Institute for Telecommunication Sciences / About ITS / Awards / 2015 Outstanding Publication Awards

2015 Outstanding Publication Awards

On September 20, 2016, ITS researchers Paul McKenna and Margaret Pinson were presented with ITS Outstanding Publications Awards for works published in calendar year 2015.

McKenna was honored for his contribution to NTIA Technical Report TR-15-517, 3.5 GHz Exclusion Zone Analyses and Methodology, co-authored with Edward F. Drocella Jr., James C. Richards, Robert L. Sole, Fred Najmy, and April Lundy of NTIA's Office of Spectrum Management and published in June 2015. The report explains the assumptions, methods, analyses, and system characteristics used to generate the revised exclusion zones for small-cell commercial broadband systems entering the 3550–3650 MHz band under new FCC spectrum sharing rules. The exclusion zones protect federal radar operations (ship and land based) in the same band from aggregate interference. This publication was selected because it “addresses a topic of intense interest and potential impact on major decisions on future spectrum sharing. Despite the many complex equations, the report is very approachable. The executive summary in particular can be understood by a non-technical expert. This is rare and worthy of note. The report provides an excellent example of adhering strictly to a technical analysis of the situation without delving into opinions or commentary."

Pinson was honored for her contribution to the tutorial article “Video Quality Assessment: Subjective testing of entertainment scenes,” which appeared in IEEE Signal Processing Magazine in January 2015. This article describes how to perform a video quality subjective test, assuming no prior knowledge and focusing on proven techniques to remove perceived barriers to conducting such tests and expanded research opportunities for industry and academic research and development. It was co-authored with Lucjan Janowski, and Zdzisław Papir of the Department of Telecommunications, AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow, Poland. The publication was selected because it “provides a very accessible distillation of over 20 years of subjective video quality testing experience. It guides readers simply and cleanly through video scene selection, video devices under test, test environments, test protocols and rating scales, and statistical analysis of test results. The article provides a wealth of information that can be used to great advantage by any reader seeking to enter the field. It could potentially save other organizations many thousands of dollars, untold person hours, and much frustration associated with learning these lessons one-by-one over the years.”