Chapter Sixteen. Standards Bodies and Their Roles in the Future

The path to success for wireless IP is facing many challenges. There is a challenge not only in solving technical problems (e.g., how to transport multimedia using IP over wireless links), but also in dealing with regulatory issues (e.g., spectrum allocation) in different parts of the world. At the same time, there is a challenge in finding applications and services that will provide inevitable value to mobile users and thus will create an unavoidable need for wireless IP. Most of the technical problems can be solved by industry collaboration through different standards bodies. A standardized solution would also help to reduce cost for consumers.

In this chapter we review some of the important standards bodies that will play a critical role in the future of wireless IP networks. We focus on three main wireless areas: cellular or wireless wide area networks (WWANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), and wireless personal area networks (WPANs).

Beside standards bodies, there are many important industry fora, special interest groups, and consortiums that have made extensive contributions in the development of wireless IP. Some of the examples are 3G.IP (www.3gip.org), IPv6 Forum (www.ipv6.forum), UMTS Forum (www.umts-forum.org), World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3c.org), Wireless Multimedia Forum (www.wmmforum.com), Wireless Fidelity Alliance (www.wi-fi.org), and Bluetooth SIG (www.bluetooth.com). In this chapter, we limit the discussion to 3GPP, 3GPP2, IETF, IEEE 802, Bluetooth SIG and open mobile alliance (www.openmobilealliance.org). These standards bodies and fora were selected based on their relevance to the contents of this book.