§278t Advanced Communications Research Activities

Summary

The Director must run a measurement research program for advanced communications. The Director must work with the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, the Director of the National Science Foundation, and other federal agencies as needed. The research can cover things like radio frequency emissions and ways to reduce interference; advanced antenna arrays and AI for them; AI for Internet of Things and immersive tech; network sensing and monitoring; ways to make spectrum use more flexible and agile; optical and quantum communications; system security; public safety communications; and resilient IoT for advanced manufacturing, plus other areas the Director finds needed. The Director may build and run testbeds with the Assistant Secretary, industry, and other agencies, but must avoid duplicating existing testbeds. The Director must get ongoing input from agencies and private stakeholders through workshops and similar activities and must bring together industry, colleges, nonprofits, and labs to make and update technical roadmaps for priority research. The Director, working with the Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and other agencies, must run a national network of government, academic, and commercial test facilities called the National Advanced Spectrum and Communications Test Network (NASCTN). NASCTN must help share modeling, lab, and test resources to address national spectrum needs. Its work includes measuring electromagnetic propagation and radio system behavior, doing telecommunications science research to support government needs, creating testing methods and interference guidelines, running interference tests, and researching ways to improve interference tolerance, flexibility, agility, and mitigation, plus other director‑approved activities.