IEEE 802.16 Session #12 Report

Session #12 of the IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access took place on 12-15 March 2001 at the Hilton Oceanfront Resort in Hilton Head, South Carolina, USA. Attendance at Session #12 was 178. Registration at the full 802 Plenary Session was 1096.

Summary
The session was marked by final agreement (as defined in IEEE 802.16-01/10) to create a unified Working Group air interface document with a common, flexible medium access control (MAC) platform supporting multiple physical layers (PHYs). The first stage (the base MAC and a 10-66 GHz physical layer) was approved in a Working Group Letter Ballot, subject to comment resolution. In the development of the 2-11 GHz physical layer, a dual approach (both OFDM and single-carrier) was selected. The WirelessHUMAN^TM Task Group made progress in draft development. A Recommended Practice on Coexistence began Sponsor Ballot (its final round of balloting), and a Study Group to consider its enhancement was created.

P802.16: Standard Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems [10-66 GHz]
A draft was approved, with comments, in a Working Group Letter Ballot. Comments were resolved (as documented in the database IEEE 802.16-01/19r3) and a recirculation ballot will begin soon. Publication is still anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2001. In a joint meeting, a new flexible header was worked out to support the needs of 802.16a and 802.16b.

P802.16a: MAC Modifications and Additional Physical Layer for 2-11 GHz
The 802.16a group agreed to incorporate both a single-carrier mode (based on 802.16.3c-01/32) and an OFDM mode (based on 802.16.3c-01/33r2). Drafting has been initiated on both PHY and MAC documents.

P802.16b: MAC Modifications and Additional Physical Layer for License-Exempt Frequencies (WirelessHUMAN^TM)
MAC and PHY teams made progress in draft development. The project remains on schedule.

P802.16.2: Recommended Practice for Coexistence of Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems
Following completion of its Working Group Letter Ballot, with 100% approval, on 17 February, P802.16.2 began its Sponsor Ballot (its final ballot stage) on 14 March. June approval is anticipated. A Study Group, chaired by Phil Whitehead, was created to consider amendments to enhance the document by consideration of point-to-point systems and 2-11 GHz issues.

Working Group Activities

Regulatory and Coexistence

A ninety-minute Working Group session was held to discuss regulatory issues with Julius Knapp, Chief of the Policy and Rules Division of the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) (see the agenda and the followup letter). David Chauncey was appointed as the Working Group's Regulatory Liaison.

Liaison

Liaison letters to ETSI BRAN and ITU-R were approved.

Membership

Working Group membership rose from 124 to 137.

Secretary

Carl Bushue served as Acting Secretary of the Working Group.

Documents
The Session #12 document list indexes the session documents (at least 98 of them).

Complete Minutes

• Working Group Minutes
  
• TG1 MAC Minutes
• TG3 Minutes

Press Release
A press release entitled "IEEE 802.16 Group Achieves Key Milestones" was approved in draft form.

Future Meetings

IEEE 802.16 will meet at Session #13 in Orlando, Florida, USA on 14-18 May 2001 along with 802's other Wireless Working Groups (802.11 and 802.15). Session #14, an 802 Plenary, is 9-13 July 2001 in Portland, Oregon, USA. The site of Session #15 (September 10-14, 2001) is undecided, but San Jose, California, USA is under consideration.

About IEEE 802.16
The IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access Standards is creating the WirelessMAN^TM family of standards for wireless metropolitan area networks. 802.16 is a unit of the 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee, the premier transnational forum for wired and wireless networking standardization.

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