Wireless Innovation Forum Initiates SATCOM for Public Safety Project, Signs MOU with COST-TERRA Program at 66th Working Meeting in Mainz, Germany

Location for Next Year’s European Conference Also Announced

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Wireless Innovation Forum (www.WirelessInnovation.org) approved a new project being prepared for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and first responder providers at its 66th General Meeting, June 21-23, 2010, in Mainz, Germany. Other meeting highlights included a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the COST-TERRA program, finalization of a project proposal for SCA Certification Guide #2, finalization of a survey project and announcement of the location for next year’s European Reconfigurable Radio Technologies event.

“The SATCOM-SIG project ‘Hybrid SATCOM Reference Architecture for Public Safety Applications’ supports the evolution of communication systems based on radio architectures to communication systems based on Platform architectures”

The “Hybrid SATCOM Reference Architecture for Public Safety Applications,” was presented by the Forum’s SATCOM Special Interest Group. This report is being prepared for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and first responder providers who require the use of SATCOM systems to support emergency services during natural and/or man-made disasters. The report will document use cases where disruption of traditional terrestrial emergency services is expected, and explore the market need for integration of commercial and military satellite systems with terrestrial communications, highlighting areas where satellite communications provides both primary and back-up communications. The report will also propose a notional architecture for a hybrid LOS/BLOS platform compliant with the Forum’s Information Processing Architecture.

“The SATCOM-SIG project ‘Hybrid SATCOM Reference Architecture for Public Safety Applications’ supports the evolution of communication systems based on radio architectures to communication systems based on Platform architectures,” says Bob Schutz, of Datron World Communications. “As one of the key reference architectures developed by the Forum, this project will directly support the Forum’s Roadmap Committee in identification of the Ten Most Wanted Wireless Technologies.”

The Forum also signed an MOU with the European Cooperation in Science and Technology funded COST-TERRA Program (http://www.cost-terra.org). The program is focused on developing a “Techno-Economic Regulatory Framework for Radio Spectrum Access for Cognitive Radio/Software Defined Radio.” The agreement will allow collaboration in areas of benefit to both the WInnForum and COST-TERRA.

“By forming a strong alliance between COST-TERRA and the Forum, we bring together a wealth of leading technical and economic experts from industry and academia from across the world,” says Keith Nolan, CTVR - The Telecommunications Research Centre, Ireland COST-TERRA and Forum liaison officer. “Through our collaboration and combination of expertise, we can pursue our vision to help develop a harmonised European regulatory framework to facilitate the broad commercial deployment of software-defined and cognitive radio technologies.”

Other meeting highlights included:

• The Test and Certification Work Group of the Forum’s Coordinating Committee on International SCA Standards finalized its project proposal for “SCA Certification Guide #2 – SCA Test, Evaluation and Certification Model Realization,” which will include considerations on tool suite and business models.
• The Public Safety Special Interest Group completed a project proposal for a Technical Survey. This survey is being developed for the public safety community leadership, researchers, product developers, regulatory, and standards developers who are planning the evolution of communication capabilities and/or can benefit from awareness of future technology developments. It is based on the technology requirements identified in the Cognitive Use Case documents published by the Public Safety SIG and the Quantification Document under development by the Cognitive Radio WG to identify both current and projected maturity and also availability of technology to fulfill those requirements to:
  • Help public safety agencies plan communications system life cycle
  • Inform public safety standards and regulatory bodies regarding evolving systems capabilities
  • “De-mystify” cognitive radio for public safety leaders and users
  • Identify for researchers technology gaps and dependencies, and
  • Support roadmap development efforts of the Wireless Innovation Forum.

Immediately following the Working Meeting, the Forum held its second annual European Reconfigurable Radio Technologies Workshop and Product Exposition which featured reconfigurable radio topics including SDR in Public Safety, cognitive radio benefits, spectrum sensing, and more.

The Forum announced at the meeting that next year’s working meeting will be held in Brussels, June 20-22, 2011. The European Conference will be held June 22-24. A call for papers will be disseminated in November.

Sponsored by General Dynamics C4 Systems, Harris, Indra Systemas, and L3 Communications, the multi-day event brought together wireless telecommunications equipment manufacturers (TEMs) with their customers and suppliers to explore the evolution of reconfigurable radio. The workshop was chaired by Liesbet Van der Perre, Director, Green Radios Program, IMEC, and featured keynotes by Tero Solante, Principal SDR Officer, European Defence; Dake Liu, Director of Computer Engineering Division, Department of Electrical Engineering, Linkoping University; Pierre-Jean Muller, Huawei; Thomas Rittenbach, US Army CERDEC; and Prof. Ulrich Ramacher, Head of System Engineering for SDR Mobile Platforms at Infineon Wireless. Fourteen technical sessions comprised of 56 presentations from representatives of leading organizations in the industry were divided into a software defined radio track and a cognitive radio track. Also featured was a plenary session with a presentation on partnering by COST and ETSI, as well as a sold-out product exposition.

More information on the event can be found here.

The Forum holds several working meetings annually, which feature meetings with its many working groups to advance projects. A summary of active projects can be found here: http://www.wirelessinnovation.org/page/Current_Projects.

Upcoming Forum meetings include:

• SCA Next Rollout Meeting August 24-24, 2010, in Washington, DC, with JTRS. Registration is now available on the event web site.
• 67th Working Meeting, hosted by Motorola, will be held in Schaumburg, Illinois, September 13-17, 2010, and will feature a workshop on TV White Space. More information is available on the event web site.
• ITU Region 1 Meeting, hosted by Tubitak, in Antalya, Turkey, October 11-14, 2010. More information can be found on its event web site.

About the Wireless Innovation Forum

Established in 1996, The Wireless Innovation Forum (SDR Forum Version 2.0) is a non-profit mutual benefit corporation dedicated to driving technology innovation in commercial, civil, and defense communications worldwide. Members bring a broad base of experience in Software Defined Radio (SDR), Cognitive Radio (CR) and Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) technologies in diverse markets and at all levels of the wireless value chain to address emerging wireless communications requirements. To learn more about The Wireless Innovation Forum, its meetings and membership benefits, visit www.WirelessInnovation.org.