Research Updates
Evaluation of Interference to 6 GHz Microwave
Evaluation and testing of Low Latency Wireless
Emergency/Black Sky Communications Resilience and Planning
Research Updates
Includes recent research highlights and links to current year’s research projects.
Strategic Reports on Testing, Technologies, & Issues
Telecommunications technology is rapidly evolving, and specific topics require timely, in-depth analysis. These reports typically involve field testing on strategic topics.
Current areas include:
- Evaluation of Interference to 6 GHz Microwave:
Testing of AFC under-protection scenarios and new effects of VLP devices and Wi-Fi 7.
- Includes 2025 testing in Columbus GA with data on AFC under-protection and measurements of additive interference.
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Evaluation and testing of Low Latency Wireless Technologies (PLTE, 5G, Standalone, Network Slicing, and pre-URLLC) for grid use cases
- Ongoing testing, exercising demanding distribution use cases such as Direct Transfer Trip on commercial networks, measuring the latency and performance benefits available with 5G Network Slices and priority services such as FirstNet, T-Priority, and Frontline.
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4G and 5G architecture approaches for secure, resilient networks
- Selected results from DOE “Star Trec” project, including analysis of security and resilience features in 4G and 5G standards, gaps in commercial implementation, and opportunities to address gaps with 3rd party solutions in utility private networks.
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LEO Satellite testing for Emergency and Resilient communications o Continued testing of Starlink for long term availability and performance, and integration into specific utility use cases for WAN backup, and operation in remote sites. Initial testing of direct satellite to phone services, and fitness for utility use cases.
Guidebooks
Guidebooks are a cornerstone of Telecommunications research in 161G. We continue to expand the set of guidebooks, and keep their content updated.
The 2025 set includes:
- Private LTE Guidebook, 2025 Edition (the 2025 version is not published yet, 2024 is correct Private Long-Term Evolution Guidebook: Sixth Edition 2024)
- Covering fundamental 4G/5G wireless technology, licensed spectrum options, business case development and regulatory, CBRS and SAS operation, multi-band operation, prioritization, network scaling, and traffic engineering, opportunities to adopt 5G, NB-IoT capabilities, low-latency implementation guidelines, commercial 5G network slice evaluation.
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Strategic Fiber Guidebook, 2025 Edition
- Case studies, fiber lifecycle management, substation fiber, location tracking, coherent optics
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WAN Modernization Guidebook, 2025 Edition
- SDN, SD-WAN, Segment Routing, Requirements Engineering and Planning, and AI tools to assist in project and resource scheduling
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Network Management Guidebook 2025 Edition
- Management, Modeling and Simulation – digital twin of network, Development of cost-benefit analysis tools to analyze approaches to telecom modernization in the context of larger grid modernization and decarbonization objectives, automation-friendly protocols, expanding the role of AI/ML.
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Telecom Standards Guidebook, 2025 Edition (with accompanying Comms Intelligencer Newsletters)
- A high-level description of telecom and communications standards, their roadmap, utility applications, and interrelationships, updated annually. Updates on relevant standards developing in IEEE 802, IEEE PES, 3GPP, ITU, and IETF. Including the historical context, roadmap and evolution, relations between standards bodies, and a detailed glossary clarifying the abundance of acronyms and numbers used in standards.
Drafts of the current year’s guidebooks during development are available to project set members on request.