N-WEST News #22
National Wireless Electronic Systems Testbed (N-WEST)

January 7, 2000

Topics:


802.16 SESSION #5 GENERATES LARGE INTEREST

108 people have preregistered for 802.16 Session #5, to be held January 10-14, 2000 in Richardson (Dallas), Texas, USA.

The agenda includes:

DRAMATIC CONSOLIDATION OF IEEE 802.16.1 AIR INTERFACE PROPOSALS

The development plan for the 802.16.1 broadband wireless access air interface sought to solicit proposed standards and foster consolidation of the proposals. So far, the results have been dramatic.

For Session #4, 802.16.1 scheduled the presentation of 18 physical layer (PHY) and 13 medium access control (MAC) proposals. Of these, 12 PHY and 11 MAC proposers were invited to submit for Session #5. By voluntary consolidation, the number of submissions under consideration at Session #5 has dropped to only 3 PHY and 2 MAC.

The Session #5 PHY proposals are described in the following documents:

IEEE 802.16.1pc-00/02

IEEE 802.16.1pc-00/05

IEEE 802.16.1pc-00/09

The Session #5 MAC proposals are described in the following documents:

IEEE 802.16.1mc-00/01

IEEE 802.16.1mc-00/07

FIRST IEEE 802.16.1 FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT POSTED

On December 17, 1999, IEEE 802.16 posted 802.16.1 Functional Requirements, Rev. 1, which provides functional requirements for developing an interoperable 802.16.1 air interface. The document had been approved by 802.16 during Session #4.

IEEE 802.16 BALLOTING POOL FORMATION UNDERWAY

On December 28, 1999, IEEE 802.16 began formation of a Sponsor Balloting Pool. Future 802.16 draft standards will be balloted by a Balloting Group drawn from members of the Balloting Pool. Any interested parties are invited to join the balloting pool; the form is on-line.

WEB USAGE REFLECTS STRONG AND GROWING INTEREST IN IEEE 802.16

A compilation of the 802.16 web site usage statistics shows strong interest in the Working Group:
Month # of Files Served
99/03 262
99/04 6687
99/05 13999
99/06 19243
99/07 22077
99/08 22616
99/09 23804
99/10 36258
99/11 67942
99/12 data unavailable

As of December 3, the average 802.16.1 PHY contribution from Session #4 had been downloaded 547 times; the average MAC contribution had been downloaded 456 times.

N-WEST IN THE NEWS

A November 29, 1999 Electronic Engineering Times article (pp. 87-88) entitled LMDS, MMDS Race for Low-Cost Implementation discussed BWA standards and 802.16.

On December 7, 1999, Roger Marks received the United States Department of Commerce Silver Medal Award from Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley "for creating N-WEST, an entrepreneurial vehicle for industry to develop standards needed to jumpstart a fast-moving wireless communication service".

On December 9, 1999, the United States Department of Commerce hosted the Digital Divide Summit. Roger Marks attended.

On December 15, 1999, Roger Marks and Lou Olsen, 802.16 Chair and Vice Chair respectively, participated in an invitation-only roundtable session on "Information Society and the Wireless World." The session was held at the Embassy of Finland in Washington, DC and was co-sponsored by the European Institute. The speakers were:

On December 31, 1999, a letter on standards by Roger Marks was carried in David S. Isenberg's SMART Letter #31 (see "Smart Comments from SMART People on NEW ECONOMY").

NEW N-WEST SUPPORTING COMPANIES

We now have 81 N-WEST Supporting Companies as we welcome:
Dr. Roger Marks (marks@nist.gov)