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IP over IEEE 802.16 Networks
charter-ietf-16ng-07

Document Charter IP over IEEE 802.16 Networks WG (16ng)
Title IP over IEEE 802.16 Networks
Last updated 2010-06-07
State Approved
WG State Concluded
IESG Responsible AD Ralph Droms
Charter edit AD (None)
Send notices to (None)

charter-ietf-16ng-07

Broadband Wireless Access Networks address the inadequacies of low
bandwidth wireless communication for user requirements such as high
quality data/voice service, wide coverage, etc. The IEEE 802.16 Working
Group on Broadband Wireless Access Standards develops standards and
recommended practices to support the development and deployment of
Broadband Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks.

A particularity of IEEE 802.16 is that it does not include a rigid upper
edge MAC service interface. Instead, it provides multiple "convergence
sublayers (CS)" with the assumption that the choice and configuration of
the upper edge will be done in accordance with the needs of a specific
deployment environment (which might be DSL replacement, mobile access,
802.11 or CDMA backhaul etc.).

Specifically, immediately subsequent to network entry, an 802.16
subscriber station has no capability whatsoever for data (as opposed to
management) connectivity. Especially, in IP CS case, the criteria by
which the Base Station (or other headend elements) sets up the 802.16
MAC connections for data transport are not part of the 802.16 standard,
and depend on the type of data services being offered (e.g., the set up
of link layer connections will be different for IPv4 and IPv6 services).

Additionally - as IEEE 802.16 is a point-to-multipoint network - an
802.16 subscriber station is not capable of multicasting (e.g., for
neighbor discovery, ARP, IP multicasting services, etc.) or direct
communication to the other nodes attached to the same Base Station
within the same subnet (prefix).

Unlike 3G or xDSL technologies, IEEE 802.16 is not part of an end-to-
end system definition. Currently, the WiMAX Forum, and, in particular,
its NWG (Network Working Group) is defining a network architecture based
on IEEE 802.16.

The principal objective of the 16ng working group is to specify the
operation of IPv4 and IPv6 over IEEE 802.16, taking into account the
IPv4, IPv6 and Ethernet Convergence Sublayers. The working group may
issue recommendations to IEEE 802.16 and WiMax aiming at improving
support for IP.

The scope of this working group is as follows (WG Deliverables);

  • Produce "16ng Problem Statement, Goal and Requirement" to identify the
    specific gaps in the 802.16 MAC for IPv4/IPv6 support, describe possible
    network models (ie. point-to-point, broadcast etc.), and provide 16ng
    related terminology to be used for the base guideline while defining
    solution frameworks. [Informational RFC]

  • Produce "IPv6 over IEEE 802.16 Networks in conjunction with IPv6 CS"
    to define IPv6 operation including the transmission of IPv6 over IEEE
    802.16 link, Neighbor Discovery Protocol, Stateful (DHCPv6) and
    Stateless Address Configuration, Broadcast, Multicast, etc. [Proposed
    Standard RFC]

  • Produce "IPv6 over IEEE 802.16 Networks in conjunction with Ethernet
    CS" to define IPv6 operation including the transmission of IPv6 over
    IEEE 802.16 link, Neighbor Discovery Protocol, Stateful (DHCPv6) and
    Stateless Address Configuration, Broadcast, Multicast, etc. [Proposed
    Standard RFC]

  • Produce "IPv4 over IEEE 802.16 Networks in conjunction with IPv4 CS"
    to define IPv4 operation including the transmission of IPv4 over IEEE
    802.16 links, ARP operation, Stateful Address Configuration (DHCPv4),
    Broadcast, Multicast, etc [Proposed Standard RFC]

  • Produce "IPv4 over IEEE 802.16 Networks in conjunction with Ethernet
    CS" to define IPv4 operation including the transmission of IPv4 over
    IEEE 802.16 links, ARP operation, Stateful Address Configuration
    (DHCPv4), Broadcast, Multicast, etc [Proposed Standard RFC]

  • Produce "IP deployment over IEEE 802.16 Networks" to illustrate the IP
    deployment scenarios including IP CS and Ethernet CS considerations over
    IEEE 802.16 networks based on the WiMAX and WiBro. [Informational RFC]

This working group will take dual stack operation into account in its
specifications, and reuse existing specifications whenever reasonable
and possible. The ability to negotiate the used Convergence Sublayer is
required, as no single mandatory CS can be specified for the clients.
Work based on the Ethernet CS needs to take into account
interoperability with existing hosts and other devices that employ
Ethernet, to allow bridging.

16ng will not initially consider other work items than the ones listed
above; however, other related work may occur in other WGs, and 16ng will
participate and help such efforts.