Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee (ISTAC)
Department of Commerce HCHB, Room 3884 , Washington, DC
July 29 - 30, 2009 – Minutes
July 29th from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
July 30th from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Agenda Item Presentations/Discussions:
PUBLIC SESSION (July 29th)
The meeting opened at 9:00 AM. Approximately 34 people were in attendance.
Opening: Jonathan Wise opened the meeting with introductions and request for comments from the public. There were no public comments.
Elections for Chair: Aaron Amundson, ISTAC DFO, conducted elections for chairperson(s). Jonathan Wise and Henry Brandt were re-elected as co-chairs.
Working Group Reports: Jonathan Wise reported on the activities of the Category 3A working group, Joel Cook reported on Category 3B, Henry Brandt reported on Category 4, Jonathan Wise reported on Category 5 Part 1, and Michael Angelo reported on Category 5 Part 2. Key points from the Working Group reports were:
Cat 3A: The Cat 3A Working Group had several items to report:
- Two formatting issues were identified in the CCL, in 3A001.e.1 and in 4A994. In 3A001.e.1, the chapeau refers to “Cells and photovoltaic arrays”; the Working Group suggests that it should refer only to “cells”, because photovoltaic arrays have been moved from 3A001.e.1 to 3A001.e.4. In 4A994, there is still a Related Definition for “Two-Dimensional Vector Rate”; the Working Group suggests that this definition is no longer needed because the entry (4A994.g) to which it referred is now in reserve status. Both of these issues were communicated to BIS for review.
- Over the past year, David Robertson has raised some questions regarding the controls on high-performance converters (ADC and DAC), and these remain open issues. Dave will contact Al Courduff directly about this.
- The group held a discussion on possible 3A2 instrumentation proposals for the 2010 Wassenaar cycle, the details of which will be presented in closed session.
Cat 3B: This group remains focused on two proposals for 3B1 equipment that are still under negotiation at Wassenaar. The goal is to rewrite the controls in terms of parameters that are more understandable and meaningful to industry. The group is also concerned about abandonment by BIS of a foreign availability study regarding 3B1 equipment that had been proposed circa January 2009; industry believes that this study should proceed.
Cat 4: The technological overlap between telecomm (Cat 5p1) and datacomm (Cat 4) remains of interest and may develop into a Wassenaar proposal for 2010. A proposal is planned for hardware accelerators; a teleconference will be scheduled to discuss this. Tim DiVincenzo commented that Cat 4 Note 3 states that certain equipment must also be evaluated against Cat 5p2, but the Note does not provide guidance on what to do after such evaluation. Roz Thomsen suggested that in cases where evaluation against Cat 5p2 leads to the conclusion that a one-time review is required, then BIS would make the decision on what ECCN applies.
Cat 5p1: A draft non-paper regarding a possible Wassenaar proposal for a scoping Note to 5E.1.b.4 was submitted to BIS on June 17. (For details of this issue, refer to the heading “5E001b4 Possible Scoping Note” in the Minutes of the April 2009 ISTAC meeting.) No other proposals for the 2010 Wassenaar cycle have yet been identified.
Cat 5p2: This group is nearing completion of a study of foreign availability of encryption items.
Supercomputing at LLNL: John Grosh of LLNL spoke on applications of supercomputing at LLNL. Key points were:
- LLNL has missions in stockpile stewardship, global security & intelligence support; basic science; and energy & environment
- HPCs at LNL are based on multiple architectures and there is ongoing work to develop clusters and methods of clustering.
- Uncertainty Qualification is a major issue with simulation codes. Uncertainty arises from the models (simulations and assumptions) and also from the numerical instabilities. The general approach is to calibrate codes to experimental data (e.g., to past underground weapons tests); if the calibration is good enough, then it should be possible to design new systems (weapons) without testing, and certify them based on the Uncertainly Qualification.
- Joel Cook asked how one knows whether the computer hardware is working properly. The response was that that is not known a priori, and that it is necessary to analyze the output of simulations and to establish procedures to validate the output.
- Future research may include cyber/physical system interfaces and data-intensive applications (e.g., text or video processing for intelligence applications).
Emerging Telecomm at 60 GHz: Samir Soliman of Qualcomm spoke on emerging telecomm at ~60 GHz. The interest in and value/utility of communications at ~60 GHz band (which, in the US, is actually 57-64 GHz) arises from its ability to carry high bandwidths, the availability of spectrum, the potential for worldwide harmonization, the license exempt status, and the short characteristic propagation distance due to oxygen absorption. Key points were:
- There are emerging consumer applications for wireless communications standards such as wireless USB and HDMI.
- There are ever-increasing demands for data transmission rates, and Shannon’s Theorem tells us that data transmission rate is proportional to bandwidth. Thus, higher data rates necessitate higher bandwidths.=
- There is high specific absorption of microwaves of ~60 GHz by oxygen, with the result that effective propagation distances can be as short as 10 m.
- Applications for ~60 GHz telecomm include Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN); Fixed/Mobile backhaul (connections between base stations); enhancing network paths (redundant links using different technologies); and fiber extensions (to extend from a building that has a fiber connection to a nearby building that does not).
- There are multiple standards for ~60 GHz telecomm, including: 802.16d, 802.15.3c, ECMA 387.
BIS/OTE Update: Mark Crawford of BIS’s Office of Technology Evaluation (BIS/OTE) presented a short summary of ETRAC activities. The key points were that the ETRAC has had to learn about export controls and has received intelligence briefings regarding the underlying threats. Currently, the ETRAC is working on models for prioritization of technologies. Mark continued with a summary of the recently-released Defense Industrial Base Assessment entitled “U.S. Integrated Circuit Fabrication and Design Capability.” The report is available on the BIS website at: http://www.bis.doc.gov/defenseindustrialbaseprograms/osies/defmarketresearchrpts/bis_ote_ic_report_051209.pdf
Telecomm v Datacomm: Henry Brandt of IBM spoke on the similarities and differences of telecomm and datacomm, for the purpose of beginning to identify how to handle this for purposes of export control. The essential point is that historically “telecomm” was analog, and was easily differentiated from “datacomm,” which was digital. Now, however, both “telecomm” and “datacomm” are IP-based packetized protocols, and the result is that it is often unclear how to distinguish between telecomm equipment and datacomm equipment. As an example, it was noted that Ethernet switches and routers populate both LANs and ISP backbones. There was general concurrence from the audience with the points that Henry raised. No specific follow-up actions were decided; further action, if any, will be taken by the Cat 4 Working Group.
The open session was adjourned at 2:35pm.
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