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ITP instructor Jose Santos, center, comments on the “analog hole” report done by students Allen Shuh, left, and Tito Gaysam

Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program (ITP): New Policy Lab Untangles Technical Problems to Accelerate Innovation

The development of the "Policy Lab" at the University of Colorado at Boulder is helping the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program write a new chapter on innovative research. 

The Policy Lab juxtaposes policy processes and technical experiments to illuminate thorny policy issues and thereby accelerate innovation in telecommunications and information technology. In so doing, the Policy Lab's projects focus and clarify key points in telecommunications policy and regulation.

Directed by Assistant Professor Doug Sicker, the initiative is affiliated with the Silicon Flatirons Telecommunications Program, which brings individuals from legal, technical, regulatory and business backgrounds to CU's campus to discuss significant issues facing the telecommunications community.

The Policy Lab emphasizes experimental analyses to help calibrate technological insights within realistic policy frameworks. For example, a recent Policy Lab project tackled concerns that the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act would be difficult to enforce in the Voice over IP context. Two undergraduate researchers demonstrated a number of ways to initiate an end-to-end encrypted VoIP call with no keys known by the carrier, providing concrete support for the hypothesis. 

Other current projects consider whether VoIP over WiFi could estimate its location precisely enough to meet FCC requirements for E911 accuracy, and whether an "analog hole" circumventing digital rights management poses a significant economic threat to DRM systems.

In addition to its cross-disciplinary approach within the university, Policy Lab partners with companies such as Level3 Communications and government units such as the State of Colorado's Public Utilities Commission. These partnerships reinforce the Policy Lab's practical orientation and facilitate expert input from industry and governmental sources concerning telecommunications issues. The lab's policy of non-advocacy eschews taking positions on behalf of the political positions of any particular stakeholder. 

"We look forward to the opportunities that Policy Lab will provide in considering collaborative innovation when technology and policy are considered together," PUC Director Doug Dean wrote in connection with the partnership.