Consolidating Standards to Enable Economies of Scale June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 Consolidating Standards to Enable Economies of Scale Tom Siep Member Group Technical Staff Texas Instruments siep@ti.com Tom is also initial Technical Editor of the newly-formed IEEE 802.15 Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) standards effort. This document is a paper submitted to the IEEE 802.15 Working Group and reflects the views of the author. It is not an official IEEE document nor does it represent official policy of the IEEE. Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

Overview The Standards Process for IEEE 802 June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 Overview The Standards Process for IEEE 802 Why Different Standards Exist Levels of Compatibility IEEE 802.15 WPAN Charter Benefits of Commonality What we will cover Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

The Standards Process Telecommunications Standards June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 The Standards Process Telecommunications Standards Why Standards Are Important How IEEE 802 Establishes a Standard The standards process is a carefully considered series of writing, reviewing, and voting. Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

Telecommunications Standards June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 Telecommunications Standards Must define aspects of two devices, the transmitter and the receiver. A transmitter without compatible receiver does not communicate. Telecommunications standards define compatibility, not sameness. The term standard was first used in 1138 AD in the description of the "Battle of the Standard" because "it was there that valor took its stand to conquer or die" This is the earliest use of the term as a flag or conspicuous object indicating a rallying point. Later the term evolved to indicate a physical definition often called "the king's standard.” Today, standards are used for many purposes. Standards define a specific aspect of a device such as its external color or the size of lead in a pencil or type faces or computer operating systems. Device standards are very helpful in the manufacturing and distribution process, but are not necessarily crucial for function: f every pencil had a different diameter of lead, the scribe could still take notes. Standards that directly support telecommunications such as the mechanical dimensions of a connector, the electrical properties of the signals that pass through the connector, or the protocols that maintain order in the data stream through the connector are critical to telecommunications. Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

Why Standards Are Important June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 Why Standards Are Important To Users Provides an open forum for discussion and development Allows multiple vendors to offer compatible hardware To the Industry in General Seeds Development of Technology Supports Interoperability of Multiple Vendors Speeds Market Acceptance To Semiconductor Suppliers Ensure technology is optimized for function Meet with Industry Technology Leaders Can provide common base for multiple standards To Users Provides an open forum for discussion and development Proprietary methodologies tend to close-ended with non-compatible changes/improvements Allows multiple vendors to offer compatible hardware More choices in the marketplace To the Industry in General Seeds Development of Technology Cooperation by “expert” participants in industry Peer review of new ideas enables rapid development of new ideas Supports Interoperability of Multiple Vendors Provides minimum base point feature set Provides common test points at interfaces Speeds Market Acceptance Standards enable multiple vendors to participate and compete Equipment providers rely on standards for product specification To Semiconductor Suppliers Ensure Semiconductor technology is optimized for function Keep abreast of future system architectures Contribute to standards to enable vendor’s solution Enable flexible solutions Meet with Industry Technology Leaders Gain knowledge on future developments Meet product designers and architects Understand product roadmaps and performance requirements Provide common base for multiple standards Cross-standards coordination Semiconductor road maps fed into standards process Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

IEEE Interfaces June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 The blue square denotes the IEEE 802 committee. The 802.15 is a Working Group that operates within this body. All external coordination is done under the auspices of the 802 committee, including industry consortia and other standards bodies. Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

How IEEE 802 Establishes a Standard June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 How IEEE 802 Establishes a Standard This is what happens in the Working Group (WG) to create an IEEE 802 standard. The 802.15 WG has been chartered with a Project Authorization from NeSCom to create Wireless Personal Area Networks standards. The first step in the process is to establish the criteria upon which any candidate standards will be judged. That process will begin at our first meeting in Montreal in July. The next step is to create one or more draft standards. This is the most important and often the most difficult part of the standards process. Once a draft standard has been created it is followed by a letter ballot vote. Voters have the option to vote Approve Abstain because of lack of expertise (same as not voting) Do Not Approve (must give specific reasons) All “Do Not Approve” votes must be addressed by the WG. The WG must decide whether to change the draft (and vote again) or, if it had a 75% approval, pass it to the pool of voters from the IEEE who have indicated an interest in the standard. Once again, any Do Not Approve ballots must be answered. When no new votes have been garnered and if there is a better than 75% approval, the draft standard goes on to be formally adopted. Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

Bluetooth and IEEE 802 June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 Correspondence of Bluetooth to the ISO Open Standards Interface (OSI) model and how the IEEE standards map to them. Note that IEEE has only two layers of the ISO-OSI while Bluetooth (as you well know) covers all of them. What is not indicated by this graph is that the normal place for the LLC layer is in a separate committee, 802.2. This standard is common to 802 stacks, but each MAC may have some medium-specific clauses in the 802.2 standard. Due to the unique nature of the wireless medium, 802.15 will evaluate if there is sufficient flexibility for a Bluetooth-based standard to follow this model. Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

Why Different Standards Exist June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 Why Different Standards Exist Regional Special Purpose Just Because Regional standards exist due to several factors, but mostly because of regulation and/or tradition. Since wireless communications share the medium (the airways), there tends to be much more regulation of it. Bluetooth’s efforts at harmonization of the 2.4 GHz band are addressing this problem. Special Purpose standards generally occur when a narrow interest group defines a telecommunications methodology. It sometimes creates a standard that others find impossible to use. The IEEE’s open process seeks to avoid narrow definitions while satisfying the stated characteristics and criteria established at the beginning of a standards process. The goal is to avoid special-purpose protocols by creating useful, meaningful and flexible standards. Just Because standards happen, well, just because The IEEE seeks to embrace industry standards, codify them, and make them available to the widest possible audience. Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

Levels of Compatibility The Wireless Example June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 Levels of Compatibility The Wireless Example When dealing with the airways as a medium of communication, many possible interactions are possible between two protocol sets. This figure shows the continuum between full interoperability at the top to mutually destructive interference at the bottom. The arrow marked “WPAN proposal?” represents where the newly-forming IEEE 802.15 Working Group feels they will need to be. Exactly where on the continuum the WPAN standard lands is, of course, up to the participants of the Working Group. Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 IEEE 802.15 Charter The IEEE P802.15 WPAN Working Group is chartered with developing Personal Area Network standards for short distance wireless networks. Build on emerging industry specifications Provide an open forum to debate these proposals Identify substantive issues Build consensus on solutions Goal is to create standards that have broad market applicability deal with the issues of coexistence and interoperability widely used More information is available at: http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/15/index.html Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

Possible Coalescence of Standards June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 Possible Coalescence of Standards Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

Benefits of Commonality June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 Benefits of Commonality Cooperation by “expert” participants in industry Peer review enables rapid development of new ideas Supports Interoperability of Multiple Vendors Multiple vendors able to participate and compete Semiconductor technology is optimized for function Semiconductor road maps feed into standards process Economies of Scale become realizable Everyone benefits, the bottom line here is (of course) the bottom line Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

IEEE 802.15 Meeting In Montreal June 1999 doc.: IEEE 802.15-99011r1 June 1999 IEEE 802.15 Meeting In Montreal Become part of the process! For this (the first) meeting only -- voting rights are automatic for those who participate. IEEE 802 LMSC Plenary meeting the week of July 5-9, 1999 at: Queen Elizabeth Hotel 900 Rene-Levesque Blvd West Montreal, PQ H3B 4A5 CANADA Reservations: (800) 441-1414 Phone: (514) 861-3511 Fax: (514) 954-2256 http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/meeting/index.html Normally voting rights are conferred to participants only after they have attended two of four consecutive IEEE 802 Plenary meetings. Our rules allow the substitution of one 802.15 Interim meeting for one of the Plenary meetings. The rules of the 802 committee allow participants in the first meeting of a Working Group to become voting members without having to first attend multiple meetings. It is not required that you be an IEEE member to become a voting member of a Working Group. It is, of course, strongly encouraged. “Participation” is defined by 802 as attending at least 75% of the scheduled sessions for a given meeting. Tom Siep, Texas Instruments Tom Siep, Texas Instruments