IEEE 802.11p Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) Standard to move to next level of draft status

Date: 1/7/2009

Source: grouper.ieee.org/

Voting on Draft 7.0 of the IEEE 802.11p standard for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) closed on June 13th 2009. This is an intermediate draft status before publication. The current work programme predicts that the standard will achieve working group approval by January 2010.

According to the IEEE 802.11 Task Group p update:

“This Task Group will define enhancements to 802.11 required to support Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications. WAVE is a mode of operation for use by IEEE Std 802.11™ devices in environments where the physical layer properties are rapidly changing and where very short-duration communications exchanges are required. The purpose of this standard is to provide the minimum set of specifications required to ensure interoperability between wireless devices attempting to communicate in potentially rapidly changing communications environments and in situations where transactions must be completed in time frames much shorter than the minimum possible with infrastructure or ad hoc 802.11 networks.”

IEEE 802.11p is based on earlier work conducted by international standards organisation ASTM International (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials). The results of these efforts were documented in “ASTM E 2213-03”, "Standard Specification for Telecommunications and Information Exchange Between Roadside and Vehicle Systems - 5.9 GHz Band Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) / Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications".

IEEE 802.11p is also closely related to the IEEE 1609 family of standards for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE). IEEE 1609 is a higher layer standard on which IEEE 802.11p is based.

The IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee is responsible for the development of standards for Local Area Networks and Metropolitan Area Networks. The IEEE 802.11 Working Group develops standards for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN). IEEE 802.11b and 802.11g are the widely accepted standards used in home and office wireless computer networks.

The IEEE 802.16 Working Group is responsible for the development of broadband wireless metropolitan area networks. Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) cover wider areas, up to city-wide. The 802.16e standard was published in 2005 and is the most commonly implemented standard of the 802.16 family. The IEEE 802.16 standards are also commonly referred to as Wi-MAX.

ITS Radar International will monitor developments in IEEE 802.11p

Keywords: Communications, In-vehicle systems, Standard