IEEE P1901 Draft Standard
for Broadband over Power Line Networks: Medium Access Control
and Physical Layer Specifications
Report on the meeting held
in Madrid, Spain, 29 September-2 October 2008
Updated proposals for the In-Home, Access, and Coexistence
clusters of requirements were presented to the working group
for a second round of confirmation voting. The proposals
require 75% majority approval from the working group to
become part of the baseline of the standard (see the down
selection process for more detail).
The confirmation vote on the Panasonic-HomePlug-Hisilicon
In-Home proposal was conducted first. The proposal received
affirmative votes from 69% of the working group and thus
failed to attain the needed approval to become part of the
baseline of the draft standard.
The confirmation vote on the HomePlug-Panasonic Access
proposal was conducted second. The proposal received affirmative
votes from 48% of the working group and thus failed to attain
the needed approval to become part of the baseline of the
draft standard.
The confirmation vote on the CEPCA-SiConnect-HomePlug Coexistence
proposal was conducted last and received abstain votes from
80% of the working group reflecting the desire of many members
to defer the decision on the Coexistence part of the draft
until the next round of confirmation voting on the In-Home
and Access proposals.
Following these failures to confirm, the down selection
process was reset for the In-Home and Access clusters. Eliminated
proposals were brought back for further consideration and
the opportunity to update them was offered before one round
of elimination voting was conducted for each cluster.
For the In-Home cluster, HomePlug, Panasonic, and Hisilicon
maintained the merge between their original proposals. Two
proposals were brought back for consideration: the UPA and
the HomePlug-Panasonic-Hisilicon proposals. Updated proposals
were presented before the elimination vote was conducted.
The HomePlug-Panasonic-Hisilicon proposal survived the elimination
vote. A confirmation vote will be held during the next meeting.
For the Access cluster, HomePlug and Panasonic maintained
the merge between their original proposals. Three documents
were brought back for consideration: the UPA-OPERA proposal,
the HomePlug-Panasonic proposal, and the Mitsubishi proposal.
The Mitsubishi and HomePlug-Panasonic proposals survived
the elimination vote.
At the end of the working group meeting, HomePlug, Panasonic,
and Mitsubishi announced their intention to merge their
proposals. A confirmation vote on the merged proposal is
thus scheduled for the next working group meeting.
The next meeting
is scheduled for 4-6 November 2008 in San Francisco, CA,
USA.
The process that follows the confirmation of the technical
proposal as part of baseline of the standard was approved.
It defines the steps for developing the first version of
the Draft Standard and subsequent development until the
working group decides to move it to Sponsor ballot.
June 2005 - PAR approved
November 2005 - Adoption of the general
work flow - Formation of a sub-group to develop unified
requirements
January 2006 - Approval of the use cases - Decision to split
the requirements into three clusters: In-Home, Access and
Coexistence/Interoperability
March 2006 - Approval of the down
selection process to achieve the baseline of the standard
- Approval of the description of topologies.
September 2006 - Approval of the channel and noise models.
February 2007 - Approval of 400 requirements split into
three clusters: access, in-home and coexistence - Calls
for technical proposals
June 2007 - 12 proposals received; 4 proposals per cluster
of requirements
July 2007 - 11 proposals passed the low hurdle vote; 4 in-home
proposals, 4 access proposals and 3 coexistence proposals
September 2007 - Only two proposals per cluster remain for
consideration after voluntary mergers.
October 2007 - One in-home proposal and one access proposal
remain as candidates for confirmation after the first round
of elimination voting.
March 2008 - A single coexistence proposal remains as candidate
for confirmation after the last round of elimination voting.
July 2008 - The first round of confirmation voting for the
in-home, access, and coexistence proposals is held. All
three votes fail.
September 2008 - The second round of confirmation voting
for the in-home, access, and coexistence proposals is held.
The votes on the in-home and access proposals fail. The
vote on the coexistence proposal is ruled invalid because
the number of abstain votes exceeds the established percentage.
About IEEE P1901
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20 to more than 50 members. Members are corporations, government
agencies, trade associations, universities, and standards
developing organizations. Each entity has one vote.
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