N-WEST News #8
National Wireless Electronic Systems Testbed (N-WEST)

October 1, 1998

Topics:

CANADA/US MEETING ON TERRESTRIAL BROADBAND WIRELESS R&D HELD

On the occasion of N-WEST Director Roger Marks' visit to the Canadian Government's Communications Research Centre (CRC) in Ottawa, the CRC arranged a "Canada/US Meeting on Terrestrial Broadband Wireless R&D." Approximately 18 Canadian government, industry, and university officials attended, many making presentations. The focus was on cooperation in research and testbed development and common goals in standardization. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Gerry Chan, the CRC's Vice President for Terrestrial Wireless Systems, and coordinated by the CRC's Luc Boucher, the Project Leader developing CRC's Broadband Wireless Testbed. Several companies indicated an interest in supporting N-WEST's standardization activities, and CRC officials supported the notion of cooperative efforts concerning standardization and testbed activities. For the attendance list, the meeting minutes, and copies of presentations, see {http://nwest.nist.gov/crc_mtg.html}.

N-WEST MEETING CALLED FOR NOVEMBER 9-10, 1998

We have arranged to hold our next meeting on November 9-10 in Albuquerque, New Mexico in conjunction with the Plenary Meeting of the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee. We will present a 90-minute tutorial on Broadband Wireless Access Technology and Standards to the approximately 500 members of 802 (6:30-8:00 pm on Monday evening, November 9) and then hold our own working meeting (which will also be called an ad hoc 802 meeting) on Tuesday. Information on the meeting is available: hotel reservation information, airline and car rental discount information, and a registration form. All are invited to this meeting, but the preregistration fee is $275 ($300 after October 30). The registration income goes to IEEE; N-WEST has no financial involvement.

L BAND INTERFACE SPECIFICATION PROPOSED

Jack Van der Star, Chief Technology Officer with Belstar Systems Corp., submitted a proposed "L Band Interface Specification" {http://nwest.nist.gov/l_band_1.pdf}. He wrote that this was a "first pass at an L Band Interface Specification which we hope will generate the discussion toward the development of an interoperable standard that is royalty free and provides full spectral access. This specification embodies an RF based specification which we believe will ultimately lead to the lowest cost CPE which is critical to developing a viable LMDS/LMCS industry. We would welcome any feedback." You may also wish to have a look previously-posted "Report of the Band Plan and Spectrum Etiquette Working Group {http://nwest.nist.gov/kickoff_bandplan.pdf}, which includes some related comments.

N-WEST SUPPORTING COMPANY EMAIL REFLECTOR GOES ON-LINE

We have set up an email reflector so that N-WEST Supporting Companies, currently numbering 40, can easily communicate with each other. Anyone can can post to the list, using nwest-supporters@nwest.nist.gov. Only Supporting Companies may subscribe, however. If you are with a Supporting Company and have not received a reflector welcome message, please let me know if you'd like to subscribe and I will sign you up.

N-WEST IN THE NEWS

The Sept. 24 issue of "TR Wireless News" includes an interview with N-WEST Director Roger Marks entitled "Federal Test-bed Promotes Standards for Wireless Broadband Systems." This biweekly print newsletter is available online to subscribers at {http://www.tr.com/newsletters/trwn}. If you are interested, you can sign up for a free trial subscription and read the current issue right away.

BROADBAND WIRELESS STANDARDS IS DISTINGUISHED LECTURE TOPIC

The IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) selected N-WEST Director Roger Marks as a Distinguished Microwave Lecturer, for the years 1999-2001, with a lecture entitled "Standards for Broadband Wireless Access Systems." The lecture abstract is on-line at {http://nwest.nist.gov/dml_abs.html}. Invitations to present this address, preferably to an IEEE audience, may be directed to the author.

U.S. STANDARDS SUMMIT SUGGESTS COHERENT STANDARDS STRATEGY

A conference entitled "Toward a National Standards Strategy to Meet Global Needs," sponsored by NIST and ANSI, concluded that "the U.S. economy will suffer unless American companies, standards-developing organizations and government agencies join together to realize a more coherent and effective standards strategy." This quote is taken from an informative press release {http://nwest.nist.gov/summit.html}.

LMDS PANEL SESSION AUDIO ON-LINE

A Panel Session on entitled "LMDS: Jumpstarting the Industry" was held at the 1998 IEEE Radio and Wireless Conference {http://rawcon.org} on August 11. The presentation materials have been available on-line in PDF format. Recently, we also added recordings of the session in streaming audio, so you listen as you download.

NEW SUPPORTING COMPANIES

Several interesting new Supporting Companies have brought the total to 39. If you haven't seen the web site lately, check out the list at {http://nwest.nist.gov/supporters.html}.

N-WEST TALK AT EUROPEAN WIRELESS CONFERENCE

I'll be in Amsterdam the week of October 5, attending the European Microwave Conference {http://www.eumw.com} and two related symposia (GAAS'98 and MTT-S European Wireless'98). One of the invited talks I'll be presenting, to be held in a session on "U.S. Wireless Technology" at MTT-S European Wireless'98, is entitled "The National Wireless Electronic Systems Testbed: Initial Development" {http://nwest.nist.gov/eumc.html}. I'll also be looking out for information on European efforts in Broadband Wireless Access. [By the way, I can't promise to keep up with my email that week.]

Cheers!

Roger

Dr. Roger Marks (marks@nist.gov)