The use of radio-frequency communication-commonly referred to as wireless communication-is becoming more pervasive as well as more economically and socially important. Technological progress over many decades has enabled the deployment of several successive generations of cellular telephone technology, which is now used by many billions of people worldwide; the near-universal addition of wireless local area networking to personal computers; and a proliferation of actual and proposed uses of wireless communications. The flood of new technologies, applications, and markets has also opened up opportunities for examining and adjusting the policy framework that currently governs the management and use of the spectrum and the institutions involved in it, and models for allocating spectrum and charging for it have come under increasing scrutiny. Yet even as many agree that further change to the policy framework is needed, there is debate about precisely how the overall framework should be changed, what trajectory its evolution should follow, and how dramatic or rapid the change should be. Many groups have opinions, positions, demands, and desires related to these questions-reflecting multiple commercial, social, and political agendas and a mix of technical, economic, and social perspectives. The development of technologies and associated policy and regulatory regimes are often closely coupled, an interplay apparent as early as the 1910s, when spectrum policy emerged in response to the growth of radio communications. As outlined in this report, current and ongoing technological advances suggest the need for a careful reassessment of the assumptions that inform spectrum policy in the United States today. This book seeks to shine a spotlight on 21st-century technology trends and to outline the implications of emerging technologies for spectrum management in ways that the committee hopes will be useful to those setting future spectrum policy.

The paper summarizes analysis and conclusions of a study by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board's Committee on Wireless Technology Prospects and Policy Options released by the National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. It adopts as its principal goals making the effective supply of spectrum plentiful so as to make it cheaper and easier to innovate and introduce new or enhanced services and reducing the total cost - including licenses and equipment and for both end users and networks - of introducing or enhancing services. It outlines shortcomings of the current framework for wireless policy. That framework does not appear to be able to satisfy the increasing and broadening demand for wireless communication. Also, released heavily on centrally managed allocation and assignment despite growing agreement that it is inefficient and insufficiently flexible. It relies on service-specific allocations and assignments primarily by frequency band and geographic location, and does not fully exploit the opportunities presented by available and expected technology. Similarly, it does not fully reflect changes in how radios are being build and deployed now or in how they could be built and deployed in the future in response to different regulations. The paper examines 21st-century technology trends and outlines the implications of emerging technologies for spectrum management. It describes key technological advances in radios and systems of radios, including digital signal processing and radio implementation in CMOS, low cost and modularity of radios, new radio system architectures, dynamic exploitation of all degrees of freedom, and greater flexibility and adaptability. It describes the emergence of low-cost, portable radios at frequencies of 60 GHz and above, and their implications. It emphasizes an understanding of interference as a property of radio receivers and radio systems; not radio signals. It also discusses enduring technical challenges such as power consumption, nonlinearity, and the heterogeneity of capabilities in deployed radios and observes that the radio of deployment for new technologies as practical devices and systems and the varying timescales for technology turnover for different services and applications. It builds on the consideration of technology trends to outline several enablers of a more nimble, forward-looking policy in the future, including abandoning the extremes in the "property rights" versus "commons" debate, leveraging standards processes while understanding their limitations, collecting more data on spectrum use, ensuring that regulators have access to technology expertise needed to address highly technical issues, and sustaining the talent and technology base for future radio technology. Finally, the report discusses a set of forward-looking, technology-enabled policy options including the following: - Consider "open" as the default policy regime at a frequency range of approximately 20 to 100 Ghz - Use new approaches to mitigate interference and a wider set of parameters in making assignments - Introduce technological capabilities that enable more sophisticated spectrum management - Trade near-absolute outcomes for statistically acceptable outcomes - "Design for light" as well as "design for darkness" - Consider regulation of receivers and networks of transceivers - Exploit programmability so that radio behavior can be modified to comply with operating rule changes - Use adaptive and environment-sensing capabilities to reduce the need for centralized management - Establish enhanced mechanisms for dealing with legacy systems.

In 2003, the Department of Commerce's Spectrum Policy Initiative was established with the objective of promoting a more efficient and beneficial use of the spectrum. As part of that Initiative, a series of public forums about spectrum management policy was held. The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board was asked to organize one of these forums, a public forum to gather the views of a variety of government and private sector stakeholders about the impact of spectrum policy on their activities. This report presents a summary of those views. Among those included are those representing national defense, homeland security, aviation, science, public safety, amateur radio, cellular voice and data, and terrestrial broadcast uses of the spectrum. Although prepared by the NRC, the report does not present NRC findings or recommendations. A broader study of spectrum policy, including findings and recommendations, will be issued in early 2005.

In June 2016 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened the Workshop on Encryption and Mechanisms for Authorized Government Access to Plaintext. Participants at this workshop discussed potential encryption strategies that would enable access to plaintext information by law enforcement or national security agencies with appropriate authority. Although the focus of the workshop was on technical issues, there was some consideration of the broader policy context, and discussion about the topics of encryption and authorized exceptional analysis frequently addressed open policy questions as well as technical issues. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Recent disclosures about the bulk collection of domestic phone call records and other signals intelligence programs have stimulated widespread debate about the implications of such practices for the civil liberties and privacy of Americans. In the wake of these disclosures, many have identified a need for the intelligence community to engage more deeply with outside privacy experts and stakeholders. At the request of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to address the privacy implications of emerging technologies, public and individual preferences and attitudes toward privacy, and ethical approaches to data collection and use. This report summarizes discussions between experts from academia and the private sector and from the intelligence community on private sector best practices and privacy research results.

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are "engineered systems that are built from, and depend upon, the seamless integration of computational algorithms and physical components." CPS can be small and closed, such as an artificial pancreas, or very large, complex, and interconnected, such as a regional energy grid. CPS engineering focuses on managing inter- dependencies and impact of physical aspects on cyber aspects, and vice versa. With the development of low-cost sensing, powerful embedded system hardware, and widely deployed communication networks, the reliance on CPS for system functionality has dramatically increased. These technical developments in combination with the creation of a workforce skilled in engineering CPS will allow the deployment of increasingly capable, adaptable, and trustworthy systems. Engineers responsible for developing CPS but lacking the appropriate education or training may not fully understand at an appropriate depth, on the one hand, the technical issues associated with the CPS software and hardware or, on the other hand, techniques for physical system modeling, energy and power, actuation, signal processing, and control. In addition, these engineers may be designing and implementing life-critical systems without appropriate formal training in CPS methods needed for verification and to assure safety, reliability, and security. A workforce with the appropriate education, training, and skills will be better positioned to create and manage the next generation of CPS solutions. A 21st Century Cyber-Physical Systems Education examines the intellectual content of the emerging field of CPS and its implications for engineering and computer science education. This report is intended to inform those who might support efforts to develop curricula and materials; faculty and university administrators; industries with needs for CPS workers; and current and potential students about intellectual foundations, workforce requirements, employment opportunities, and curricular needs.

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