With more wireless products hitting the market daily, Kansas University researchers have won a $1.8 million National Science Foundation grant to find ways that the increasingly crowded radio frequency (RF) spectrum can be used more efficiently.

The grant will fund the National Radio Networking Research Testbed, a research project within the KU Information and Telecommunication Technology Center.

Gary J. Minden, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will lead the three-year project.

“The RF spectrum is a limited resource and it is not being used efficiently,” Minden said. “The spectrum has ’empty pockets’ within it that may provide radio designers with additional resources.”

Victor Frost, ITTC director, said the explosion of wireless communication devices — from phones to WiFi Internet connections — is creating competition for prime space on the RF spectrum.

Some wireless phone companies have already exhausted their capacity in some markets, said Frost, who is the Dan F. Servey distinguished professor of electrical engineering and computer science.