Discussion on timeline for 802.11ax June 2013 doc.: IEEE 802.11-12/xxxxr0 May 2014 Discussion on timeline for 802.11ax Authors: Date: 2014-04-17 Laurent Cariou (Orange)

May 2014 Outline In this presentation, we discuss the risk of a long timeline for 802.11ax, especially with regards to the early needs of densification We discuss some ways to speed up the improvement of user experience in dense environments, through the adjustment of 802.11ax timeline. Laurent Cariou (Orange)

Risk of a too long timeline for 802.11ax May 2014 Risk of a too long timeline for 802.11ax If we take the example of 802.11ac to plan the timeline for 802.11ax first products will reach market in 2018 and certified ones in 2019 there will probably be two waves of certifications as for 802.11ac This time-to-market is not so long for the long-term needs building the Wi-Fi generation for the incoming 10 years. But we believe that 11ax brings improvements to Wi-Fi user experience that will be needed earlier than 2018-19 Looking at operators needs for carrier grade Wi-Fi Looking at the growing densification and demand in public places which impacts WiFi user experience Considering also alternative technologies on unlicensed bands this is even more risky if we experience timeline drift as 802.11ah  This time-to-market is too long for these early needs Laurent Cariou (Orange)

802.11ax should have multiple waves of certification May 2014 802.11ax should have multiple waves of certification 802.11 works with generations every 4-5 years this model of generation has a very strong marketing value it however creates long time between generations 802.11ac evolved on this point by creating different waves of certifications (releases) in WFA We believe it is important for 802.11ax to have also multiple waves of certifications in WFA (mix of generations and releases) with all features defined in 802.11ax that end-up in these certification programs: feature selection directly at 802.11 level But we need to see how to speed up the pace and reduce the time for the first wave of certification we would like to see propositions on this Laurent Cariou (Orange)

May 2014 Speed up the improvement of user experience in dense environments (1/2) Speed up the first wave of certification of 802.11ax WFA created 2 waves of certifications for 802.11ac, with 2 different timelines, but 802.11 worked on a single spec with a single timeline We consider that there will be multiple waves of certification for 802.11ax also with every wave having a set of PHY&MAC features taken from 802.11ax specification Why not taking this model to the next step by applying it, not only to WFA, but to IEEE 802.11 work as well Laurent Cariou (Orange)

June 2013 doc.: IEEE 802.11-12/xxxxr0 May 2014 Speed up the improvement of user experience in dense environments (2/2) Speed up the first wave of certification of 802.11ax Once the overall set of features has been agreed for 802.11ax, the TG could decide at some point to split these features in 2 waves and to validate the part of 802.11ax specification related to the features of wave 1 before the one related to wave 2. development towards draft 1.0 should focus on providing a mature spec for the features targeted at 11ax wave 1 This could reduce the time-to-market for the first wave of 802.11ax some features don’t need a very long time to be standardized Laurent Cariou (Orange) Osama Aboul-Magd (Huawei Technologies)

Illustration of potential timelines for 802.11ax May 2013 Illustration of potential timelines for 802.11ax IEEE802.11 WFA 11ax 11ax/HEW Wave 1 2014 11ax/HEW Wave 2 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 IEEE802.11 WFA 11ax 11ax/HEW Wave 1 2014 long track fast track 11ax/HEW Wave 2 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Laurent Cariou (Orange)

May 2013 Conclusion 802.11ax has to set an ambitious timeline that it will respect strict selection of the features that will reach market (as for 11ac) We also believe that 11ax brings improvements to Wi-Fi experience that will be needed earlier than 2018-19 we propose an approach to speed up that process some thinking is needed to see how to make it possible and hope to see some discussion/propositions towards this goal Laurent Cariou (Orange)

May 2013 Strawpoll Would you like to see investigations on the way to create 2 waves for the specification of 802.11ax? Y 39 N 18 A 62 Laurent Cariou (Orange)