Commercial Relevance of IEEE 802.11 Eco System

1. Name Company Address Phone email bkraemer@ marvell .com Bruce Kraemer Marvell +1 - 321 - 4 27 - 4098 WG Concepts - Mar 12 ‘08 Authors: Date: 2008-Mar-12 5488 Marvell Lane, Santa Clara, CA, 95054 Bruce Kraemer, Marvell

2. The intent is to construct a useful diagrammatic representation of 802.11 to highlight both current assumptions and future opportunities. These are not meant to be complete “simulation” models but rather a descriptive notation to facilitate discussions. The sequence of slides shown introduces some key concepts but cannot capture the entire scope of either today’s 802.11 operations or opportunities for the future.. Bruce Kraemer, Marvell

3. The 802.11 Eco System Commercial Relevance Industry Academia • Deliberation & Development Process • Fair, equitable, consistent • Timely Standards Development Organizations exist because they represent a useful mechanism for developing technical specifications that can be widely used by industry to build products that are commercially relevant. Failure to connect the standards development Process to commercial relevance results in industry, and their academic partners, withdrawing from the activity. Maintaining a development process that is open, fair and operationally consistent is necessary but not sufficient. The development activity must also maintain a development pace that suits the industry and their served markets. Bruce Kraemer, Marvell

4. The 802.11 Eco System Commercial Relevance Industry Academia • Deliberation & Development Process • Fair, equitable, consistent • Timely TG, SG, Committees 802.11 uses a set of task groups, study groups and committees to accomplish its work. While the observation is trivially obvious, the effort required to ensure consistency across groups, over time, with changing membership is not. Bruce Kraemer, Marvell

5. The 802.11 Eco System IEEE IEEE SA 802 ExCom 802 WGs Liaisons SDOs, SIGs Commercial Relevance Industry Academia • Deliberation & Development Process • Fair, equitable, consistent • Timely TG, SG, Committees 802.11 is not quite as independent as the previous diagrams have implied. It must rely on exchanges with a variety of other, external organizations to accomplish its work. Additionally there is an administrative structure within IEEE that offers both guidance and support that must be recognized and utilized. Bruce Kraemer, Marvell

6. The 802.11 Eco System IEEE IEEE SA 802 ExCom 802 WGs Liaisons SDOs, SIGs Commercial Relevance Industry Academia • Deliberation & Development Process • Fair, equitable, consistent • Timely TG, SG, Committees WG Foundation & Machinery Agendas Plenary Prep P & P evolution Attendance Badges Meeting location Meeting rooms Time slots Food Timelines Registration Website + updates Document server Balloting Finances Publicity 802.11 conducts business through a set of critical “machinery”. Well tuned machinery is always operational and used in an fashion that becomes almost transparent or invisible. Developing and maintaining this machinery requires considerable investment of time and effort. Bruce Kraemer, Marvell

7. The 802.11 Eco System IEEE IEEE SA 802 ExCom 802 WGs Liaisons SDOs, SIGs Commercial Relevance Industry Academia Improvements ? • Deliberation & Development Process • Fair, equitable, consistent • Timely • Amendment Generation & Completion • Project Management • Scope & Duration • Priority • Completion rate • Architecture • Existing • Next generation TG, SG, Committees WG Foundation & Machinery Agendas Plenary Prep P & P evolution Attendance Badges Meeting location Meeting rooms Time slots Food Timelines Registration Website + updates Document server Balloting Finances Publicity 802.11 needs to address some strategic improvements to bolster long term existence. Primary topics involve the selection of new amendments to pursue, more realistic scope and project completion expectations and dealing with an architecture framework that is well proven but is showing signs of overloading and decreasing opportunities for significant improvements in the future. Bruce Kraemer, Marvell

8. The 802.11 Eco System IEEE IEEE SA 802 ExCom 802 WGs Liaisons SDOs, SIGs Commercial Relevance Industry Academia WG Organizational Structure Improvements ? • Deliberation & Development Process • Fair, equitable, consistent • Timely • Amendment Generation & Completion • Project Management • Scope & Duration • Priority • Completion rate • Architecture • Existing • Next generation TG, SG, Committees WG Foundation & Machinery Agendas Plenary Prep P & P evolution Attendance Badges Meeting location Meeting rooms Time slots Food Timelines Registration Website + updates Document server Balloting Finances Publicity The components of the foundation machinery have to be maintained and improved. Additionally there are several strategic changes that need to be debated and undertaken. Then it is necessary to ask if the organizational structure to accomplish all this is in place and if any revisions would better support the revised objectives or priorities. Bruce Kraemer, Marvell

9. As stated in the introduction, the intent of this document is to introduce a representation of 802.11 that facilitates discussion on both the current goals and objectives as well as those future opportunities that are worthy of pursuing. Comments and improvements are certainly welcomed and encouraged. Bruce Kraemer, Marvell