Due to the lapse in Congressional Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce is closed. Commerce Department websites, including this one, will not be updated until further notice. For more information, see Shutdown Due to Lapse of Congressional Appropriations.
What We Do
The Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) is the research and engineering laboratory of NTIA. We perform advanced communications research to inform spectrum policy and develop capabilities to solve emerging telecommunications issues. We serve as a principal Federal resource for solving the telecommunications concerns of other Federal agencies, state and local Governments, industry, and international organizations. We work to continually advance the state of the art in radio frequency (RF) propagation measurement, RF propagation modeling, spectrum monitoring and enforcement, electromagnetic compatibility analysis, interference mitigation strategies, evaluation of end-user experience, and engineering analysis of evolving technologies to manage and share spectrum efficiently. Learn more about ITS on our YouTube Channel or read about our research programs in the FY 2017 Technical Progress Report.
ITS is Hiring Computer Scientists and Computer Engineers!
ITS is recruiting recent grad Computer Scientists and Computer Engineers to join research and development teams operating in a cross-disciplinary collaborative environment in our Boulder, Colorado, laboratory. Several full-time, permanent positions are open at the ZP II or III grade. The responsibility of the position will be to assist senior engineers in implementing complex telecommunication and propagation modeling algorithms and developing, validating, verifying, testing, and documenting software implementations; assist senior software engineers solving problems in communication theory, electromagnetics and hardware telecommunication systems; and provide written and oral reports and status updates while working in a team-based environment. These positions have positive education and specialized experience requirements. Please refer to the announcements at USAJOBS for full information.
Computer Scientist: USAJobs announcement # NTIA-ITS-2019-0006 Closes Wednesday, January 2, 2019!
Computer Engineer: USAJobs announcement # NTIA-ITS-2019-0002 Closes Wednesday, January 2, 2019!
Internship Available in Information Technology
We are looking for a Student Trainee under the Pathways Internship Program. As a Student Trainee (Information Technology), you will assist higher banded Information Technology employees with the following duties:
- Provide IT helpdesk support for software and hardware
- Troubleshoot IT problems to support business and research options
- Perform day to day IT related assignments
- Communicate in writing and verbally in a team-based environment and provide updates on work assignments
For details, see USAJOBS announcement # NTIA-ITS-2019-0003 Closes Thursday, January 3, 2019.
November 26, 2018
Behind every initiative to share spectrum are models of how radio waves in a particular band propagate through different environments. How far will a signal travel before it becomes too faint to be useful or...
August 7, 2018
The record attendance (nearly 170 experts from government, academia, and industry) at the 17th International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies (ISART) demonstrated the deep interest in the problem of modeling radio...
April 24, 2018
As demand for spectrum for commercial use continues to grow, policymakers are exploring spectrum sharing as a way to expand capacity while still fulfilling the needs of federal agencies. This model can work only if rules...
February 23, 2018
The Radio Act of 1912 dictated perhaps the first spectrum efficiency requirement when it said that “In all circumstances, except in case of signals or radiograms relating to vessels in distress, all stations shall...
February 6, 2018
Spectrum monitoring—long-term continuous measurement of the radio frequency environment from multiple sensors—is widely seen as essential to enabling increased exploitation of spectrum. Monitoring is expected be the...
New Publications
This Month in ITS History
January 1909: Maritime Radio Distress Call Saves 1,500 Lives
One of the first maritime radio distress calls saved over 1,500 lives. Early on the morning of January 23, 1909, in a dense fog, the Italy-bound SS Republic collided with the New York-bound SS Florida near Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Six people died in the collision, which heavily damaged both ocean liners. A combined total of over 1,500 passengers were at risk. Luckily, the Republic carried a new invention, a Marconi wireless distress signal. J. Binns, the ship's Marconi-man sent out a CQD, an all stations distress signal, to alert nearby ships of the collision before the Republic went down. The call was received at 6:40 AM at the Siosconset wireless station and relayed to nearby vessels. Seven ships responded to the call, and rowboats were used to rescue all surviving passengers and crew from both ships. A tragedy had been averted and newspapers and magazines were filled with the heroic stories of passengers and rescuers alike. New wireless technology had been tested dramatically at sea and proven itself. The next year, Congress passed a change to U.S. maritime code that required all steam ships operating out of American ports to maintain radio distress signals. Much of the Department of Commerce's early radio work was directed at ensuring that all commercial vessels could send, receive, and understand Maritime distress signals like the one the Republic sent out. Today, ITS researchers still work directly to improve maritime safety through, for example, defining interference protection criteria and mitigation techniques to ensure marine radars can continue to provide accurate collision avoidance when sharing spectrum with other radio services.