IEEE P1901 Draft Standard
for Broadband over Power Line Networks: Medium Access Control
and Physical Layer Specifications
Report on the meeting held
in Tokyo, Japan, 21-24 July 2009 (revised 30 July 2009)
A major milestone was passed: the Working Group approved
with more than 82% majority vote to convert the working
specifications into the first IEEE P1901 BPL draft standard
and to conduct a vote on whether the Draft is ready to go
to Sponsor Ballot. Votes and comments are due by September
14.
Finalization of the IEEE P1901 BPL draft standard has started.
Successive rounds of circulations for comment and vote will
be conducted until it is ready to go to IEEE Sponsor ballot.
The Technical Subgroups will continue holding weekly teleconferences
for reviewing the comments and improving the Draft. In addition,
TSG2 will hold two face-to-face meetings in August and September.
The working group also decided to establish a liaison with
the P2030 Working Group on Smart Grid interoperability.
The P1901 Working Group has a deep expertise in BPL, SmartGrid,
and Utility Applications and the IEEE P1901 Draft fully
meets the technical requirements developed by the P1901
experts in this area. The P1901 working group will work
with the P2030 working group to document additional requirements
related to BPL for Smart Grid and will base any 1901 extensions
on the P2030 requirements.
The next Working Group meeting is scheduled for 13-16 October
2009 in Boston, MA, U.S (see next
meetings).
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.
A reset vote is held for in-home and access yielding a single
proposal for confirmation in the in-home cluster, and two
proposals for the access cluster. A voluntary merger in
the access cluster is announced at the end of the meeting,
bringing the total for access to a single proposal.
November 2008 - The first round of confirmation voting for
the in-home and access proposals is held. Both votes fail.
December 2008 - The second round of confirmation voting
for the in-home, access, and coexistence clusters is held.
All three proposals are confirmed.
February 2009 - A tentative table of contents of the Draft
Standard is adopted and four Technical Subgroups are formed
to merge the confirmed proposals and develop a unified document.
July 2009 - The first Draft Standard is created. The Draft
is sent for comment and vote on whether it is ready to go
to Sponsor Ballot.
About IEEE P1901
The working group, formed in June 2005, has grown from
20 to more than 50 members. Members are corporations, government
agencies, trade associations, universities, and standards
developing organizations. Each entity has one vote.
About The IEEE-SA Corporate
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Standards are developed in company-based working groups
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