COMPLETE ARTICLE

 JANUARY 29 - 31, 2002 INTERNET MEETING

Serving as Interim Technical Committee (TC) Chair, Rich Robinson of Sprint PCS led the opening plenary session of the first ever MWIF TC Web-based meeting. The closing plenary session was led by new MWIF TC Chair John Waclawsky of Cisco.

In keeping with the 2002 strategic goals, the MWIF Board of Directors has asked the TC to review operating procedures and produce a plan for reorganizing itself. The BOD believes that the TC would be more effective focusing on task-oriented projects with specific deadlines for completion. With this mandate in mind, the team of members working on the new proposal includes Nick Sampson, Orange (Board Member), John Waclawsky, Cisco (new TC Chair) and MWIF Executive Director Michelle Olesiejuk.

Operator Requirements Group Update
Raziq Yaqub, Toshiba, reported that the Operator Requirements Group (WG1) continues to focus on its charter items. In addition to this, the working group will take over from WG 8 (Interfacing IETF WG) the revision and update responsibility for the Internet Draft document for the IETF. They will provide a new version for the upcoming IETF meeting and target specific working groups within the IETF. Wen Pai Lui, Cisco, has agreed to be the new editor for MTR-002v3 (MWIF Operator Requirements). Raziq also thanked the members for their overwhelming attendance to his breakout meetings.

RAN Working Group Update
Parviz Yegani, Cisco, leads the IP in the RAN Working Group (WG4). Parviz made mention of three specific issues for WG4 that he would like to see the MWIF BOD examine:

• Is working on the migration strategy for legacy systems to the RAN architecture a priority?
• Can the BOD assist with encouraging the radio vendor members of MWIF in participating in WG4 activities?
• Is there a way that the TC can start actively making technical contributions to the 3G's vs. being Market Representative Partners?
  

The WG continues to move forward on several significant work items. The group has a team of member volunteers selected to assist in the content creation of MTR-007v2 (OpenRAN Architecture in 3rd Generation Mobile Systems). The targeted completion date is June 2002. Of special concern is the need for a member to volunteer as editor of the document.

John Waclawsky, Cisco, sat in as Interim Chair of the group. The working group, having turned over its work items to WG1 (RFC Internet Draft) and the MWIF Marketing Committee (the MWIF Business Value White Paper "Mobile Internet Vision"), has been closed. John thanked all the participants in the group for their efforts in significantly moving forward the work items. He urges any technically minded members to continue to provide assistance on the Business Value White Paper. The team working on this meets the first Thursday of every month. 

Applications/Architecture Group Update
John Waclawsky, Cisco, Chair of the Applications/Architecture WG reported that the majority of work on its charter items was complete and that the group will now focus entirely on three major issues:

• Cost and Complexity - This work is moving forward with an open forum on the MWIF website calling for contributions and a new program, the MWIF University Challenge. The challenges is a competition among college students to write papers on the cost and complexity of an All-IP Architecture.
• Proof of Concept - Telcordia is leading this work and John encourages other members to participate in simulations and test-beds of the MWIF architecture. There are plans for drafting a proposal to conduct demonstrations with the participation of the membership.
• Architecture The focus is on maintenance, clarification and extension.
  

The group continues its work on a new MTR (MWIF Technical Report). MTR-010 will be a document explaining the MWIF architecture from an application and services perspective (with WG-9 service sequence charts in the appendix). The new MTR will document experience gained from developing service flows, expand and clarify applications layer of the MWIF architecture and explicitly show services and their relationship(s) with the MWIF architecture.

For a complete view of the MWIF Technical Committee meetings that took place on the Internet from January 29 - 31, 2002, please refer to the MWIF Meeting minutes package at https://mwif.org/contrib, contribution number mwif2002.003.