ITS: The Nation’s Spectrum and Communications Lab
Our mission is to ADVANCE innovation in communications technologies, INFORM spectrum and communications policy for the benefit of all stakeholders, and INVESTIGATE our Nation’s most pressing telecommunications challenges through research that employees are proud to deliver. Learn more about ITS on our YouTube Channel or read about our research programs in the Technical Progress Report.
News
October 1, 2021
Video streaming is a highly competitive market that dominates internet traffic. Video consumes 65% of worldwide mobile downstream traffic....
September 16, 2021
The Video Quality Research Program has launched an interactive web demo of ITS-developed software that estimates the quality of...
August 18, 2020
Presentations from the ISART 2020, the International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies: 5G Spectrum and a Zero-Trust Network are now available on the ISART...
Recent Publications
-
NTIA Special Publication SP-22-560: 5G In-Air Field Strength Measurements for Radar Altimeter Research March 2022, Frank H. Sanders; Kenneth Tilley; Geoffrey A. Sanders. This brief video provides an overview of ITS's approach to taking RF measurements to provide data relevant to the topic of radio interference that might possibly occur from some U.S. 5G transmitters t...
-
NTIA Technical Report TR-22-557: Tropospheric Scatter: Theory vs. Predictive Models February 2022, Roger A. Dalke. Circa 1960, the National Bureau of Standards intensively studied over-the-horizon radio propagation due to tropospheric (aka forward) scatter. The results of that effort, published in the form of grap...
This Month in ITS History
June 1910: Congress Passes First American Radio Law
On June 28, 1910, Congress passed the Wireless Ship Act (PL 262, 61st Congress). The legislation was prompted by the 1909 wreck of the SS Republic. When the Republic sank, a radio distress call saved 1,200 lives. This law was first in the U.S to regulate radio and applied only to ships carrying 60 or more passengers and traveling 200 miles. The act required these ships to carry a radio, and a skilled radio operator. Radio was still a cutting edge invention in 1910, but the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in the Commerce Department (DOC) was already investigating its uses. The DOC was given authority to enforce the new law, and NBS increased its radio work in preparation for the ...