Electronic Tools for TIA Standards Development

David Thompson

Member of the Technical Staff

GCS/EWG Meeting

Sapporo, Hokkaido, JAPAN August 2000

TC-20000907-007

Overview

• FTP site (http://ftp.tiaonline.org) - secure

• TIA’s Engineering Committee webpages - public

• Engineering Committee Reflector lists - restricted

• Review of TIA on-line balloting process

• Mobile LANs for meetings

• Goals for the future

FTP Server

• Dell-Power Edge 4200

• Pentium II 233Mhz

• Dedicated 27 GB

• 6x CD ROM

• ARCserveIT 6.6.1 (runs the tape library system)

• RAID 5

FTP Security

• TIA assigns a password and username to each of its 121 Committees, Subcommittees, Working Groups, Ad hoc Committees, Divisions and Sections.

• A volunteer Electronic Document Coordinator (EDC) from each of the above groups, administers the assigned portion of the FTP site with the assistance of TIA staff.

FTP Site

• Administration using FTP client software has been very effective. With minimal training volunteers can easily upload and download multiple documents.

• Internet interface to the FTP site has proved somewhat problematic but works well for individuals who need to download just a few files.

Website Server

• Dell Power Edge 6400

• Quad Pentium 550 (2.2 GHz)

• 54 GB of dedicated storage

• 9 GB for operating system

• 1 GB of RAM

• RAID 5

• Windows 2000 and MS SQL-based server

Internet Development

• TIA has developed web pages for each of its Committees, Divisions and Sections

• Contents of the pages: Annual Schedule, Meeting Notices, Agendas, Scope of the Committee, etc.

• Committee web pages link to the FTP site

Internet Development

• Committee webpages are administered by TIA staff using on-line posting tools developed by TIA’s web department. Functions are:– Document upload sorted by committee– Selecting name of link– Automatic expiration of link based on date– Adding Subcommittees and Working Groups to

web pages.

Internet Development

• The on-line annual committee calendar is also administered by TIA staff using tools developed by TIA’s web department.– Posting by committee or event– Organized by date– Links to hotel and meeting notice– Staff contact information for users

TIA Balloting Process

• TIA has been doing all its standards development requests and balloting on-line since January 1999. (in 2000 - 218 ballots)

• TIA worked with ANSI to develop shared on-line forms.

• All TIA forms are on-line for the volunteers to complete and submit.

Electronic Ballot

• All PN (committee level) and SP ballots (ANSI public review) are posted to the Internet.

• A password to access the ballot is distributed by email.

• All submitted ballots are collected in a database and sent by email to the TIA Standards Secretariat and the Chair of the engineering committee.

Electronic Ballot

• Ballot Summaries are compiled manually and distributed to the committee chairs by email.

Reflector Lists

• Third-party provider Lyris

• Provides all server support

• Multiple email domians

• Security for each list

• Each Committee and Subcommittee has its own reflector list

• A Committee Volunteer acts Administrator with help of TIA staff

Reflector Lists

• All list administration is preformed over the Internet or through email

• Initial reflector list is established by TIA

Mobile LANs• Based on the success of 3GPP2’s use of Mobile

LANs TIA is beginning to support and supply mobile LANs to some of its other Engineering Committees.

• Have supported both wired and wireless LAN implementations, “sneakernet” for handful w/o NIC

• TR-45.3, Time Division Digital Technology, is using one with much success.

Mobile LANs

• Toshiba Tecra 8100 350Mhz

• 128MG

• Lucent WAVE LAN card

• 3COM 10/100 Ethernet card

• Hubs and cables for wired system

Mobile LAN

• This system provides real-time exchange of documents, contributions and updates that are electronic.

• It saves time and expense of last minute contribution photocopying.

• It does require that someone on the committee be familiar with networking and computers.

Document Delivery• TIA delivers the cdma2000, ANSI-136 and TR-

41 Internet Telephony standards for single download over the Internet from www.tiaonline.org

• All other documents are available in soft (since 1997) or hardcopy from our publisher IHS/Global Engineering Documents (http://ihs.global.com)

• IHS also provides Internet download with passwords for full collection (e.g. ITU).

Future Developments - 2001• By 2001 TIA will have all the balloting

inputs and outputs in electronic systems based on databases with the goal of removing the manual processes as much as possible.

• TIA is also investigating webcasting for some of its meetings. MS Netmeeting (also used by T1) and CentraNow under review (https://www.centranow.com/home/home.asp).

Thank you!

Questions?