Meeting Reports

IEEE 802.11 Regulatory Ad-Hoc

The purpose of the Regulatory ad-hoc group is to prepare letters or presentations to national, regional and global bodies involved in regulatory matters to obtain spectrum needed for standards under preparation by 802.11 and then maintain, extend and protect spectrum used by devices working according to approved standards developed by 802.11.

May 14-18, 2001, Orlando, Florida.

Summary of Activities

This week the group operated in an 802 wide configuration, including especially members from 802.15 and 802.16. The relevant documents are available directly to the PDF file via a documents list.

6th Criterion

Although IEEE 802.11 passed a motion to approve the 6th Criterion to be forwarded to the ExCom, IEEE 802.15 and 802.16 submitted comments to the effect that the level of Criteria should be kept to 5 and that the requirements were not strong enough stated. The regu;atory group started to look into the comments and decided that it will change the proposal. Document 11-01/332 provides a step towards further development.

Regulatory operations

The group discussed the came to a decision to make a new TAG type group. The details have to be worked out still in a proposed rules change to the SEC.

Future Plans

The group established a plan to prepare the comments for the Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making (FNPRM) ET Docket No. 99-231 in the following way:

Input proposals on reflector May 28th.
Tele-conference June 1st. 7-9 am PDT
Tele-conference June 22nd 7-9 am PDT
Draft to WGs July 2nd

During the July 9-13,2001 Plenary meeting in Portland Oregon, the group will review the need for actions in response to regulatory events and:

Make a position statement regarding the FNPRM ET Docket No. 99-231
Continue to work on making a permanent Regulatory Committee
Continue to work on the 6th Criterion

March 12-16, 2001, Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Summary of Activities

This week the group operated in an 802 wide configuration, including especially members from 802.15 and 802.16. The relevant documents are available in a zip file or directly to the PDF file via a documents list.

Participation of Mr. Julius Knapp, FCC

Mr. Julius Knapp, Chief of the Policy and Rules Division within the Office of Engineering and Technology of the FCC participated in various wireless taskgroups and working groups with question and answer sessions. On Tuesday evening, Mr. Knapp gave a tutorial on the FCC Regulations for Spread Spectrum Devices. This visit was made possible by the funding kindly provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) through Roger Marks.

From all the questions asked, those from the 802.15.2 (Coexistence in the unlicensed bands) needed to be discussed witht he Staff and the labs. A statement was prepared and is to be balloted by e-mail amongst 802.15.

6th Criterion

The group passed a motion for the three wireless working groups to accept the proposal for the 6th Criterion and to send the contents to 802.

Regulatory operations

The group discussed the mode of operation and prepared a set of rules. The group asks the working groups to discuss the matter and have comments available by April 15th, 2001.

Future Plans

During the May 15-19,2001 Interim meeting in Orlando, Florida, the group will review the need for actions in response to regulatory events and:

Continue to work on making a permanent Regulatory Committee
Continue to work on the 6th Criterion

January 15-19, 2001, Monterey, California.

Summary of Activities

This week the group operated in a configuration with only 802.11 and 802.15. IEEE 802.16 held a meeting a week later in Ottawa. The relevant documents are available in a zip file or directly to the PDF file via a documents list.

Interactions with the FCC

Befroe the meeting, 802.11 received a message from the FCC via Jim Carlo, Chair IEEE 802, indicating the the IEEE 802.11 needed to select their proposal for a new Spread Spectrum modulation based on technical merits and that the FCC would assist in rulemakming after that selection. The group was asked by TGg to organize a tele-conference with the FCC to further discuss and clarify the information. Specific questions were formulated and e-mailed to the FCC. In a response to the 802 Regulatory Ombudsman, the FCC declined a tele-conference but answered the questions over the phone. The Regulatory Ombudsman then prepared a report to the group. The e-mail exchanges and the responses are avialable in document 11-01-53. After further telephone calls, Mr. Julius Knapp agreed to a tele-conference held on Wednesday in TGg 11:30-12:00.

At the closing plenary of 802.11, the Regulatory Ombudsman was directed to invite a person from the FCC to participate at the March 2001 meeting.

Proposal for update of ITU-R Rec. M1450

This Recommendation provides characteristics of Radio LAN devices for compatibility studies. The one approved was out of date. 802.11a and 802.11b were not included. The input was proposed by Peter Murray and was prepared in cooperation with the ETSI-BRAN Chair for Spectrum matters, David Baddeley.

Note: This document failed support for submission by the 802.11 plenary on Friday and by an e-mail ballot by 802.15.

Propopsal for two liaison statements to Administrations

The group prepared 2 liaison statements for TGh to be sent to a number of Administartions requesting more data about radar equipment and requesting comments on sharing the 5 GHz band and possible Dynamic Channel Selection scheme.

Note: These documents failed support for submission by the 802.11 plenary on Friday and by an e-mail ballot by 802.15.

Addition of 6th Criterion for Wireless Projects

The group prepared a proposal for an additional item for the Criteria to be submitted together with a Project Approval Request when a wireless project is being proposed. This proposal requests to address the matters related to the radio frequency regulations. The item will be further discussed at the March 2001 meeting.

Industry Forum

No activities this week due to the lack of an announcement from the FCC.

Rules changes

At the end of the week, the ad-hoc group received a charter to propose a method op operation with a permanent charter and terms of reference.

Future Plans

During the March 12-16, 2001 Plenary meeting in Hilton Head, SC, the group will review the need for actions in response to regulatory events like:

Establish Regulatory Group as Permanent Group with a Charter
Invite FCC personnel to participate

Possible tutorial on Tuesday evening for the FCC to speak about their processes and our involvement

Preparation of two liaison statements to Administrations regarding Radar Characteristics (the two disapproved this week)

November 6-10, 2000, Tampa, Florida.

Summary of Activities

Industry Forum

The group prepared its response to a request from FCC to propose agenda items for an Industry Forum regarding Spread Spectrum rules. The goal of the Industry Forum is to see how the rules could be changed to accommodate a continuos call from industry for higher data rates.

Rules changes

The group received reports regarding the change in the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual (5.1.4) to regulate "Entity Position Statements", that are letters that are sent to bodies outside the IEEE, especially government bodies (RR-00/002). Consequently, the IEEE 802 Operating rules are under change procedure two: a scope is added, Procedure 3 (Standards bodies) is under change and Procedure 10 is added (Government bodies) (RR-00/003).

Memorandum of Understanding with the ITU-R

To enable a cross referencing of work in the ITU-R and IEEE Standards Organization, a Memorandum of Understanding is being drafted (RR-00-004).

Urgent Request to participate in ITU-R work

The Chairman propagated an urgent request to the membership for participation in regulatory work to assist in harmonization of the 5 GHz band regulations and the protection of the rules currently in place in some countries and regions both at ITU-R and national levels (RR-00-001 or RR-00-001short).

Future Plans

During the January 15-19, 2001 meeting in Monterey, CA, the group will review the need for actions in response to regulatory events like:

Preparation of IEEE position statement on Industry Forum on Spreading rules, subject to availability of the Public Notice
ITU-R, 5 GHz activities

CONTACT INFORMATION

Webmaster for this page: Vic Hayes at vichayes@lucent.com

Home Page of the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee

Home Page of the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Regulatory Matters

IEEE 802 Chair: Jim Carlo

IEEE 802 Working Group Chairs

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Last Update: 1 December, 2000

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