National Science Foundation
NSF Wireless Networking Workshop July 29-30, 2003 Chicago, Illinois

Recently, a number of themes have converged to offer opportunities for significant advances in wireless networking. Some of these themes are:

• Developments in wireless theory and processing technology;
• Increasing user interest in mobile access to information;
• Requirements of national defense and homeland security;
• Re-examination of radio spectrum allocation policies; and
• Recognition that networking of wireless systems is integral to both improving mobile access and effectively using spectrum resources.

The purpose of this National Science Foundation Wireless Networking Workshop is to explore the convergence of wireless networking, radio systems technology, and spectrum policy. The workshop will discuss the system opportunities created by the dramatic advances in new radio technologies and spectrum policies, and specifically the need for new network architectures and protocols, algorithms and systems for mobility management, routing, service control, data transport, and management that exploit new radio capabilities, and at the same time provide the mechanisms to appropriately use the available spectrum resources.

The workshop will bring together communities - advanced (MIMO and frequency agile) radio and spectrum management researchers, and network control and management researchers that represent interests in areas such as mobility management, service control, routing, network management, quality of service, and security. The interaction between these communities will lead to new research directions and specifically identify the challanging problems, research methodologies, and community needs for advancing wireless networking.

The workshop will address the following topics:

• Current state-of-the-art in flexible and wide-bandwidth radios
• Directions in spectrum management policy
• Proposals for wireless network management and control
• Proposals for new wireless network architectures and capabilities
• Opportunities for new end-user applications, services, and scientific applications
• Actions for NSF and the research community

The result of the workshop will be a report covering the topics considered and suggestions to The National Science Foundation.

Attendance is by invitation only. Please contact Mari Maeda at NSF, mmaeda@nsf.gov, for information on how to participate.