrum use (which leads to more efficient use of spectrum).
The key innovation of the proposed system is a proprietary Spectrum Intelligence capability used to identify spectrum occupancy in the vicinity of the system.
We defined the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) as a Spectrum Intelligence module capable of providing reliable spectrum occupancy information to any device or system that this module may get integrated to. The Spectrum Intelligence module being developed is an independent unit that can be used as a standalone system or slave unit that provides spectrum occupancy information to its master system. This approach will allow us to market and customize our key capability to different target users, for example integrating the Spectrum Intelligence module into an RF PASS (Personal Alert Safety System), typically integrated in a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), which is used by firefighters to notify that there is a firefighter in distress via a (commonly ISM) wireless channel.
A key result is that we were able to develop an OFDM point to point system set to transmit in two possible bands. The TX was able to select the best possible band to cope for varying interference and recover communication performance that was lost due to such interference.
From a broader impact perspective, partnering with the University of New Mexico allowed us to incorporate 3 graduate students and 1 graduate student/engineer from K&A to work on the project. We successfully mentored them in project management (including adhering to deadlines and accountability), problem solving methodology and entrepreneurship.
Last Modified: 04/07/2016
Modified by: Kamil Agi
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