All About IEEE 802 Standards: A Standards Education Workshop Tutorial Abstract Descriptions

Learn about the development of standards for unlicensed spectrum, primarily for WPAN applications and the relationship between groups like Bluetooth and ZigBee with the IEEE.

The IEEE 802.16 WirelessMAN Standard has been evolving since 1999 as a foundation for global, interoperable for broadband wireless metropolitan area networks. With the help of hundreds of participants worldwide, the standard is now in place for fully mobile as well as fixed networks. With the support of the WiMAX Forum, it is poised to become an breakthrough enabling technology for broadband access. As the international community is moving to embrace IEEE 802.16 as an element of the IMT-2000 family, the IEEE 802.16 Working Group has initiated the development of its next generation.

The IEEE 802.11 Standard has become the pinnacle foundation for interoperable wireless local area networks operating in the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequency band throughout the world. Continuing support from the Wi-Fi Alliance has made the IEEE 802.11g and IEEE 802.11n and other amendments the baseline for developing enabling high data rate technologies and interoperable wireless local area networks for VoIP, data, and video applications in the home, office, and for outdoor MESH city-wide networks.  As the IEEE 802.11 working group completes it work on IEEE 802.11n, the working group will begin developing standards targeting IMT-Advance and very high data rates - 1Gbps.

 The 802.11 market has seen spectacular growth over the past few years, and this growth is continuing at unprecedented rates. 802.11 technology has had a profound impact on the way consumers work, and on their leisure activities. Growing from cottage industry to a mainstream market across multiple segments, 802.11 products have become increasingly sophisticated; moving beyond traditional internet connectivity to include phones, cameras, gaming systems and even televisions. As a result, new applications and a service industry have developed.

As 802.11 technology has advanced and the industry has matured, the testing methodologies continue to advance as well. Early testing methodologies primarily focused on whether or not two products could exchange data and seamlessly interoperate. In response to both the wireless industry’s need to perform advanced product testing and consumer demand for high quality 802.11 devices, a new testing standard IEEE 802.11.2 being developed by the 802.11 Task Group T has introduced test methodology for roaming, voice and video quality, power consumption, throughput performance and much more.

These advances in test methodology are required to improve the quality of 802.11 solutions and enable reduction in design cycles. Voice applications, for example, have pushed the 802.11 industry to specify several new protocols including 802.11r fast roaming, 802.11e quality of Service (QoS) and power-save. New applications that carry both voice and video over 802.11 have stringent performance requirements that can only be guaranteed by thorough and methodical testing.

This presentation will provide an in-depth look at the performance requirements of the demanding voice and video applications. We will examine how these applications perform today and will look at the improvements offered by the emerging 802.11n standard. We will discuss performance, security and power conservation issues in the context of mesh network architecture being introduced by the emerging 802.11s specification.

Finally, we will examine the test methods and metrics currently in the 802.11.2 recommended practices document and will discuss performance verification methodology appropriate for a variety of networks and applications.