IEEE802 Committee "on Brink of Collapse" [Perspective from Japan] Nikkei Electronics Asia -- April 2007
The IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee, the group drawing up standards for wired and wireless LANs, has become embroiled in cynical in-fighting. Can it survive and remain relevant? "IEEE802 is already on the verge of collapsing," warned a professor at a Japanese university, and an engineer at a Japanese research institute added, "If this situation continues I'm afraid that IEEE802 will just become superfluous."
The IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee of the US, the group drawing up standards for wired and wireless local area networks (LAN), has problems. The group has achieved major progress in the past, standardizing transfer protocols as a key infrastructural technology in networks like Ethernet and WiFi. 1,500 or more engineers, researchers and others from around the world gather at the general meetings held three times a year, making it one of the leading international standardization organizations.
Over the last year, however, the various working groups (WG) positioned under the 802 Committee, which handle the actual standardization work, are dissolving without developing a draft proposal, or being put on hold (Fig 1). In many cases the cause is an intense difference of opinion inside the WGs, and inability to find a compromise solution. Participants are beginning to question the significance of the 802 Committee itself.
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