LIAISON STATEMENT

To:			ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC6

Title:			ISO/IEC Standard for Wireless LAN
Source:		IEEE P802
Reference:		@Insertt ISO Doc.Number

IEEE P802 committee welcomes this opportunity to harmonize regulations and standards throughout the world, and is honoured to be able to address the issue of Wireless LANs within the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC6 committee. This is being addressed by the IEEE P802.11 committee, chaired by Vic Hayes.

Currently, the P802.11 committee has be assigned the task to develop a Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specification for wireless connectivity for fixed, portable and moving stations within a local area.
The committee is operating under the following provisions from the IEEE standards board.
The goal is that the MAC shall support PHYs using electromagnetic waves through the air (i.e. radio waves as well as infra-red or visible light). The PHY layer suitable for use with the electromagnetic frequency spectrum as described in the following paragraph will be defined with this standard.  If evidence of need and sufficient interest exists other PHY layers will be considered at a later time.
Radio Spectrum:
With consideration for the radio spectrum, the initial effort will be for the worldwide ISM bands and to consider the use of additional bands beyond ISM. However, these ISM bands are already heavily used, and it is felt that service degradation from other users will happen, increasing with time.  Therefore, in order to further development of the standard, the 802.11 committee should participate in the development of changed or new regulations for short distance radio services in which all authorized users of any new frequency allocation shall be permitted to radiate only a defined maximum power density.  The goal is to provide regulations which allow for an easy approval process for the end-user.
To further enhance the standard the 802.11 committee will undertake to document the benefits of, and make recommendations for international spectrum allocation and use, where possible.
Supported Stations
The standard shall support stationary stations, movable stations, and mobile stations moving at pedestrian and vehicular (local premises environment) speeds. This is to be implemented with one PHY if feasible.
Environment
Because the range of wireless transmission / reception may be smaller than the physical coverage area desired, a distribution system designed to provide range extensibility will be addressed as part of this standard.
The standard will include support of the following:
-	Basic Service Area (BSA)	in which each station can communicate with any other station in the BSA. 
-	Extended Service Area (ESA)	in which each station can communicate with any other station via the defined and managed Distribution System.
-	Stations which interoperate in both BSA and ESA shall be defined if feasible.

Potential target environments include:
*	in buildings and other premises such as offices, financial institutions, shops, malls, small and large industry, hospitals and residences, 
*	outdoor areas such as parking lots, campuses, building complexes and outdoor plants and storages.
Note: The definition of performance classes within a PHY may be necessary to support environments with benign or hostile characteristics.
Supported service
The Wireless MAC shall support both connectionless service as defined in the MAC Service definition at rates between 1 and 20 Mbit/s as well as a service supporting packetized voice.
Purpose of proposed standard.
To provide wireless connectivity to automatic machinery, equipment or, stations that require rapid deployment, which may be portable, or hand-held or which may be mounted on moving vehicles, within a local area.
To offer a standard for use by regulatory  bodies to standardize access to one or more radio frequency bands for the purpose of local area communication.
Other Radio Spectrum Issues.
The frequency bands used by IEEE 802.11 has been determined by the regulatory authorities throughout Region 1, 2 and 3.  After consultation with knowledgeable members of the 802.11 working group we have determined so far,  that the following countries can be accommodated:

Abu Dhabi
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
China
Common.Ind.States
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland

France 
Germany
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Korea
Latvia

Lithuania
Malaysia
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Africa

Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
UK
Ukraine
US

The frequency bands we have identified are as follows:

USA, Canada and most European countries: 	2.4-2.4835 GHz
Japan: 	2.471-2.497 GHz
France: 	2.446-2.4835 GHz
Spain: 	2.445-2.475 GHz

We only know of the following countries that would not allow the 2.4 GHz band: Syria, (@complete this list to the total of 7 countries), because they have allocated the band to military applications.

It is our intention to produce one standard that will cover the world.  This includes various channel patterns to cater for country frequency bands.