Date Time NIST Joins NSF-Led Partnership to Support Next-Generation Communications Technology The RINGS program will take advantage of NIST’s state-of-the-art communication testbeds, like this large anechoic chamber. Credit: NIST GAITHERSBURG, Md. – The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has joined the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and industry partners to spur innovation in next-generation communications systems. The Resilient and Intelligent Next-Generation Systems (RINGS) program brings together federal agency and industry partners to accelerate research on wireless and mobile communication networks and associated computing systems and large-scale services. The program will seek to advance the underlying technologies to guarantee worldwide availability, security and reliability of next-generation (NextG) systems.