At the April 30 meeting, the Technological Advisory Council (TAC) created three focus groups to conduct research and report back to the TAC on the issues summarized below. The moderators of the groups have created web sites to make public the exchange of information among each group’s members.

1. Spectrum Management Website: http://www.jacksons.net/tac/

Assess and report to the TAC the current state of software defined radios, cognitive radios, and similar devices; predict future developments for these technologies; and suggest ways that the availability of such technologies might affect the FCC’s traditional approaches to spectrum management, as well as ways the FCC could facilitate experimentation and commercial deployment of such devices.

Assess and report to the TAC the current state of knowledge on electromagnetic noise levels and the effects of such noise on the reliability of existing and future communications systems; suggest whether the FCC should pay closer attention to electromagnetic noise in formulating its policies; and suggest technical approaches for obtaining sufficient information on noise levels.

Charles L. Jackson, moderator

2. Accessibility for Disabled Persons Website: http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/fccadv/disability.htm

Assess and report to the TAC the current technical trends in telecommunications services; suggest any changes that might decrease, rather than increase, the accessibility of telecommunications services by persons with disabilities; and suggest how the FCC might best communicate to designers of emerging telecommunications network architectures, the requirements for accessibility.

Gregg Vanderheiden, moderator

3. Network Interconnection and Access Website: http://www-fcc.ini.cmu.edu/FCC/index.html

Assess and report to TAC, from a technical/economic perspective, telecommunications common carrier network interconnection scenarios that are likely to develop, including the technical aspects of cross network (i.e., end-to-end) interconnection, quality of service, network management, reliability, and operations issues, as well as the deployment of new technologies such as dense wave division multiplexing and high speed packet/cell switching

Marvin Sirbu, moderator