Wireless communication has become an indispensable feature of everyday life. Recognizing that its role in the development of emerging technologies will be vital, the federal government has made a sizable investment in research.


In June, the Obama administration’s Advanced Wireless Research Initiative announced it had pledged more than $400 million in public and private funds through the National Science Foundation (NSF). The money will support wireless communications research and infrastructure platform. The goal is to make wireless communication faster, smarter, more responsive and more robust.


According to the NSF, the number of U.S. wireless-connected devices has more than doubled to 350 million from a decade ago, carrying more than 100,000 times the traffic than was supported in 2008. Experts anticipate as many as 200 billion connected devices globally by 2020.


With these numbers, the need for ultra-high-speed, high-bandwidth and low-latency wireless connectivity will only increase. 


Demand for advanced wireless communications is not just a matter of connecting more smartphones and tablets. Environmental sensing in city government, vehicle-to-vehicle communications and self-driving cars, and a host of other new critical platforms also demand improved wireless technologies.


NSF funding will support research development in three key areas. Ultra-high-frequency millimeter-wave data transmission at ultra-high speeds over networks that span only a few blocks will dramatically improve the speed and capacity of wireless data transmission. Dynamic spectrum sharing over limited radio bandwidth enables providers to connect and support a growing number of devices that could eventually reach the trillions. Finally, network virtualization through software-defined networking and software-defined infrastructure will improve security, performance and resilience in wired and wireless communications.


Jim Kurose, head of computer and information science and engineering at NSF, described the research on advanced wireless as “transformative.”


“[It will] take us beyond the current and next generation of wireless—beyond what has been envisioned thus far,” he said.