IEEE 802.16 Session #28 Report

Summary
Session #28 of the IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access took place on 10-13 November 2003 in Albuquerque, NM, USA, along with the IEEE 802 Plenary Session. The site was the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque. 116 people attended.

Second Conformance Draft Submitted for Approval
On 14 November, the IEEE 802 Executive Committee (EC) agreed to forward the final P802.16/Conformance02 draft to RevCom. With RevCom endorsement, approval of the draft as an IEEE standard is anticipated on 10 December. The draft, approved unanimously during Sponsor Ballot, details the Test Suite Structure and Test Purposes for the 10-66 GHz WirelessMAN-SC Air Interface. It is the second of an expected series of conformance test documents. Separately, the third project in the series, P802.16/Conformance03, completed its Working Group Letter Ballot and was forwarded for Sponsor Ballot by vote of the 802 EC. It specifies the Radio Conformance Tests (RCT) for 10-66 GHz WirelessMAN-SC Air Interface. Finally, the WG submitted, and the 802 EC forwarded, a PAR for a new P802.16/Conformance04 project for PICS Proforma at frequencies below 11 GHz.

Revised Recommended Practice P802.16.2 Forwarded to RevCom
On 14 November, the IEEE 802 Executive Committee (EC) agreed to forward the final P802.16.2-REVa draft to RevCom. The draft, approved unanimously during Sponsor Ballot, is a revision of IEEE Standard 802.16.2-2001 ("Coexistence of Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems"). The revision updates the content, adding new material addressing 2-11 GHz operation and coexistence with point-to-point systems. The content applies only to licensed-band operation.

Revision of IEEE Standard 802.16 Progresses through Working Group Ballot
The 802.16 Working Group completed its initial ballot of the IEEE P802.16-REVd, a comprehensive revision of IEEE Standard 802.16 ("Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems"), including amendments IEEE 802.16a and IEEE 802.16c. Many comments were resolved. The work is expected to progress rapidly, since it is supported by previous ballots on the technical content. However, the draft was not forwarded for Sponsor Ballot, and the development schedule will be revised. A recirculation is planned.

Comment Resolution Continues on Mobile WirelessMAN (P802.16e) Draft
A fourth Task Group Review was concluded in the P802.16e project, which is developing an enhancement of the WirelessMAN air interface to support mobile as well as fixed users. Many comments were resolved. The Working Group then voted to conduct a Working Group Review. The development schedule will be revised accordingly.

Working Group Liaison Activities

• The IEEE was granted the status of Sector Member, as an international organization, in the International Telecommunication Union - Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R), as of 31 October 2003.
• The 802.16 WG approved a liaison statement to ITU-T SG 15 in response to liaison statements received from SG 15 regarding cooperation and standardization plans.
• The 802.16 WG approved a Letter to ITU-R in response to an ITU-R input.

Documents
The Session #28 document list indexes the session documents.

Minutes and Motions
The Working Group minutes are available as IEEE 802.16-03/55. Significant motions presented at the Closing Plenary are embedded in the Closing Plenary Agenda.

All of the Working Group's requests at the 802 LMSC Executive Committee meeting of 14 November were approved.

Future Meetings

• IEEE 802.16's Session #29 will take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 12-15 January 2004 in conjunction with sessions of the other IEEE 802 groups.
• IEEE 802.16's Session #30 will take place in Orlando, FL, USA on 15-18 March 2004 in conjunction with the IEEE 802 Plenary Session.
• A decision was made to hold IEEE 802.16's Session #31 in Shenzhen, China in May 2004. The site selection process also considered proposals to hold the session in Seoul (Korea), Washington (USA), and Anaheim (USA). Shenzhen was chosen based on a hosting proposal by ZTE Corporation. A letter from IEEE 802 suggested that high-level discussions between IEEE-SA and Chinese standardization bodies be co-located with Session #31.

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 IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee, the premier transnational forum for wired and wireless networking standardization. A list of IEEE 802.16 standards and drafts is available on-line, as is a project milestone summary.

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