IEEE 802.16 Session #14 Report

Session #14 of the IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access took place on 9-13 July 2001 in Portland, Oregon, USA during the IEEE 802 Plenary Session.

Summary
At Session #14, Task Groups 3 and 4 adopted a consolidated baseline document for both licensed and unlicensed operation. This adoption followed upon resolution of comments received in a joint Task Group Review. The document is constructed as an amendment to the base 802.16 draft being finalized by the Working Group under the leadership of Task Group 1. Working Group Letter Ballot of the base 802.16 draft was virtually completed; IEEE 802.16 and IEEE 802 conditionally approved advancing it to Sponsor Ballot (the final ballot required before publication). With Task Group 2's Coexistence now approved for publication, a Project Authorization Request to enhance it was approved by IEEE 802.16 and IEEE 802. The enhancement will extend the work to licensed bands from 2-11 GHz and also expand the recommendations regarding coexistince with point-to-point systems.

The attendance at Session #14 totaled 140.

Task Group 1: P802.16: Standard Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems [10-66 GHz]
A further round of comment resolution was completed in the Working Group Letter Ballot of the base 802.16 draft. The 802 Sponsor Executive Committee approved the initiation of a Sponsor Ballot (the final balloting stage), conditioned on successful completion of a confirmation ballot. The Working Group expects to initiate Sponsor Ballot by early August and continues to expect publication of the standard in the fourth quarter of 2001.

Task Group 3 (P802.16a: MAC Modifications and Additional Physical Layer for 2-11 GHz) and Task Group 4 (P802.16b: MAC Modifications and Additional Physical Layer for License-Exempt Frequencies [WirelessHUMAN^TM])

Task Groups 3 and 4 resolved the comments gathered in a Task Group Review of their joint working document. Both groups approved the resulting content as a baseline and will initiate a Final Task Group Review by July 28. A motion authorized the Working Group to initiate a Working Group Letter Ballot in September following the approval of a draft at Session #15.

Task Group 3 unanimously approved an amended report of its ad hoc channeling modeling committee as the Task Group's channel model.

Task Group 2: P802.16.2: Recommended Practice for Coexistence of Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems
The IEEE Standards Board approved 802.16.2 as an IEEE Recommmended Practice on July 6. The document will be published as soon as final editorial details are complete.

The 802 Sponsor Executive Committee approved Project Authorization Request P802.16.2a to initiate work to enhance Recommended Practice 802.16.2 by including licensed bands from 2-11 GHz and expanding the recommendations for coexistence of point-to-multipoint with point-to-point communications at millimeter-wave bands. The request has been forwarded to the IEEE Standards Board for final approval, which is expected on August 16.

Working Group Liaison Activities

ETSI TM4 Liaison

A liaison letter to ETSI TM4 was approved in response to a recent liaison letter received from TM4.

IEEE 802.3 "Ethernet in the First Mile" (EFM) Study Group

Members attended the Tutorial of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet in the First Mile Study Group and followed up with a letter to the Study Group.

IEEE 802 Activities

Regulatory

Working Group members participated in an IEEE 802 regulatory committee that prepared and agreed upon three documents during the week, each of which was approved by Working Group 802.16. The 802 Executive Committee took the following action on these documents:

• It approved an IEEE 802 liaison letter to ETSI BRAN in response to a liaison letter received from BRAN. The response will be constructed from the draft approved by 802.16.
• It approved a IEEE 802 position statement regarding ITU-R JTG 4-7-8-9.
• It initiated a 14-day email ballot regarding an IEEE 802 response to the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (OET Docket Nr. 99-231) of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Coexistence

Working Group members participated in meetings of the IEEE 802 Executive Committee Study Group on Coexistence, which is seeking to determine procedures for coordinating multiple standards that operate in the same unlicensed bands. The Study Group was renewed until November.

Documents
The Session #14 document list indexes the session documents.

Future Meetings

• IEEE 802.16's Session #15 will take place in Denver, CO, USA on September 10-14, 2001. Roger Marks will host, and the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society will provide support.
Please reserve your hotel room as soon as possible.
• Session #16 will take place in Austin, Texas, USA (November 12-16, 2001)
• Carl Eklund offered to host Session #17 in Finland in January 2002. He is continuing to investigate a site 170 km north of the Arctic Circle in the Lapland area of Finland. The location is Levi, 15 km from Kittilä airport. Good air connections to Helsinki are available. Dates under consideration are 21-25 January.
• A calendar of future sessions is available.

About IEEE 802.16
The IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access Standards is creating the WirelessMAN^TM Standard 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