1. Consolidating Standards to Enable Economies of Scale
August 1999
doc.: IEEE r2
August 1999
Consolidating Standards to Enable Economies of Scale
Tom Siep Member Group Technical Staff
Texas Instruments
Tom is also initial Technical Editor of the newly-formed IEEE Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) standards effort.
This document is a paper submitted to the IEEE 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

2. Overview The Standards Process for IEEE 802
August 1999
doc.: IEEE r2
August 1999
Overview
The Standards Process for IEEE 802
Why Different Standards Exist
Levels of Compatibility
IEEE WPAN Charter
Benefits of Commonality
What we will cover
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

3. The Standards Process Telecommunications Standards
August 1999
doc.: IEEE r2
August 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

4. Telecommunications Standards
August 1999
doc.: IEEE r2
August 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

5. Why Standards Are Important
August 1999
doc.: IEEE r2
August 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

6. August 1999
IEEE Interfaces
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

7. How IEEE 802 Establishes a Standard
August 1999
How IEEE 802 Establishes a Standard
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

8. August 1999
Bluetooth and IEEE 802
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

9. Why Different Standards Exist
August 1999
doc.: IEEE r2
August 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

10. Levels of Compatibility The Wireless Example
August 1999
Levels of Compatibility The Wireless Example
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

11. August 1999
IEEE Charter
The IEEE P 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
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

12. Possible Coalescence of Standards
August 1999
Possible Coalescence of Standards
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

13. Benefits of Commonality
August 1999
doc.: IEEE r2
August 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

14. IEEE 802.15 Meetings Become part of the process!
August 1999
doc.: IEEE r2
August 1999
IEEE Meetings
Become part of the process!
Voting rights are accrued by those who participate in the meetings.
IEEE (and IEEE ) Interim meeting the week of September at: Hilton Hotel, Sonoma County in Santa Rosa, California
IEEE 802 LMSC Plenary meeting the week of November 8-12, 1999 at: Hyatt Regency Kauai Resort & Spa in Koloa, Hawaii
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 Interim meeting for one of the Plenary meetings. “Participation” is defined by 802 as attending at least 75% of the scheduled sessions for a given meeting.
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.
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

15. Questions? Tom Siep siep@ti.com August 1999
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments

16. Another Version of “The Briefcase Trick”
August 1999
Another Version of “The Briefcase Trick”
Tom Siep, Texas Instruments