Recently a committee was created by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to develop a new standard called 802.15 Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN), which will use the Bluetooth standard as its foundation. Once developed, the 802.15 specification will provide a common standard that has broad market applicability, as more wireless devices will interoperate with each other. This article by Vivek Malhotra at IBM's DeveloperWorks website discusses the goals and specifications being developed by the 802.15 committee. Malhotra writes . . .

“The 802.15 WPAN is an initiative by the IEEE focused on developing a common set of standards for Personal Area Networks or short distance wireless networks. Established in January 1999, the WPAN working group, which is part of the Local and Metropolitan Area Network Standards Committee of IEEE, has since formed four task groups, each focused on necessary standards. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) specification serves as the foundation for developing the IEEE 802.15 WPAN standard, which would standardize the Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical (PHY) layers of Bluetooth. The Bluetooth SIG, established in 1998, made their specifications publicly available in the middle of 1999.

The idea behind WPAN is to publish standards that allow devices such as PCs, PDAs, mobile phones, pagers, and other handheld devices to communicate and interoperate with one another. The goal of publishing the 802.15 standards will be to accomodate wider adoption and applicability, and to deal with issues like coexistence and interoperability within the networks. The following are characteristics of a WPAN . . .”

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