IEEE Approves IEEE 802.15.1 Standard for Wireless Personal Area Networks Adapted From the Bluetooth-R- Specification.

Business Editors

PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2002

New Standard Fosters Wireless PANs for Notebook Computer,

PDAs, Cell Phones and Other Portable, Handheld Devices

The Standards Board of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE-SA) has approved the IEEE Standard 802.15.1 ("Wireless MAC and PHY Specifications for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs(TM))"), which is adapted from portions of the Bluetooth(TM) wireless specification.

IEEE licensed wireless technology from the Bluetooth SIG, Inc., to adapt and copy a portion of the Bluetooth specification as base material for IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2002. The approved IEEE 802.15.1 standard is fully compatible with the Bluetooth v1.1 specification. Bluetooth technology defines specifications for small-form-factor, low-cost wireless radio communications among notebook computers, personal digital assistants, cellular phones and other portable, handheld devices, and connectivity to the Internet.

"The new standard gives the Bluetooth spec greater validity and support in the market and is an additional resource for those who implement Bluetooth devices," says Ian Gifford, IEEE 802.15 Working Group Vice Chair. "This collaboration is a good example of how a standards development organization and a special industry group (SIG) can work together to improve an industry specification and also create a standard.

"Under the agreement between the two, the IEEE brought together a great many experts from around the world to scrutinize and enhance the Bluetooth specification. We received thousands of comments, and the Bluetooth SIG applied more than 300 of them to the original Bluetooth spec."

In speaking about the collaboration, Tom Siep, General Manager, Bluetooth SIG, Inc., says: "The peer review process the IEEE-SA brought to bear in standardizing the lower layers of our specification was an invaluable service; it created many changes and additions that improved the overall document. We appreciate our ongoing relationship with the IEEE-SA."

The IEEE standard also added a major clause on Service Access Points, which includes an LLC/MAC interface for the ISO/IEC 8802-2 LLC, a normative annex that provides a protocol implementation conformance statement (PICS) pro forma, and an informative, high-level behavioral ITU-T Z.100 specification and description language (SDL) model for an integrated Bluetooth MAC Sublayer. This SDL model offers an extensive overview (more than 500 pages long) of a significant portion of the Bluetooth protocols e.g., Baseband, LMP, L2CAP, and the Link Manager (using the host controller interface (HCI)).

The IEEE-SA also plans to further develop the 802.15.1 SDL model source to support the standard. The SDL code, which will be available on CD-ROM, will include a computer model for use with any SDL tool that supports the SDL-88, SDL-92 or SDL-2000 update of ITU-T Recommendation Z.100. The IEEE 802.15.1 Task Group used the SDL to translate the natural language of the Bluetooth Specification into a formal specification that defines how the Bluetooth protocols react to events in the environment that are communicated to a system by signals.

About the Bluetooth Special Interest Group 

Bluetooth(TM) wireless technology is set to revolutionize the personal connectivity market by providing freedom from wired connections for portable handheld devices. The Bluetooth SIG is driving development of the technology and bringing it to market. The SIG is comprised of telecommunications, computing, network, and consumer electronics industry leaders and includes Promoter group companies 3Com Corporation, Ericsson Technology Licensing AB, IBM Corporation, Intel Corporation, Agere Systems, Inc, Microsoft Corporation, Motorola Inc., Nokia Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, as well as hundreds of Associate and Adopter member companies. For more information on the Bluetooth SIG, visit: http://www.bluetooth.com

About the IEEE 802.15 Working Group

The IEEE 802.15 Working Group, a part of the IEEE 802(R) LAN/MAN Standards Committee, develops Personal Area Network consensus standards for short distance wireless networks; a.k.a. WPANs(TM) These WPANs address wireless networking of portable and mobile computing devices such as PCs, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), peripherals, cell phones, pagers, and consumer electronics; allowing these devices to communicate and interoperate with one another. For more information on this working group, visit: http://ieee802.org/15

About the IEEE-Standards Association

The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA), an internationally recognized standards-setting body, develops consensus standards through an open process that brings diverse parts of an industry together. It has a portfolio of more than 870 completed standards and more than 400 in development. IEEE-SA promotes the engineering process by creating, developing, integrating, sharing and applying knowledge about electro- and information technologies and sciences for the benefit of humanity and the profession. For more information on the IEEE-SA, visit: http://www.standards.ieee.org/

Note: The Bluetooth name and Bluetooth trademarks are owned by

Bluetooth SIG, Inc.

Note: WPAN is a trademark owned by IEEE.