IEEE 802.16 Session #23 Report

Summary
Session #23 of the IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access took place on 13-16 January 2003 at the Fairmont San Jose in San Jose, California, USA. The session, arranged by Member Host Dean Chang of Aperto Networks, included 74 attendees. It was held alongside the annual Technical Symposium of the Wireless Communications Association International (WCA), which served as Corporate Host. Several WCA/802.16 joint events emphasized the cooperative working relationship between the two organizations. This was underlined by a joint awards dinner in which the 802.16 Chair accepted an award in recognition of 802.16 activities. The presentation materials from two keynote speeches (Global Standards and Global Deployment by Roger Marks and The Wireless Opportunity by Sriram Viswanathan) were made available as submissions to 802.16. The WiMAX Forum also met in conjunction with the week's activities.

Working Group News
Carl Eklund was elected as Vice Chair of the 802.16 Working Group through the March 2004 IEEE 802 Plenary Session.

Task Group e: Mobile Wireless MAN (802.16e) Project Opens Activity
With the 802.16a draft, extending the WirelessMAN air interface to 2-11 GHz fixed service, complete and nearing final IEEE approval this month, attention turned toward the expansion of the specfication to support fixed/mobile operation under the 802.16e project, created by the IEEE Standards Association on 11 December. The project was assigned to Task Group e, which held its first meetings and discussed 11 contributions. Task Group e issued its initial Mobile System and Proposal Evaluation Requirements, a Call for Comments on those Mobile System Requirements, and a Call for Proposals. A MAC Handoff Ad Hoc Committee was created, to be chaired by Itzik Kitroser. The schedule calls for completing a ballotable 802.16e draft by July 2003.

Task Group d: 2-11 GHz System Profiles (802.16d) Project Commences
On 11 December, the IEEE-SA chartered the 802.16d project to develop detailed system profiles for the 2-11 GHz air interface in the 802.16a draft, and to correct any errors discovered in the published standard. Task Group d considered 11 contributions, assembling the materials in a working document and issuing a Call for Comments/Contributions. The schedule calls for completing a ballotable draft by March 2003.

Task Group C: 10-66 GHz Interoperability
Prior to the session, IEEE Standard 802.16c completed its final ballot and was approved for publication by the IEEE-SA. The standard was published on 15 January. It amends IEEE Standard 802.16 with detailed system profiles for the 10-66 GHz WirelessMAN-SC^TM air interface.

IEEE Std 802.16c forms the foundation of four planned volumes of interoperability test documentation. Under Project 1802.16.1, the draft of a 10-66 GHz Protocol Implementation Conformance Statement (PICS) completed Working Group Ballot and will move to IEEE Sponsor Ballot in late January 2003. Under new Project 1802.16.2, Task Group C reviewed a proposed "Test Suite Structure and Test Purposes" specification and decided to issue a Call for Comments regarding it. Finally, a Project Authorization Request was developed to request a new project P1802.16.3 on 10-66 GHz Radio Conformance Tests.

Working Group Liaison Activities
The Working Group issued a letter to the Wireless Communications Association International, thanking the WCA for hosting Session #23 and inviting its input regarding requirements for fixed/mobile wireless metropolitan area networks.

Documents
The Session #23 document list indexes the session documents.

Future Meetings

• IEEE 802.16's Session #24 will take place in Dallas, Texas, USA on 9-14 March 2003 in conjunction with the March 2003 IEEE 802 Plenary Session.
• IEEE 802.16's Session #25 will take place in Singapore on 12-15 May 2003 in conjunction with meetings of the other 802 wireless groups.
• IEEE 802.16's Session #26 will take place in San Francisco, CA, USA on 21-24 July 2003 in conjunction with the July 2003 IEEE 802 Plenary Session.

About IEEE 802.16
The IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access Standards has developed and is enhancing the WirelessMAN^TM Standard for wireless metropolitan area networks. IEEE 802.16 is a unit of the 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee, the premier transnational forum for wired and wireless networking standardization. IEEE 802 standards are available for free download at GetIEEE802.

Roger Marks (r.b.marks@ieee.org)
Chair, IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access Standards
tel: +1-303-497-7837
r.b.marks@ieee.org