Progress 07/01/23 to 02/29/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Tiami Networksaims to strengthen rural connectivity research and development for USDA Strategic Goal 5: Expand Opportunities for Economic Development and Improve Quality of Life in Rural and Tribal Communities and specifically addresses priority area 8.6, Rural and community development to expand broadband access in rural America by exploring the effective usage of white space and other spectrums to boost connection speed, quality and reach, market advocacy, and overall awareness of adoption and diffusion of broadband among rural people. The political and social factors of the wireless industry include mobile network operators (MNOs) and certain internet service providers (ISPs) are failing to extend broadband services to rural regions due to the lack of economic viability. One case study and example includes Nebraska's Winnebago Tribe where they were expected to pay an average cost of $53,000 for each household and workplace connected. Nonetheless, initiatives such as the Broadband Equity Access Deployment (BEAD), the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Wireless Infrastructure Fund have begun channeling financial resources toward designated beneficiaries. The impact of these funding initiatives is currently in progress, but it sends a strong signal to the private sector to continue achieving target speed and quality metrics for rural Americans. Moreover, the advent of the new National Spectrum Strategy (NSS) promises to expedite the proliferation and assimilation of internet services and applications, with the third pillar's first strategic objective resonating with the expected outcomes of this SBIR Phase II project. The alignment of the NSS and our project promises a whole-of-Nation endeavor to embrace new and innovative technologies to expand spectrum access to end users. Furthermore, the Department of Defense's recent unveiling of its National Defense Industrial Strategy aims to enhance broadband infrastructure within military installations, thereby enriching the lives of military personnel and their families, and bolstering research and human retention efforts. The emphasis on 5G technology at these facilities suggests potential areas where our Coordinated Repeaters Extending White Space (CREWS) technology could augment connectivity given the rural locations of most military bases. The fiscal year 2025 budget earmarks $19.8 billion for the maintenance, restoration, and modernization of facilities, alongside $17.5 billion for construction and housing initiatives. The boost of investment will replace old and outdated critical infrastructure and digital systems. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? In Phase I CREWS doubled the coverage of existing TVWS networks without exceeding the maximum transmit power allowed by the FCC. Achieved by deploying multiple antennas and increasing transmit directivity via beamforming techniques. Tiami's first innovation coordinated two geographically separated and compact TVWS devices to achieve the equivalent range of a much larger multi-antenna system without having to deploy a gigantic monolithic device. Tiami's second innovation leveraged existing 5G networks for backhaul, thereby eliminating the cost of building an entire network from scratch that caters to only rural users. Tiami used its extensive experience in creating, analyzing, and designing wireless systems to complete Phase I study. Our modeling and simulation indicate that employing the use of our proposed CREWS Repeater, achieves better coverage with a low Signal-to-Noise ratio as compared to the conventional TVWS repeater. . We performed the following key technical objectives during the Phase I study in the most recent project year: Identified CREWS system parameters that optimize the tradeoff between transmission range and size, weight, power and cost. Designed the inter-repeater real-time coordinated beamforming algorithm. Evaluated broadband data performance in different rural simulation environments. Created a hardware and software reference design for CREWS prototyping and estimate the prototype SWAP-c profile. Obtained letters of support from multiple first responders and a defense prime.

Publications