The semiannual BWAC IAB meeting took place in person, Aug 8-9, 2022. The event was hosted by the University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi. An evening reception was held on Aug. 7 (location TBA).
BWAC Registration: Click here to register for the meeting.
Meeting Agenda: Click here to see the meeting agenda.
Keynote 1: Radio Technology Evolution toward Beyond 5G and 6G
Abstract: With the recent history and experience on 5G as our guide, we will share our perspective and shed some light on the state of the art for 5G as well as the initial 6G vision of bringing the next hyper-connected experience to every corner of life. We intend to provide a holistic view from an industry perspective that includes megatrends driving technology evolution towards 6G, new services envisioned and enabled, as well as technical requirements to realize these new services. The expected technical requirement on throughput, architecture, and security will likely be a major step up compared to 5G requirements, and it is therefore critical for the research community to start early and develop technologies to overcome these challenges. While 6G technologies are still in its early days, a few emerging directions are taking shape and gaining momentum in academia and industry alike, including the support of a new spectrum such as Terahertz (THz) band, novel antenna technologies, evolution of duplex technology and network topology, spectrum sharing, AI as a native part of the protocol design, etc.
Speaker: Dr. Charlie Zhang, Samsung Research America
Bio: Charlie Jianzhong Zhang is Senior Vice President and head of the Standards and Mobility Innovation Team at Samsung Research America, where he leads research, prototyping, and standards for 5G/6G and future multimedia networks. He is also currently serving as the Chair of the Board with FiRa Consortium, which is dedicated to the development of seamless user experiences using the secured fine ranging and positioning capabilities of interoperable UWB technologies. From 2009 to 2013, he served as the Vice Chair of the 3GPP RAN1 working group and led the development of LTE and LTEAdvanced technologies such as 3D channel modeling, UL-MIMO, CoMP, Carrier Aggregation for TD-LTE. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Zhang is a Fellow of IEEE.
Keynote 2: NOAA NESDIS - Active Spectrum Management with Passive RF Bands
Abstract: In recent years the trend towards broadband applications in commercial, terrestrial, and satellite-based systems and networks, either fixed or mobile, has accelerated. The most imminent examples are IMT-2020/5G, 6G, satellite mega-constellations and ultrawideband (UWB). The necessary bandwidth to meet the data rates needed for such broadband applications requires these systems to use much higher frequencies. Unfortunately, these RF spectrum regions are also extensively used by passive microwave sensors, which rely on specific naturally established frequencies that cannot be changed. The accommodation of broadband systems in, or adjacent to, frequency bands used by passive sensors may also include compatibility issues and potentials for radio frequency interference (RFI) to passive sensors. Even though regulatory requirements are established at regional and global (ITU) levels to protect passive sensors, at least in some bands, their effectiveness cannot always be ensured due to various reasons, leading potentially to a steadily increasing level of RFI over time. This kind of interference, which slowly grows with the level of deployment of such networks is especially difficult to detect and monitor. RFI in passive microwave remote sensing occurs when artificial (man-made) signals/noise (non-Gaussian) contaminate calibrated radiometric brightness temperature measurements of naturally occurring thermal radiation (Gaussian noise), thus introducing an error in the geophysical variable being observed which in the end leads to erroneous sensor performance and corrupted data. Most difficult in this context is RFI that is small enough to be realistic (not automatically rejected because the measured data are considered obviously wrong), but large enough to affect the data. This is sometimes considered to be insidious contamination. Currently, passive band sensors are not equipped or designed to differentiate noise between natural and anthropogenic sources leading to an inability to detect insidious RFI. The most important mechanism for mitigating RFI is to prevent RFI from happening before it starts. This is at the point where the frequencies of potential future RFI sources are determined, and regulatory conditions are established at national, regional and international (ITU) levels. Only at that point are the necessary conditions/limits for can protection from RFI be established. Once systems are deployed it will be neigh on to impossible to modify or update the equipment that is causing RFI.
Speaker: Mr. Beau Backus, NOAA
Bio: Mr. Backus is a senior staff member of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. He serves on various industry boards, including the National Spectrum Managers Association (NSMA) and the Commercial Smallsat Spectrum Management Association (CSSMA). He worked as a spectrum manager for the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), the space-faring part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and he continues to support NOAA/NESDIS in spectrum management as well as new technology incubations. Mr. Backus has been in the spectrum management sector for over thirty-five years. In that time, he worked with the Air Force, National Security Space, NASA, Space Force, and for much of the last fifteen years, one of his favorite organizations, NOAA. Mr. Backus is a U.S. Air Force veteran who holds a B.C.S. in Natural Sciences from the Santa Clara University in California and a MS in Technical Management from Johns Hopkins University.
Meeting Location: Jackson Avenue Center (JAC), University of Mississippi campus, 1111 West Jackson Avenue, Oxford, MS 38655.
Travel Information: If you are arriving by air, your best option is to fly into Memphis International Airport (MEM), which is approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes (65 miles) drive from The University of Mississippi. There is a shuttle service that operates between MEM and the University of Mississippi, which costs $95 one way or $145 round-trip per person. The shuttle can be reserved through the University of Mississippi, Division of Outreach, Office of Professional Development, Events and Services. This service operates under University policies and procedures. To make your reservation, go to Events and Services webpage. Read the policies and procedures, including hours of operation and payment information. Fill out and submit the shuttle request form. State on the form that you are attending the BWAC meeting by writing “BWAC” in the notes section of request form. Please make sure to request the shuttle at least 6 business days in advance.
You may also rent a car. Rental Car Services at the Memphis International Airport can be found at: https://flymemphis.com/ground-transportation/. There are no parking costs if you are staying and parking at the Inn at Ole Miss. If you are not staying at the Inn at Ole Miss, there is a fee for a UM Visitors Parking Pass. You can find out more about the parking passes by going to https://olemiss.edu/parking/visitors.html.
IMPORTANT: When using GPS to arrive at the Inn at Ole Miss, please enter 38677 for the zip code and NOT 38655.
Bus from The Inn at Ole Miss to Jackson Avenue Center: To reach the Jackson Avenue Center, walk for 3 minutes from the Inn at Ole Miss and catch the University bus (Oxford University Transit, OUT) at Student Union, Blue Route 1. Buses will run every 30 minutes.
For questions regarding local arrangements and transportation, please contact Ms. Babita Pradhan (bpradhan@go.olemiss.edu).