802.16 Session #37 Report

IEEE 802.16 Session #37 Report

Session #37 Host and Venue
Session #37 of the IEEE 802.16 Working Group (WG) on Broadband Wireless Access took place on 2-5 May 2005 in Sorrento, Italy. The session was hosted by Giulio Cavalli of corporate host Siemens Communications, to whom the Working Group sent a letter of thanks. An IEEE 802.16 photo gallery was set up to display session photos contributed by the attendees.

The attendance list included 218 people.

Task Group e (Mobile WirelessMAN®) Activities
Task Group e resolved comments in the IEEE-SA Sponsor Ballot recirculation of draft P802.16e/D7. A new draft, P802.16e/D8, was prepared and submitted for recirculation through 8 June. A Ballot Resolution Committee was appointed to meet the week of 13 June to resolve the comments, after which a new draft D9 will be subject to an additional recirculation prior to Session #38. The current intent is that draft D10, to be developed at Session #38, will be the final draft. Task Group e issued a closing report and minutes. A web-based Security Forum was instituted to review security issues in the draft, particularly as part of a cooperative effort with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Maintenance Task Group Activities
The Working Group's Maintenance Task Group resolved comments received during Working Group Recirculation Ballot #17a, under which the P802.16-2004/Cor1/D2 draft was under review. Based on the comment resolutions, the third draft (P802.16-2004/Cor1/D3) of this Corrigendum to IEEE Std 802.16-2004 was developed and submitted for confirmation in Recirculation Ballot #17b, which closed 7 June without comment. The 802 EC approved the Working Group's request to forward D3 for IEEE-SA Sponsor Ballot, which is expected to begin around 10 June. The Maintenance Task Group issued a closing report and minutes.

Update: The P802.16-2004/Cor1/D3 Sponsor Ballot opened on 10 June, through 10 July.

Network Management Task Group Activities
The IEEE 802.16 Network Management (NetMan) Task Group resolved comments arising in the IEEE-SA Sponsor Ballot of P802.16f/D3 (the Management Information Base [MIB] for fixed operation). Those resolutions resulted in the new draft P802.16f/D4, which was submitted for Sponsor Ballot Recirculation through 15 June. The Task Group was authorized to resolve these comments, so an additional recirculation is expected before Session #38, where final comment resolution is expected to occur. Separately, the Task Group addressed responses to a Call for Comments regarding the P802.16g Baseline Document, and a new P802.16g Baseline Document will be released for a further Call for Comments. The Task Group issued a closing report.

Update: A Call for Comments was issued on the revised P802.16g Baseline Document, with a deadline of 11 July.

Conformance Task Group Activities
The Conformance Task Group, addressing the P802.16/Conformance04 project on PICS Proforma for frequencies below 11 GHz, met to resolve comments received during Working Group Letter Ballot #18, in which the draft P802.16/Conformance04/D1 was under review. Comment resolutions will be incorporated into a second draft, which will be reviewed in Working Group Letter Ballot Recirculation #18a.

Update: Working Group Letter Ballot Recirculation #18a, reviewing P802.16/Conformance04/D2, runs from 19 June - 8 July.

Licensed-Exempt Task Group
The Working Group's Licensed-Exempt Task Group met and continue to develop the P802.16h draft. After reviewing several contributions, the group issued a revised working document and issued a Call for Contributions. A closing report and minutes were issued.

Relay/Mesh Activity
The Working Group reviewed a proposal suggesting the creation of a Working Group Study Group on "Mobile Multi-hop Mesh/Relay Networking in IEEE 802.16." A followup meeting was held on the topic during Session #37. A web-based Relay/Mesh Forum was instituted for the development of a Study Group proposal that is expected to be considered during Session #38.

Liaison and Communication Activities

The WG received a Liaison Statement from ITU-R Working Party 9B acknowledging the WG's "ongoing support in the development of Recommendation(s) on Broadband Wireless Access Systems, which would not have been possible without your collaboration that started back in 2003." The WG also received a note from the WP 9B Chair conveying his thanks to "all the members in the IEEE 802.16 Working Group on BWA for your collaboration and support in recent one and half year" while developing a draft new recommendation on radio interface standards for broadband wireless access (BWA) systems in the fixed service operating below 66 GHz.
The WG's ad hoc group on ITU-R liaisons met to review recent activities and plan new ones.
The Working Group received a report from ETSI BRAN.
The WG sent a letter to the WiMAX Forum in response to an earlier communication.
The WG sent a liaison statement to the IETF.

Future Sessions

IEEE 802.16's Session #38 will take place on 18-21 July 2005 in San Francisco, CA, USA in conjunction with the IEEE 802 Plenary Session.
IEEE 802.16's Session #39 will take place on 12-15 September 2005 in Taipei. The session will be supported by Member Hosts Arthur Wang and Stanley Wang. The institutional host is ITRI and the co-host is CyberTAN Technology.
IEEE 802.16's Session #40 will take place on 14-17 November 2005 in Vancouver, BC, Canada in conjunction with the IEEE 802 Plenary Session.
IEEE 802.16's Session #41 will take place in New Delhi, India on 9-12 January 2006. The host is Aditya Agrawal of corporate host Beceem Communications.
IEEE 802.16's Session #42 will take place on 13-16 March 2006 in New Orleans, LA, USA in conjunction with the IEEE 802 Plenary Session.
The site and host of IEEE 802.16's Session #43 will be determined based on a site-selection process during Session #38. Proposals are solicited. Please see the IEEE 802.16 Interim Session Guidelines for details.

Documents
The Session #37 document list includes references to the session documents. Draft standards are available with a working group password or by purchase from IEEE-SA.

Minutes
The Working Group minutes from Session #37 are available as IEEE 802.16-05/027.

Working Group Membership
The Working Group Membership is now 261. Another 125 Potential Members will be eligible for membership by attending Session #38.

About IEEE 802.16
The IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access Standards has developed and is enhancing the WirelessMAN^® 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. Standards developed by the Working Group are available for free download. A list of IEEE 802.16 standards and drafts is available on-line, as is a project milestone summary and an archive of previous Session Reports.

"802.16 News" Mailing List
The "802.16 News" mailing list ("stds-802-16-news") has the sole purpose of distributing major announcements related to the Working Group. Those interested in following the progress of the group but not in the day-to-day details may wish to subscribe. Only the Working Group Chair is eligible to post to the list, and mailings will be rare: once after each bimonthly session and additionally for major news, such as the approval of a new standard. Those subscribing to the stds-802-16 mailing list, for active Working Group participants, need not subscribe to stds-802-16-news since the postings will be redundant.

With the approval of the IEEE 802.16 Working Group, this report was drafted and edited (9 June 2005 release; 20 June update) by:

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

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