IEEE 802.20 or Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) Working Group, the establishment of which was approved by IEEE Standards Board on December 11, 2002, aims to prepare a formal specification for a packet-based air interface designed for IP-based services. It is hoped that such an interface will allow the creation of low-cost, always-on, and truly mobile broadband wireless networks, nicknamed as Mobile-Fi. IEEE 802.20 will be specified according to a layered architecture, which is consistent with other IEEE 802 specifications. The scope of the working group consists of the physical (PHY), medium access control (MAC), and logical link control (LLC) layers. The air interface will operate in bands below 3.5 GHz and with a peak data rate of over 1 Mbit/s. The goals of 802.20 and 802.16e, the so-called "mobile WiMAX", are similar. A draft 802.20 specification was balloted and approved on January 18th, 2006. The baseline specifications that have been proposed for this specification aim considerably higher than those available on our current mobile architecture. The draft standard's proposed benefits:
- IP roaming & handoff (at more than 1 Mbit/s)
- New MAC and PHY with IP and adaptive antennas
- Optimized for full mobility up to vehicular speeds of 250 km/h
- Operates in Licensed Bands (below 3.5 GHz)
- Utilizes Packet Architecture
- Low Latency
On 8 June 2006, the IEEE-SA Standards Board directed that all activities of the 802.20 Working Group be temporarily suspended. This suspension is effective immediately and will continue in effect until 1 October 2006. [1] [2] On 15 September 2006, the IEEE-SA Standards Board approved a plan to enable the IEEE 802.20 Working Group to move forward with its work to develop a mobile broadband wireless access standard and provide the best opportunity for its completion and approval. [3] On 17 July 2007, the IEEE 802 Executive Committee along with its 802.20 Oversight Committee approved a change to voting in the 802.20 working group. Going forward voting was changed from an individual voting member to an entity based system. Since the original allegation of dominance and lack of transparency of the process had been raised this was a possibility. With some of those issues possibly again being an issue the IEEE 802 management groups took this proactive step in another attempt to secure the IEEE process for this particular standard. [4]
See also
- IEEE 802 group
- IEEE 802.16 WiMax
- IEEE 802.22
