802.16 Session #72 Report

IEEE 802.16 Session #72 Report

IEEE 802.16's Session #72 was held on 14-17 March 2011 in Singapore. This was an IEEE 802 LMSC Plenary Session and co-located with sessions of the other IEEE 802 Working Groups and Technical Advisory Groups. The attendance was 95.

Announcing IEEE Std 802.16m: WirelessMAN-Advanced Air Interface
On 31 March 2011, the IEEE-SA Standards Board approved IEEE 802.16m. The new standard will be published in May based on the final 802.16m draft, P802.16m/D12, which was reviewed without comment in the final ballot recirculation ending on 2 March. Task Group m (TGm) did not meet during Session #72, but the Chair, Brian Kiernan, issued a report.

GRIDMAN Task Group
The Working Group's GRIDMAN Task Group met to discuss activity under the P802.16n project. The project is amending IEEE Std 802.16 to provide for "Higher Reliability Networks." The TG reviewed many contributions and established two Rapporteur Groups to make further progress between meetings. Four teleconferences were scheduled. The WG called for contributions proposals for the Amendment Working Document (AWD) based on the completed System Requirements Document (SRD). The TG issued a closing report, with minutes to follow.

Machine-to-Machine Task Group
The Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Task Group met to address the P802.16p project, which is amending IEEE Std 802.16 to provide "Enhancements to Support Machine-to-Machine Applications." The 802.16p Amendment Working Document (AWD) was progressed. The TG called for comments on the AWD and the System Requirements Document (SRD). It also issued a Call for Contributions for a new 802.16p Evaluation Methodologies Document (EMD). A closing report and minutes were issued.

WG Project Planning Committee
The WG Project Planning Committee (PPC) met, reviewed contributions, and prepared a report. Based on the recommendation of the PPC, the Working Group decided to proceed with the revision of IEEE Std 802.16, splitting it into two standards. As a result, the WG submitted two Project Authorization Requests (PARs): a draft PAR for the Revision of IEEE Std 802.16 and a draft PAR for IEEE P802.16M; the latter would be based on the WirelessMAN-Advanced specification in IEEE 802.16m. The two PAR proposals were forwarded by the IEEE 802 Executive Committee (EC) to the New Standards Committee (NesCom) of the IEEE-SA Standards Board. NesCom will consider the two PAR proposals on 6 May 2011. The Working Group will consider input contributions toward these two activities when it meets during Session #73 in May.

Maintenance Task Group
The Maintenance Task Group addressed change requests and updated its database. It also drafted a response to two liaison statements from the WiMAX Forum. The TG issued a closing report and minutes.

Liaison Activities
The ITU-R Liaison Group met through the week and prepared a number of documents. For more details, see the ITU-R Liaison Group Report. Highlights include:

A contribution to ITU-R Working Party 5D (WP 5D) contains the details of the WirelessMAN-Advanced specification to be included in the ITU's IMT-Advanced Recommendation. In parallel, a formal notification was provided to ITU-R regarding the WirelessMAN-Advanced "Global Core Specification" (GCS).
A statement was issued to the WirelessMAN-Advanced Transposing Organizations (WATO) - namely, ARIB, TTA, WiMAX Forum, and IEEE - summarizing the WATO meeting held on 15 March in conjunction with 802.16 Session #72.
A contribution notified WP 5D of IEEE's intent to update the IEEE 802.16 specification in the next update of ITU's IMT-2000 recommendation.

Future Meetings

Session #73 will take place on 16-19 May 2011 in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. The Member Host is Ron Murias. Registration is open, and hotel reservations are being accepted. Plans are being made for a Smart Grid workshop on Monday morning.
IEEE 802.16's Session #74 will take place on 18-21 July 2011 in San Francisco, California, USA in conjunction with the IEEE 802 Plenary Session.
The WG accepted a proposal to hold IEEE 802.16 Session #75 in Bangkok, Thailand. Kitti Wongthavarawat will serve as host, with the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) as sponsor.
IEEE 802.16's Session #76 will take place on 7-10 November 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA in conjunction with the IEEE 802 Plenary Session.
IEEE 802.16's Session #77 will take place on 9-12 January 2012. Proposals are solicited. Please see the IEEE 802.16 Interim Session Guidelines..
IEEE 802.16's Session #78 will take place on 12-15 March 2012 in Melbourne, Australia in conjunction with the IEEE 802 Plenary Session.
The Future Sessions list and the WirelessMAN Interactive Calendar include all session information through 2012.

Working Group Minutes
The Working Group Session #72 minutes are available as IEEE 802.16-11/0015.

IEEE 802 Executive Committee Actions
The Working Group's requests at the 802 LMSC Executive Committee meeting of 18 March were approved.

Documents
The Session #72 Document Guide includes references to all session documents. Draft standards are available with a working group password or by purchase from IEEE-SA. Most IEEE 802.16 standards are available for free download via the Get IEEE 802® program. See the 802.16 publication list for details of published standards and drafts.

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. A list of IEEE 802.16 standards and drafts is available on-line, as is an archive of previous Session Reports. The IEEE 802.16 Interactive Calendar includes sessions and deadlines.

"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.

This report (31 March 2011) is by:

Roger Marks (r.b.marks@ieee.org)
Chair, IEEE 802.16 Working Group on Broadband Wireless Access Standards

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