Innovation Zones Will Create Wireless Testbeds in New York City and Utah

The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a consortium of more than 30 industry partners, announced last week it will host the first-ever Innovation Zones for experimental research as designated by the FCC. Led jointly by US Ignite and Northeastern University, the PAWR Project will serve as frequency coordinator for the new Innovation Zones, which will make significant additional spectrum assets available to researchers using the PAWR wireless testbeds. 

The projects “will test new advanced technologies and prototype networks like those that can support 5G technologies,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said while it is “establishing a process to ensure new innovators can have access to this testing resource while protecting current, licensed users.”

These sites, which cover existing testbeds in Salt Lake City, Utah and the West Harlem neighborhood of New York City, NY are the first geographic areas that the Commission has defined and made available for experiments under the recent program license model put forth by the FCC. 

“The FCC’s announcement arrives at a time of massive innovation in the wireless industry,” said Joe Kochan, Principal Investigator and Project Director for the PAWR Project Office. “The availability of new spectrum bands and opportunities for spectrum sharing promise advances in wireless communications that will take us far beyond 5G, and the fact that the agency is making it easier for researchers to test these new technologies at scale through the use of Innovation Zones can only accelerate that process.”

Click here if you have not already registered for the EDAS submission system; click here if you have already registered for EDAS (note that proposal submissions are referred to as “papers” within EDAS). You should search for “Round 3 (2019): Platforms for Advanced Wireless (PAWR) Proposal Submission” via the Submit Paper mechanism to register your LOI in EDAS.

A required letter of intent is due by Friday, October 25, 2019, 6:00 p.m. EDT to apply for the rural testbed project. Full proposals are due by Friday, December 13, 2019, 6:00 p.m. EDT.

The following charts detail the newly available experimental spectrum at each location.

Salt Lake City Technical Limits and Band Information: 

 West Harlem, New York City Technical Limits and Band Information:

September 24, 2019