IEEE 802 Perspectives

May 2001

Jim Carlo

The IEEE 802 Local and Metropolitan Area Network (LAN/MAN) Standards Committee is an international standards developing organization consisting of more than 1000 individual networking experts located world-wide. The major industry standards now in development by IEEE 802 are Ethernet (CSMA/CD), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN), Broadband Wireless Access (BWA), Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) and Bridging/Architecture that provide the basis for Enterprise networking. There are about fifty IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards and five major ISO/IEC/JTC1 8802 series equivalent standards covering the broad spectrum of LAN/MAN standards.
      These perspectives have appeared in some issues of IEEE Network since September 1997 and are aimed to provide the reader with highlights of IEEE 802 activities to enable better dissemination of these standards into marketable products as well as seek new ideas to be brought into the IEEE 802 arena.
      This perspective will update the current IEEE 802 organization and changes in the method of operation since the first column appeared in 1997. Several readers have asked for more detail on the IEEE 802 process to better understand the new project initiation and standards development process. A Web page where additional information can be obtained on IEEE802 activities, meeting dates and organization is located at http://www.ieee802.org.
      Subsequent issues will contain highlights for specific standards in development. Some of the exciting topics in IEEE 802 are 10 Gigabit Ethernet and how Ethernet will migrate outward from the enterprise to the first mile, Powered Ethernet, and the growing diversity of wireless communication networks. Each issue of the perspective will be written by a different leader of IEEE 802. Please send suggestions, criticisms, and requests for future article topics to j.carlo@ieee.org, IEEE 802 chair.

-- Jim Carlo

The IEEE 802 Local and Metropolitan Area Network (LAN/MAN) Standards Committee has the basic charter to create, maintain, and encourage the use of IEEE standards primarily within layers 1 and 2 of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model. The IEEE 802 committee was formed in February 1980 and has met at least three times per year as a Plenary body ever since that time (for a detailed history of IEEE 802 see this column in IEEE Network, November/December 1999. IEEE 802 has grown over the past year from participation of 500 individuals to over 1000 individuals at each of the IEEE 802 Plenary sessions. A diagram of the current IEEE 802 organization is shown in Fig. 1:

Active Working Groups within IEEE 802 are the entity where the standards are initiated, developed, and completed. Each Working Group is assigned an 802.x designation and usually contains several related active projects for standardization. The Working Groups have a single chair (listed in Fig. 1) and consist of between 20400 individuals who are considered voting members. Voting membership requires regular attendance at two of the last four Working Group meetings and is open to all individuals. The Working Groups meet at each of the three IEEE 802 Plenary meetings and usually in-between the Plenary meetings at Interim meetings in order to progress work on their standards in a timely manner. The 802.1 WG consists of standards development projects in bridging and LAN management as well as the overall architecture of IEEE 802 LANs. The other Working Groups provide different media access and physical signaling for specific types of LAN and MAN standards. The Active Working Groups consist of subareas, either Task Forces or Study Groups. Task Forces are groups that develop a standard draft based on an approved Project Authorization Request (PAR). This approval is obtained at the IEEE-SA Standards Board. A Task Force exists during the development of a standard, which can take from one to four years. The Study Groups are short-term groups that develop seed projects into officially approved PARs. Formation of a Study Group typically requires a "call for interest" paper or tutorial that an individual brings forth showing the need for a standard in a possible area. Study Groups may be chartered by the Working Group or the IEEE 802 Sponsor Executive Committee (SEC). A Study Group is disbanded after a PAR is approved or the study project is deemed unsuitable for an IEEE 802 standard.
Hibernating Working Groups are those areas that have completed their standards development and are not meeting regularly. Their role is to continue to provide support for industry questions and maintenance of their standards as long as the market need persists.
Disbanded Working Groups are those areas that no longer have any active standards.
The Executive Officers provide for management within IEEE 802, such as meeting arrangements, providing timely minutes of all meetings and control of financial budgets. The Executive Officers are appointed by the IEEE 802 Chair and affirmed by other members of the Sponsor Executive Committee.
Each of the Working Group chairs and Executive Officers compose the IEEE 802 SEC, responsible for leadership and policy in the IEEE 802 organization. The Sponsor Executive Committee (SEC) meets at the beginning and end of each plenary meeting to approve all PARs and standards submitted by the Working Groups to the IEEE Standards Board. This PAR review requires that all IEEE 802 PARs meet the following five criteria: broad market potential, compatibility with IEEE 802 protocol interfaces, distinct identity, technical feasibility, and economic feasibility. This five-criteria process ensures that future standards developed within IEEE 802 will benefit the public.

      External organizational relations with IEEE 802 are critical to enable widespread utilization and development of IEEE 802 standards; some of these are shown in Fig. 2. The IEEE-SA Staff, which is part of the overall IEEE organization, is responsible for editing the IEEE 802 draft standards and publishing these standards. IEEE 802 standards are now available for download without charge from the Web, with a program supported by both industry, individuals, and IEEE 802. In addition the Standards Staff provides volunteer training and support as well as conducting the final IEEE 802 ballots on draft standards.
      The IEEE Standards Board provides oversight and final approval of all IEEE 802 projects and standards. Before a standards project is started, a PAR must be developed and then approved by the New Standards Committee (NesCom) and the IEEE Standards Board. After PAR approval, the Working Group produces a draft standard balloted by the Working Group, approved by the SEC, and finally balloted within a larger worldwide IEEE-SA constituency to achieve widespread review. After achieving consensus, the draft standard is submitted for approval to RevCom and the IEEE Standards Board.
      The IEEE Standards Board also provides oversight to ensure that legal and patent procedures are followed as defined in the IEEE Standards Operating Manual and IEEE Standards Board Operating Rules (http://standards.ieee.
org/resources/index.html). The IEEE patent policy requires essential patents to be licensed on a "reasonable and non-discriminatory" basis.
      The IEEE Computer Society is the official sponsor for IEEE 802 organization.
      IEEE 802 has liaisons with JTC1/SC6 and JTC1/SC25 to provide inputs for internationalization of IEEE standards in ISO/IEC JTC1. In IEEE 802, approximately 20 percent of the individual membership is from outside the United States, thus giving the IEEE 802 standard an international basis by its own process and enabling rapid formal approval at JTC1 by the participating companies. Besides the formal agreement with JTC1, IEEE 802 also cooperates with other international and national standards bodies, such as ETSI, ITU, and national standards bodies.
      The IEEE 802 standards organization and process described above ensure that IEEE 802 standards meet the five imperative standards development principals (due process, consensus, openness, balance, and right to appeal). Due process ensures that the rules are followed to develop a standard and appeals are possible when due process is not followed. Consensus, in the IEEE 802 process, does not imply unanimity in support of the standard. Rather, it signifies that all viewpoints are heard and discussed, and all ideas carefully taken into account. Typically, important technical decisions are decided by a 75 percent mandate from the participants. All meetings of IEEE 802 are open to individuals who wish to participate in the standards development, and balance is achieved by encouraging wide points of view from different areas of technology. These processes ensure that IEEE 802 standards meet the high level of integrity and applicability that supports the public networking infrastructure.

Biography
Jim Carlo is a TI Fellow of Texas Instruments and serves as IEEE 802 LAN MAN Sponsor Committee Chair and vice chair of the IEEE-SA Standards Board. At TI, he has participated in networking since 1981, working in token ring, Ethernet, DSL, and wireless LAN products. He is co-author of a book, Understanding Token Ring. He earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.