Subject: [NEXTEL-1] IEEE groups fight for control of key standards

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 16:49:27 -0400

IEEE groups fight for control of key standards

By Wireless Watch
Published Friday 16th July 2004 12:58 GMT

Analysis

This week?s IEEE summit highlighted the breakneck pace of change that is
driving innovation in wireless, but also threatening to break its
standards process apart. Political wars rage in areas like UltraWideBand
and fast Wi-Fi, but more fundamental debates are taking place over how
different specifications should coexist and which territory they should
occupy. As Wi-Fi reaches up to WiMAX? range and WiMAX aims for the
mobility of 802.20, the most important IEEE group of all may be 802.22,
looking at the cognitive radio that will enable devices to use all three
and to take advantage of proposed opening of US television spectrum.
This week?s IEEE meeting in Portland, Oregon is shaping up to be one of
the most lively in years, with a packed agenda that highlights both the
current breakneck pace of change in wireless networking, and many of the
splits that could slow this pace in the near future.

As well as the obligatory vote on the UltraWideBand-based 802.15.3a
standard proposal, in which the two technologies ? Motorola?s DS-UWB and
Intel/TI?s Multiband OFDM ? will fight it out once more, there are new
debates raging that may prove just as intractable. Like the UWB schism -
which threatens to drive both camps to establish de facto standards,
diluting the role of the IEEE in the wireless future ? splits over fast
Wi-Fi, mobile WiMAX and use of broadcasting spectrum for broadband
wireless could all have a highly negative effect on the progress towards
a multi-network, standards-based wireless world.

The fight for broadcast spectrum

A more unexpected battle, but one that shows where the ambitions of the
WiMAX camp are heading, broke out early in the IEEE summit, over
television broadband.  Proposals to allow sharing of underused US TV
spectrum by wireless devices could open a whole new range of
opportunities for WiMAX, and the 802.16 group and its greatest
cheerleader Intel are keen to take the driving seat.  These ambitions
clashed with IEEE plans to set up a separate body, called 802.22, to
look at a standard for the peculiar requirements of broadband wireless
in TV spectrum, and specifically at a cognitive radio that would be able
to detect when a wireless device might interfere with an incumbent
broadcaster?s signal and back off. This group would be a spin-off of the
existing 802.18, also called the Radio Regulatory TAG, which exists to
provide the 802 wireless working groups with regulatory expertise.

This plan was denounced by the 802.16 committee chairman, Roger Marks,
who claimed its work was already covered by the remit of the WiMAX work.
"I don't see how this is in anyway different than what we do in 802.16,"
said 802.16 members.  A resolution was passed that would submit comments
to the Executive Committee, explaining why the TV-Broadband standards
work should be incorporated into the 802.16 standards group and not spun
off into a separate working group like 802.22.
The debate may seem obscure, but a look at the factors behind it reveal
why it is actually of crucial importance to companies that want WiMAX to
become the dominant technology for broadband wireless.

Last month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking that would allow for unlicensed broadband
wireless operations in underused television frequencies, in channels
below 900MHz and in the 3GHz band. This proposal has been heavily
supported by FCC chair Michael Powell and has been the subject of
intensive lobbying by Intel, which sees the additional spectrum as a
rich hunting ground for WiMAX, particularly in its mobile form.

The FCC proposes to insist that unlicensed devices in these bands should
incorporate cognitive radios to identify unused channels. It will permit
two types of broadband access ? by low power personal gadgets such as
Wi-Fi or WiMAX cards in laptop computers or home networks; and by higher
power fixed wireless technology providing commercial broadband
services.  As well as relieving the pressure on overcrowded unlicensed
spectrum for Wi-Fi and WiMAX operators, the freeing up of these
frequencies would also be important because signals in the lower TV band
can travel longer distances and penetrate buildings and trees more
easily than they can in the current 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

Intel?s CTO, Pat Gelsinger, a vocal campaigner for more liberal
approaches to spectrum suitable for Wi-Fi and WiMAX, commented:

"For more than half a century, vacant TV channels (which represent some
of the most valuable spectrum available) have been underutilized.
Releasing this spectrum for unlicensed use will help foster new
technologies, create opportunities for business and bring exciting new
products to consumers." The move will be a driver to accelerate work on
WiMAX profiles that will allow the technology to work in the 3GHz band
and the lower frequencies. Although all the focus of recent 802.16 work
has been on bands between 2GHz and 11GHz, the WiMAX Forum said earlier
this year that it would also look at profiles for low frequencies,
clearly with the potential FCC changes in mind.  WiMAX is flexible in
its channel sizes and can use the 6MHz width of the TV channels. Even
with these narrower channels, signal range below 900MHz could be three
times that in 2.4GHz, reducing the number of base stations required well
below 3G?s requirements, and so making mobile WiMAX clouds an even
stronger proposition against cellular.

Slow progress to mobility

All this shows why Intel and the WiMAX community are so keen to
establish their influence over the opening sub-900MHz market and ensure
that standards and devices that can take advantage of this goldmine of
new spectrum are geared to the vision of ubiquitous fixed and mobile
802.16.

However, the proposed mobile variant, 802.16e, has a tough job to hit
its end of year deadline for defining a standard for the core WiMAX
frequencies, let alone any new ones. A total of 122 contributions was
submitted for the 802.16e working group this week and few of these have
harmonized, though they are expected to boil down to two core groups of
proposals.

One of these will have heavy input from Navini Networks, the developer
of highly mobile broadband wireless technology, which joined WiMAX Forum
earlier this year, leaving behind its former favored standards body,
802.20 or Mobile-Fi. Navini brings a very valuable source of expertise
in high speed handoff to the WiMAX camp, which was originally focused on
limited portability, leaving true mobility to its 802.20 cousin. Now the
remit of 802.16e has broadened to cover both portability and mobility,
and there is increasing pressure for Mobile-Fi to be integrated into its
work rather than pursuing a separate and increasingly overlapping
agenda. This view is strengthened as more Mobile-Fi backers join WiMAX,
including Motorola and, potentially, Cisco.
There is something of a split between the IEEE 802.16 committee and the
WiMAX Forum industry group over coexistence with another overlapping
standard, the South Korean Wi-Bro, which was largely developed by
Samsung, research body ETRI and several Korean operators. Marks said at
this week?s meeting that he welcomed the large Korean involvement in
802.16e and that the expertise of members from that country had
?contributed substantially? to the emerging standard.

This conflicts with the views stated by various Intel representatives,
including WiMAX chairman Ron Resnick ? the chipmaker has opposed
Samsung?s claim that Wi-Bro could form the basis of 802.16e, reducing
time to standards, since the Korean technology is already developed and
will be deployed by SKT next year.  Marks seems to be taking the view
that the overlapping specifications should be harmonized under one
standard, even if this is then deployed in different ways for different
markets ? something to which WiMAX, with its broad set of potential
profiles, lends itself. For instance, Wi-Bro uses 2,048 OFDM carriers, a
variation that is supported in 802.16 by the Multiple Access Mode,
though the 802.16e work is mainly focused on 1,024 carriers. Marks is
sceptical that the goal of Wi-Bro, to deliver 1Mbps data rates at high
speed, is really needed in the market, a view that may reflect the
differences between US and Korean users.

In-car 802.11p standards

While the 802.16e project is in danger of being delayed in its progress
to high speed mobility by these politics, its thunder in the vehicle
market could be stolen by Wi-Fi. The next extension to the 802.11
standards family to come under consideration by the IEEE will be
802.11p, which concerns Wi-Fi operations at high speed and is seen as an
important enabler of in-car networks. The proposed 802.11p protocol
would deliver 6Mbps average rates over distances of around 1,000 feet
while travelling at high speed, making it competitive with other mobile
broadband technologies such as Flarion Flash-OFDM or mobile WiMAX. It
expands on conventional 802.11 to allow for provisions that are
specifically useful to automobiles - a more advanced hand-off scheme,
high mobility, enhanced security, identification, ad hoc peer-to-peer
authentication and communications in the automotive- allocated 5.9GHz
spectrum.

802.11p will be used as the groundwork for DSRC (Dedicated Short Range
Communications), a US Department of Transportation project ? which will
be emulated elsewhere - looking at vehicle- based communication
networks, particularly for applications such as toll collection, vehicle
safety services, and commerce transactions via cars. The ultimate vision
is a nationwide network that enables communications between vehicles and
roadside access points or other vehicles.

The 802.11p technology will come before the executive committee of the
IEEE this week and working groups are conducting further studies on
interoperability between access points and cars. The work builds on its
predecessor, ASTN a2213-O3.
?Prototypes are under construction right now,? said Lee Armstrong, chair
of the 802.11p working group, who expects auto makers to deploy the
technology in high end vehicles in 2007-8, and says most of the big
names are already testing the connections. By building Wi-Fi access
points along the nation?s highways? which ABI estimates could see
initial expenditures in the $1bn range in the US?and installing receiver
chips inside automobiles, consumers and safety personnel will be able to
receive high speed internet access that supports such applications as
real time traffic updates and video streaming.  This could eat into a
valuable market for both cellular and broadband wireless equipment
makers and operators. Although the current default method of
communication to the car, cellular, will exist alongside 802.11p for at
least another six years, it is possible that carmakers will hold back on
investing in next generation cellular telematics technology, which has
been held up as a major new revenue stream for this industry.
Likewise, 802.11p will take some of the gloss of the claims of Flarion
and other 802.20 backers, as well as companies looking at high speed
WiMAX, that their technologies will be differentiated by their
suitability for vehicles. The government support for 802.11p will make
it the mainstream solution and alternatives, even if they are more
powerful, will find it hard to get a look-in.

New divisions in 802.11n:

Also in Wi-Fi, further divisions have arisen in the quest for a fast
version of the standard. We have already outlined the division over the
technological approach that should underpin the next extension to Wi-Fi,
802.11n, which will specify networks operating at over 100Mbps (see
Wireless Watch issue 69). Now, challenging the two main groupings, led
respectively by Atheros and Airgo, is chipmaker Agere, which has thrown
the cat among the pigeons, claiming the real goal of the standard should
be 500Mbps data rates.

The company says its proposal combines MIMO (multiple in multiple out)
smart antennas with single 20MHz or double 40MHz channel widths. The
full 500Mbps raw throughput is achieved by using the maximum number of
antennas ? four at each transmitter and receivery ? and the wider
channels. The technology would offer backwards compatibility with
802.11b/g and would also support two-antenna configurations for lower
cost products at lower speeds.  The company has been working on wireless
MIMO technology for some years and in 2002 demonstrated a 162Mbps three
transmitter/three receiver MIMO system.  Agere would not provide details
of when working silicon would be available to demonstrate its proposed
500Mbps 802.11n capability. It said the flexibility to support single or
double-width channels not only made it suitable for all countries ?
Japan specifies 20MHz channels for WLans, for instance ? but also
allowed for a configuration in 2.4GHz. While 5GHz would be required for
the full 500Mbps, the lower frequency support would allow for
coexistence with 802.11b/g.  Another feature of the submission is a
standardized frame aggregation for both single and multiple
destinations, to improve network efficiency and interoperability.  Frame
aggregation, - which merges several frames together in a single packet,
- is important for streaming applications including voice over IP and
multimedia content.

The road to harmonization

All these disputes are to be expected in a wireless world that is so
newly formed and where all the technologies and standards, and many of
the players, are immature. Some of them, like the 802.11n and 802.15.3a
splits, do raise important issues of functionality, but are primarily
about vendor bids for control and royalties.  Others, like the arguments
over whether to unify 802.16, 802.20 and Wi-Bro, while political, are
also centered on fundamental debates over the role of the various
standards in the real world. Should there be separate standards for
portable, metro area wireless and highly mobile networks, or should
these be merely different variations of the same base?

There are technological and market arguments on both sides, even if the
final outcome is likely to be decided by the needs of the big vendors,
like Intel, to support as broad and powerful a standard as possible.
What the current IEEE meeting also highlights is the dilemma created by
the very speed of wireless technology development.

Rapid uptake of Wi-Fi has attracted hundreds of suppliers, all seeking
to survive, and to maintain margins, by stretching the technology a step
further and gaining differentiation from their rivals. This cycle of
price wars and new product developments is more rapid than we have seen
anywhere before in the communications sector and, while it fosters
innovation, it also creates huge problems for standards bodies and
therefore for operators? and enterprises? longer term planning.

If Wi-Fi can move out of its LAN space and achieve 100 miles per hour
mobility, 500Mbps data rates and extended range, why do we need WiMAX?
If WiMAX can reach beyond its metro area remit and become fully mobile,
what is the point of 802.20? And that?s not to mention the cellular
technologies still determined to hold on to their massive market lead in
wireless communications.  The answer, of course, comes back to
harmonization, effective integration and the much vaunted cognitive
radio, all of which will make the choice of standards less critical and
will allow devices to take advantage of the different benefits of all
those available. Reduce the list down to 802.11, 802.16, 802.15 and
cellular, and allow users to access all of them on an always best
connected basis, and we are coming close to the ubiquitous wireless
world touted by the equipment makers and Michael Powell.

In this picture, the cognitive radio becomes the most vital wireless
development of the coming few years , and the mooted 802.22 committee
perhaps the most important of all within the IEEE. Which finally makes
it very clear why the WiMAX brigade are so keen to bring that effort
under their auspices.

Upcoming IEEE standards

The next Wi-Fi standards in line to be ratified are 802.11e for quality
of service, later this year, followed in the 1-2 year timeframe by
802.11n for 108Mbps speeds, 802.11r for fast hand-off between access
points, and 802.11s for mesh networking.
Further down the track is 802.11p, and further taskforces are mooted for
performance prediction for testing (likely to be 802.11t) and
interworking with external networks. It is also possible that a standing
committee will be formed to look at security issues on an ongoing basis,
especially to ensure that these new extensions do not involve new
security problems, and there is also the 802.11m standing committee, for
standards maintenance.

For 802.16, the next priorities are the mobile 802.16e, tabled for late
this year, and an 802.16f extension addressing mesh using directional
antennas, slated for late 2005.

For personal area networks, the fight drags on to choose the base for
the 802.15.3a standard, a higher speed, UWB-based extension to 802.15.3
or WiMedia. While 802.15.3 addresses high data rate, short range
networks, its cousin 802.15.4 or ZigBee looks at low data rate, low
power equivalents. Its current major project is an ?a? extension of its
own, also based on UWB.
Copyright ? 2004, Wireless Watch

Wireless Watch is published by Rethink Research, a London-based IT
publishing and consulting firm. This weekly newsletter delivers in-depth
analysis and market research of mobile and wireless for business.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/16/ieee_groups_slug_it_out/

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Z1wmxD/DREIAA/yQLSAA/61FxlB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

-- 
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address 
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEXTEL-1/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    [email-masked]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/