Nebraska and Iowa win advanced wireless testbed grants for rural broadband – ProWellTech
Everyone wants more bandwidth from the sky, but a lot of testing is required to turn laboratory research projects into a realistic, high-performing infrastructure. A number of new technologies, sometimes under the “5G” banner and sometimes not, begin this transition and are used in real scenarios.
This research is critical to producting these technologies and ultimately to providing better wireless broadband options to consumers.
We talked a little about one of these test benches called COSMOS in northern Manhattan near Columbia University that pioneered 5G technology in a dense urban environment. The same research group funded by the National Science Foundation that funded this project Platforms for advanced wireless research The program (PAWR) has now selected two finalists for its fourth location, which focuses specifically on rural infrastructure.
Research teams in Ames, Iowa, affiliated with Iowa State University, and Lincoln, Nebraska, affiliated with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, each received grants of $ 300,000 to accelerate their planning for the test benches. These teams will use the grants to optimize their suggestions. One is expected to receive the final full grant next year.
The goal of this latest test field is to find next-generation wireless technology stacks that are cheaper and more affordable for rural America, areas of the country that are not served well by traditional cable and fiber networks nor by the current coverage of wireless cell towers can offer better bandwidth.
Those who win will participate in the three existing wireless test environments in New York City, Salt Lake City and the North Carolina Research Triangle.
PAWR itself is a $ 100 million joint public-private initiative to accelerate America’s wireless border innovation. It is headed by US Ignite, an initiative by the NSF to realize smart city ideas and Northeastern University.
