POSE: Phase I: OPERA: An Open-Source Ecosystem for Broadband Prairie

Award ID: 2229654

Rural broadband is important for the rural economy and quality of life, yet 39% of the rural US lacks broadband access, and most agriculture farms are not connected at all. To address the challenge, this project proposes to develop the OPen-source Ecosystem for bRoadband prAirie (OPERA). OPERA will enable researchers to transform their rural broadband research experiments into open-source software, data, and hardware designs that can be integrated with open-source platforms to generate rural-focused broadband solutions. The project is expected to not only enable rural-focused broadband technology innovation today but also empower rural regions to become active participants in continuous broadband innovation in the long term. Leveraging the Agriculture and Rural Communities (ARA) wireless living lab (https://arawireless.org/), which is a part of the NSF Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program, OPERA will provide the organization and governance structure as well as community building leadership in fostering the open-source ecosystem (OSE) for broadband prairie. In particular, to generate high-quality open-source software, data, and hardware-designs beyond typical research experiment results, OPERA will complement ARA-enabled scientific experimentation with open-source coaching as well as the OSE process, infrastructure, and partnership support. To facilitate the integration of research products into open-source platforms and their real-world adoption in specific rural applications. OPERA will facilitate cross-sector collaborations among researchers, open-source communities, and rural region stakeholders. These collaborations will build upon the existing 62+ ARA partners from academia, industry, government, and rural communities. Leveraging the complementary strengths of broadband researchers, open-source developers, and rural application communities, OPERA is poised to help unleash the full capacity of the research and open-source communities in addressing the rural broadband challenge. It provides the ecosystem support for individual researchers to make direct real-world impact, and it empowers rural regions in co-shaping the continuous broadband innovation. OPERA-enabled open-source coaching infuses real-world open-source practice into research experimentation, and it strengthens experiential learning by focusing on production-quality prototyping. OPERA-enabled open-source innovation and cross-sector collaboration will help attract underrepresented students in research, while providing unique learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate education. For additional information about the project and its latest results, go to the project website at https://wici.iastate.edu/opera. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Deepankar Medhi