Wireless Industry Standards

No technology works in a vacuum. Many entities work at different levels to bring the technology to a more mature and usable state. Standards and specifications are first conceived, developed, and then implemented. Currently, most standards bodies for the mobile e-commerce environment are focused on hardware- or infrastructure-related issues. Some of the more important standards organizations related to the wireless industry today include:

• Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is a volunteer organization run by employees from member companies. Members support a number of working groups that focus on specific areas, such as engineering, qualification, and marketing. The member companies build and qualify products under strict qualification procedures with regular testing of products at events sponsored by Bluetooth.

• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) does extensive research in technology spanning a broad spectrum. They created the 80211 standard for wireless networks, and are also instrumental in creating security protocols such as Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)^[5]. The IEEE does not provide certifications of any kind for their specifications.

• Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum offers a comprehensive certification and interoperability testing program that covers device testing, content verification, and a set of authoring guidelines to assist developers in providing interoperable WAP applications and services.

• Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) seeks to attest interoperability of products based on the 802.11b specification, and certify them Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) compatible. They endorse Wi-Fi as the global wireless LAN standard across all market segments^[1].

Many other organizations such as the W3C, Wireless DSL Consortium, and other institutions have standards directly affecting the wireless industry, though they are not specific to wireless communications. For example, XML and Web services standards are increasingly part of the development and deployment to server and desktop processing, but they are equally applicable to wireless applications. Several new standards groups are being formed to address specific issues regarding mobile e-commerce.

^[5]Vacca, John R., Net Privacy: A Guide to Developing & Implementing an Ironcladebusiness Privacy Plan, McGraw-Hill Trade, 2001.