Institute for Telecommunication Sciences / About ITS / Awards / 2014 Silver Medal Awards

2014 Silver Medal Awards

Bob Johnk, Jaydee Griffith, and Mitchell Powell of ITS received a Department of Commerce Silver Medal Award for Scientific/Engineering Achievement for developing and using an innovative approach to measure building-penetration characteristics of radio signals, for inventing and implementing a compact, radio signal measurement system, and for developing an efficient and effective methodology for determining optimal configurations and designs for in-building communication systems for use by first responders. Building walls reduce radio signal power in complex ways, creating difficult and sometimes life-threatening communication challenges for first responders. The team investigated different building types and different ways to enhance coverage by LTE systems. Dr. Johnk independently designed and, with the help of the team, performed a comprehensive series of measurements using an innovative system of his own invention to measure signal strengths and equipment performance. Because the system was mounted in a backpack, measurements could be conducted in places and circumstances that closely mimicked those of first responders moving through various building types during incident responses. Measurement results led to concrete recommendations for improving in-building performance of LTE communications equipment which are already being implemented, using currently available equipment, to enhance the safety and effectiveness of America’s first responders. The results also identified the most critical needs for additional research. A summary of results and recommendations from this work was presented to wide acclaim from public safety communications professionals at the 2014 International Wireless Communications Expo (ICWE) and at the 2014 Public Safety Broadband Stakeholder Conference, and a full description was published in NTIA Technical Report TR-15-518. The work was funded by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC), which leads the DHS effort to enable interoperable emergency communications among 60,000 Federal, state and local public safety agencies. Via DHS and FirstNet, all of these agencies will benefit from the recommendations produced by the research designed by Dr. Johnk and executed by the team.

Paul McKenna of ITS shared a Silver Medal Award for Outstanding Leadership with Edward Drocella, James Richards, and Frederick Najmy of NTIA's Office of Spectrum Management for developing and implementing innovative techniques to enable new spectrum sharing opportunities between federal and commercial users. To fuel continued economic growth and innovation by making additional spectrum available for commercial broadband, NTIA recommended the reallocation of the 3550–3650 MHz band using geographic exclusion zones to protect federal systems. As originally calculated, these geographic restrictions limited the deployment of broadband systems in many top markets. The group led a joint NTIA, Department of Defense and Federal Communications Commission working group that spearheaded innovative collaboration methods to develop a specialized analysis model. The unique analysis model developed by this team applied cutting-edge analysis techniques and Geographic Information System (GIS) data to more realistically assess potential interference to federal systems in an effort to reduce the exclusion zones. The improved technical analysis reduced the exclusion zones previously deemed necessary to protect federal operations by an average of 77%, increasing the overall market access for commercial broadband systems by an average of 34% and maximizing auction revenue. The results of this effort formed a basis for the FCC rulemaking establishing a flexible regulatory framework necessary to auction the spectrum for commercial broadband systems. This effort directly supported the President's goal of identifying 500 megahertz to be made available for commercial wireless broadband services. The assumptions, methods, analyses, and system characteristics used to generate the revised exclusion zones were published in NTIA Technical Report TR-15-517.