TIA Electronic Tools Standards Development

Susan Hoyler

Director, Standards Development and Promotion

GSC/EWG Meeting

Sydney, Australia November 2001

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Overview• Electronic tools used by committees.

– FTP site - Reflector lists– Mobile LANs - Web pages

• On-line ballot system• New hardware for TIA• Virtual meeting tools (web conferencing)

• Future developments

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FTP Site• TIA assigns a password and username to

each of its 101 Committees, Subcommittees, Working Groups, and Ad hoc Committees

• Each Group has two directories• A volunteer from each group is designated

as Electronic Document Coordinator (EDC)

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FTP Site• EDCs administer the FTP site using FTP

client software and the assistance of TIA staff– Easy and versatile file management– Reduction of TIA staff workload– Person knowledgeable in work program of group

• Web browser access to the FTP site– No plug-in software - No multiple downloads– WYSIWYG interface - One group per session

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Reflector Lists

• Use of a 3rd-party provider called Lyris (www.lyris.com)– Provide all server support on an off-site box– Multiple email domains– Security for each list– Each group has its own list– Commands can be made through email (i.e.,

auto unsubscribe and subscribe)

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Reflector Lists

• A Committee volunteer is the list administrator with help of TIA staff

• Initial reflector list is established by TIA staff

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Mobile LAN Deployment• Support both wired and wireless LAN

implementations• TR-8, TR-45 and TR-46 use the TIA mobile

LAN on a regular basis • Provides real-time exchange of documents,

contributions and updates.• Someone on the committee or a staff

person must be familiar with networking and computers and be able to do basic troubleshooting.

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Mobile LANs

• Toshiba Tecra 8100 350MHz (Laptop)– 10/100 Ethernet Card

• 802.11b Access Point• 10/100 Ethernet Hubs

– Connecting cables (RJ 45)

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Mobile LANs

• The mobile LAN usage has not been as widely accepted as was expected– Security issues for users– Limited computer networking knowledge at

meetings– International regulations– Hesitancy to use by some of the groups

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Web Pages• TIA has web pages for each of its

Committees• Contents of the Committee pages:

– Annual Schedule - Meeting Notices– Agendas - Scopes

• Committee web pages link to the secure FTP site

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Web Pages• 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– Automatic expiration of link based on date– Adding Subcommittees and Working Groups

to web pages.

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Web Pages• All TIA standards forms are available on-line

for the volunteers to complete and submit• TIA has used web interface for its standards

development requests • TIA assisted ANSI in the development of

on-line ANSI forms so that TIA members can complete them at the TIA site

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Web Pages• Balloting on-line since January 1999. • All ballots are posted to the Internet for

download by the participants• A password to access the ballot is

distributed by email• All submitted ballots are collected in a

database and sent by email to TIA and the Chair of the Committee

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Web Pages

• Summaries of the ballot voting are compiled by a TIA staff person

• Results distributed to the Committee chairs by email

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BALLOT SUMMARY

PROJECT NUMBER: 3-0031TIA/EIA-898TITLE: Signaling Conformance Tests for cdma2000 Spread Spectrum SystemsBALLOTING COMMITTEE: TR-45, TR-45.5DATE: 10/26/01 CLOSE: 08/20/01

NAME COMPANYABSTAINEd Campbell CommWorks Corporation, A 3Comm

CoRoss Johnston Agilent TechnologiesGary Pellegrino CRAG

APPROVESteve Jones NECYoshitaka Iida Hitachi, Ltd.Cliff Barber Tantivy CommunicationsBlake Russo Qwest CommunicationsDerk McAvoy Bell MobilitySharon Sheldon ToshibaScott Fischel QualcommDavid Comstock Ericsson Wireless CommunicationsKurt Bantle Spirent CommunicationsHenry Chang Kyocera Wireless

APPROVEW/COMMENTSJason Losh MotorolaRichard Ross Sprint SpectrumKe-Chi Jang Nortel Networks

OTHER

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On-Line Ballot System

• Ballot system redesigned but not yet deployed

• Features of new system:– Password protection per user not

document– Automated comment compilation– Automated, real-time ballot summaries

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New Hardware for TIA• New Cisco routers: one main and one

subsidiary at TIA HQ and another subsidiary at the TIA DC office to migrate from 10 Mb to 100 Mb LAN

• New Fiber Network Interface Cards (NIC), connecting equipment

• Packeteer PacketShaper for control and load leveling of bandwidth in the network. (http://www.packeteer.com/)

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Virtual Meeting Tools

• Experimented with– Placeware - WebEx - others

• TIA selected Premiere as reseller which offers both Placeware and WebEx (www.premconf.com)

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Document Delivery

• TIA produces single use download of the cdma2000 and ANSI-136 to comply with ITU requirements

• TR-41 Internet Telephony (VoIP) standards available for single use download on the TIA web page (www.tiaonline.org)

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Document Delivery• All TIA documents are available in softcopy

(since 1997) or hardcopy from our publisher IHS/Global Engineering Documents (http://ihs.global.com)

• IHS also provides subscription collections (i.e., all TIA documents, all EIA documents)

• Some technology areas also have their own hard copy and/or electronic compilations (e.g., wiring standards)

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Document Delivery• Participants who voted on final document

and in its development, get an electronic copy of final document from TIA

• Individual electronic documents also available from TIA publisher

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Future Developments

• IPR statement collection and database on-line• On-line database for all stages of a standard’s

development• Develop “helpful hints” pages for use by

Chairs and committee members• More use of web conferencing and web

casting

Thank you!

Questions?