January, 2000 IEEE P802.15-00/113r0

IEEE P802.15

Wireless Personal Area Networks

Project / IEEE P802.15 Working Group for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs)
Title / Draft Article for Bluetooth SIGnal
Date Submitted / [11 January 2000]
Source / [Ian Gifford]
[M/A-COM, Inc.]
[1011 Pawtucket Boulevard
Lowell, MA USA 01853-3295] / Voice: [+1 978 442 4650]
Fax: [+1 978 442 5442]
E-mail: [
Re: / [Draft Article for BluetoothÔ SIGnal.]
Abstract / [An article about the IEEE involvement in BluetoothÔ focusing on the IEEE P802.15 Working Group Members that attended the BluetoothÔ Development Conference 7-9Dec99]
Purpose / [Provide Marketing Communication from P802.15 to BluetoothÔ SIG.]
Notice / This document has been prepared to assist the IEEE P802.15. It is offered as a basis for discussion and is not binding on the contributing individual(s) or organization(s). The material in this document is subject to change in form and content after further study. The contributor(s) reserve(s) the right to add, amend or withdraw material contained herein.
Release / The contributor acknowledges and accepts that this contribution becomes the property of IEEE and may be made publicly available by P802.15.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Dec. 8, 1999 - Members from the IEEE Project 802.15 Working Group for Wireless Personal Area Networks provided two (2) presentations and an update to the Bluetooth SIG Program Management on their joint standards-making initiative.

802.15 Task Group 1

The IEEE 802.15 Working Group is comprised of several active sub groups. The first major effort, to standardize a low cost, medium data rate WPAN solution was assigned to Task Group 1 (TG1) last summer. TG1 is currently working closely with the Bluetooth SIG to complete this task.

On November 4, 1999 the Bluetooth SIG submitted a Draft Standard, derived from the Bluetooth Version 1.0 A Specification Foundation Core and Bluetooth Version 1.0 A Specification Foundation Profiles, to the IEEE. The IEEE Project 802.15 Working Group (WG) for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) reviewed the submission and initiated an IEEE Letter Ballot to start the standards-making process for the lower layers e.g., L2CAP and Below or the MAC Sublayer and PHY Layer - IEEE P802-15/D0.6.

The IEEE WG Letter Ballot was completed on December 23, 1999 and the Draft Standard failed. The results and comments on this Draft Standard will be provided to the Bluetooth SIG for their review and comment. The anticipated revision to the Draft Standard will incorporate Bluetooth SIG feedback. For example, the recently released Bluetooth Version 1.0 B Specifications and Bluetooth Protocol & Profile Conformance Test Specifications will be submitted to the IEEE to maintain fidelity to the latest Bluetooth Version 1.0 Specifications.

The process of cCreating a new Standard is an long, involved, but understandable process. The openness and peer review offered by the process help to create better standards. , even if they often take longer than a group of individuals or companies working in private.

What are the advantages of IEEE 802 effort?

-Greater Industry Awareness of Standard

-Increased Vendor Participation

-Clarify specification so it becomes an interoperable standard

-Global World-wide visibility and internationalization

What are the disadvantages to IEEE 802 effort?

-Increased effort by Special Interest Group Participants

-Cannot throw the specification "over the wall"

-"Loss of Control" if specification is only a few vendors products

What can be expected from the IEEE 802 effort?

-Standard will be rock solid

-Standard will be maintainable

-Market will be ready

This Draft Standard, derived from the Bluetooth Version 1.0 Specifications, is targeted to be approved and published by the IEEE Standards Board by the end of the year.

For more information contact Ian Gifford at or view the Web page at:

http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/15/

Based upon the strong industry support of TG1 and interest in increasing both the robustness of wireless solutions and data rates the 802.15 Working Group on Wireless Personal Area Networks has initiated work in two new areas. One area is to suggest modifications to the 802.15 Task Group 1 and to the Bluetooth SIG and to the develop specifications, called a Recommended Practice, to improve coexistence with other wireless systems systems operating in the same band and the other is to initiate activity which will lead to the development of a standard for a high data rate, low-cost Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs).

Coexistence Task Group

Recently there has been tremendous interest in the 2.4 GHz band and several wireless standards have been developed like Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, HomeRF, HiperLAN. Even more wireless standards will be adopted. All of these standards assume that they have entire unlicensed band at their disposal. Thus a major concern shared by many in the industry is whether various wireless devices based on several standards or specifications can peacefully coexist within the same 2.4 GHz band. The 802.15 Coexistence Task Group (TG2) will address the issue of coexistence between WPANs and other wireless devices such as the IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). Lack of coexistence can threaten user acceptance of wireless technology.

The Coexistence Task Group was recently formed and has established as its goals to first fully characterize and understand the effects of mutual interference and then make suggestions to 802.15 Task Group 1 and produce a Recommended Practice for WPAN devices operating in a WLAN environment. An extended vision is to assist standards development in minimizing the potential for interference among different radio systems in the shared ISM bands.

The Coexistence group is chaired by Steve Shellhammer from Symbol Technlogies, Inc.

Steve can be contacted at

The 802.15 High Rate Study Group

IEEE 802.15 is now beginning development of a project definition for a consumer-priced, scalable High Rate WPAN supporting multiple data rates up to at least 20 Mbps. that can be widely deployed in home and office environments for short-range information transfer, particularly for multimedia applications and digital imaging. Industry leaders including Aware, Cisco Systems, Eastman Kodak and Motorola and are backing the new 802.15 initiative. Current standards either do not have the data rate, the Quality of Service (QoS) for multimedia traffic, or are not low-cost systems.

The main characteristics of the High Rate WPAN are:

·  able to coexist with other present and future wireless standards in the 2.4GHz band

·  maximum data rate of minimum 20 Mbps, data rate and cost scalability

·  extensive QoS support for multimedia traffic

·  interoperable with the Bluetooth/IEEE 802.15.1 standard

·  low cost

·  The cost would be comparable with Bluetooth’s cost

The 802.15 High Rate Study Group will address the technical merits and market requirements for a low cost, high data rate WPANs. A new Task Group within P802.15 is expected to begin work on a draft standard in March of 2000.

The High-Rate WPAN group is co-chaired by Jim Allen from Kodak and Bob Morris from Motorola.

See also the WEB page at http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/

Authors:

Ian Gifford is the Chair of the IEEE 802.15 WPAN Task Group 1 of the IEEE Computer Society.

Todor Cooklev is the Vice-Chair of the IEEE 802.15 High Rate WPAN group.

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Submission Page XXX Ian Gifford, M/A-COM, Inc.