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Re: [STDS-802-11-TGM] CID 359 "Natural Binary"



--- This message came from the IEEE 802.11 Task Group M Technical Reflector ---
For further clarification, natural binary is called natural because it follows the general counting method used in the decimal, octal, and other numbering systems.

Cheers,

Mike 



On Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 9:07 AM M Montemurro <montemurro.michael@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I went through comment resolutions and interpretation requests for REVma, REVmb, REVmc, and REVmd. I have not seen anything that justifies any confusion about this statement in the standard. 

Personally I have not seen any justification to convince me that this text  needs to be changed. It sounds mostly like individual preferences, which in my opinion justifies a change. Therefore,  I don't see any reason to make any changes.

Cheers,

Mike


Cheers,

Mike

On Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 7:38 AM Mark Rison <m.rison@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
--- This message came from the IEEE 802.11 Task Group M Technical Reflector ---

Hello Edward,

 

Well if that's the definition of "natural binary", then it's describing

how binary numbers are written in the spec [*].  But the sentence in

dispute is about how numbers written in decimal in the spec are encoded

(over the air).  So that would be another argument for dropping "natural"

in that sentence.

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

 

[*] That Wireshark list quote suggests it's msb first.  However, see

e.g. CIDs 499 and 456.

 

--

Mark RISON, Standards Architect, WLAN   English/Esperanto/Français

Samsung Cambridge Solution Centre       Tel: +44 1223  434600

Innovation Park, Cambridge CB4 0DS      Fax: +44 1223  434601

ROYAUME UNI                             WWW: http://www.samsung.com/uk

 

From: Edward Au <edward.ks.au@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, 10 November 2021 11:37
To: Mark Rison <m.rison@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: IEEE802.11 TGmc <STDS-802-11-TGM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [STDS-802-11-TGM] CID 359 "Natural Binary"

 

Hello all,

Yes - this term appears since 802.11-1997.


I read from a public website the following
(https://www.wireshark.org/lists/wireshark-users/201204/msg00062.html) about "natural binary":

Refering to the official 802.11s specification:
7.1.6.3 Mesh Control Field and Table 9-3
While section 7.1.6.3 Table 7-6g1 is ambigous the convention in 802.11-2007 is that the table values stating (binary) are in "natural binary" (i.e. b1b0).

(Please note that clause 7 in the past refers to clause 9 in 802.11-2020).

 

It is indeed true that many of the table values in our standards are arranged in this manner.  For example, in Table 27-26, we have "RU Allocation field (B8 B7 B6 B5 B4 B3 B2 B1 B0)".

 

Regards,
Edward

 

 

On Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 5:26 AM Mark Rison <m.rison@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

--- This message came from the IEEE 802.11 Task Group M Technical Reflector ---

I think that the discussion last night showed that this text does

cause massive confusion (e.g. some people seemed to think it referred

to some form of BCD)!  I think it behooves those who claim that

"natural binary" isn't just binary to provide a definition of the term

(in the discussion yesterday I don't think anyone came up with a

definition of what "natural binary" was), or a pointer to a document

defining the term (ideally some IEEE document).

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

 

--

Mark RISON, Standards Architect, WLAN   English/Esperanto/Français

Samsung Cambridge Solution Centre       Tel: +44 1223  434600

Innovation Park, Cambridge CB4 0DS      Fax: +44 1223  434601

ROYAUME UNI                             WWW: http://www.samsung.com/uk

 

From: M Montemurro <montemurro.michael@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, 10 November 2021 00:21
To: STDS-802-11-TGM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [STDS-802-11-TGM] CID 359 "Natural Binary"

 

--- This message came from the IEEE 802.11 Task Group M Technical Reflector ---

Thanks Jouni,

 

One other thing to note is that this sentence has been in the standard since 802.11-1999. 

 

Personally, I haven't seen any justification to demonstrate that this text is actually causing confusion or interoperability issues. Given the text and its context, we should just leave it as is.


Cheers,


Mike

 

On Tue, Nov 9, 2021 at 6:49 PM Jouni Malinen <jkmalinen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

--- This message came from the IEEE 802.11 Task Group M Technical Reflector ---

I'm interpreting this to be a reference to Natural Binary Code, i.e., the key point here is in the values shown (in the standard text, figures, tables) in the decimal notation getting encoded in binary and not in Gray code, BCD, or ASCII, etc. While this might be at least implicitly described elsewhere, it would seem reasonable to maintain this explicit statement in the Conventions subclause. As such, I guess the comment could be rejected, but based on the discussion and numerous interpretations/guesses brought up during the discussion, it might be better to delete the word "natural" here with the expectation of "coded in binary" being easier to understand or at least less likely to produce wild guesses of what is natural or unnatural about the binary encoding. Another alternative approach would be to define "natural binary" or reference "natural binary code", but I'm not convinced this would be the best approach for the IEEE 802.11 standard unless a clearly understood, externally defined term could be used as-is. 

 

- Jouni

 

 

On Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 12:44 AM Stephen McCann <mccann.stephen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

--- This message came from the IEEE 802.11 Task Group M Technical Reflector ---

Dear all,

               during today's REVme call, we discussed CID 359:

 

CID

Page

Line

Clause

Comment

Proposed Change

Resolution

359

774

33

9.2.2

"Values specified in decimal are coded in natural binary unless otherwise stated. " -- how does natural binary differ from unnatural binary?

Delete the cited sentence

 

There was no convergence on an opinion as to how to resolve this, so I'm requesting your feedback. The discussion was regarding the term "natural binary" and whether this is different from "binary".  Thanks.

 

Kind regards

 

Stephen


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