What We Do
The Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) performs cutting-edge telecommunications research and engineering with both federal government and private sector partners. As its research and engineering laboratory, ITS supports NTIA by performing the research and engineering that enables the U.S. Government, national and international standards organizations, and many aspects of private industry to manage the radio spectrum and ensure that innovative, new technologies are recognized and effective. ITS also serves as a principal Federal resource for solving the telecommunications concerns of other Federal agencies, state and local Governments, private corporations and associations, and international organizations. The FY 2016 Technical Progress Report describes research performed in the past fiscal year.
ISART 2018
Path Lost: Navigating propagation challenges for ultra-dense wireless systems
July 24-26, 2018, in Broomfield, Colorado
Network densification in response to the explosion in demand for wireless data presents technical economic, and regulatory challenges ... Network operators are looking to ultra-dense networks and ever-shrinking cell sizes to build capacity, but existing propagation models have an inadequate level of fidelity to represent these environments. ... ISART 2018 will bring together leading experts from government, academia, and industry to explore the current state of the art and map the path forward to the next generation of foundational propagation models. Read more here ...
Job posting closes July 26, 2018
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...
April 3, 2017
Evolving and improving the science behind spectrum sharing is
essential to NTIA’s commitment to meeting the demand for spectrum
among federal and commercial users. Just as collaboration between
spectrum users can unlock...
January 3, 2018
A new NTIA Technical
Report, published at the very end of 2017, reports the results
of an investigation of speech intelligibility in different radio
environments recently completed...
New Publications
This Month in ITS History
July 1907: John Howard Dellinger Begins his NBS Career
On July 3, 1907, John Howard Dellinger was officially appointed to the National Bureau of Standards. S.W. Stratton, the director of the Bureau, met with Dellinger and recommended him to the post of Laboratory Assistant in a letter to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. Dellinger began his duties on his 21st birthday. After a few years of service he took a sabbatical to attain his PhD., but returned to the Bureau on its completion. Dellinger rose through the Bureau ranks quickly, becoming the Chief of the Radio Section in 1919, and gaining the nickname Dr. D from his staff. He remained head of the laboratory, which grew into the Central Radio Propagation Laboratory, until 1948 when he retired. During his tenure he published over 140 papers in his own name, primarily on radio propagation and interference, but also on subjects ranging from electrical impedance to Planck's constant. Dellinger directed the work of the Radio Section from its rapid growth in the 1920s, through World War II when the Bureau was immersed in inventing and testing military technology. Dellinger is known for his leadership role in international organizations such as the IRE, the IEEE, USRI, and CCIR (precursor to ITU-R). The Dellinger Effect, which he described, and the Dellinger crater on the moon are named in his honor. ITS leadership continues to follow in Dellinger's footsteps, publishing independently, mentoring other researchers, supporting international cooperation, and widely disseminating the results of their research to the public.