Overview of the IEEE-SA Process

Malia Zaman 

Program Manager

P1622 Working Group Meetings 

March 8-9, 2012 
In this Presentation we will cover:

Overview of the IEEE-SA Process

Project Approval Process

Development of Draft Standard

Sponsor Balloting Process

myBallot/myProject Access/Membership 

Services

Standards Board Approval Process

Policy updates

Resources

1 February 8, 2011
IEEE—A Global Organization

 IEEE is a non-profit organization for 

scientific and educational advancement 

 IEEE is made up of international 

technical professionals living around the 

world who are fostering 

 technological innovation and 

 excellence for the benefit of 

humanity

2 February 8, 2011
Five principles guide standards development

Ensuring integrity and wide acceptance for IEEE standards

IEEE standards reflect the standardization principles as 

stated by the WTO

IEEE Standards Development

3 February 8, 2011
IEEE Standards Development: 

Process Flow

Idea!

Project 

Approval 

Process

Develop 

Draft 

Standard

IEEE-SA 

Standards 

Board 

Approval 

Process

Sponsor 

Ballot

Publish 

Standard

Maximum of 4 years 

4 February 8, 2011
IEEE Standards Development: 

Project Authorization

Develop Draft 

Standard

IEEE-SA 

Standards 

Board 

Approval 

Process

Sponsor 

Ballot

Publish 

Standard

Maximum of 4 years 

• A potential working group or study group gathers to work on 

the Project Authorization Request (PAR), up to six months 

before a PAR needs to be submitted.

• With the support of the sponsor, submit a PAR to IEEE-SA 

Standards Board (SASB) for an approval to start the project.

• PAR is reviewed by New Standards Committee (NesCom) 

and based on its recommendation, IEEE-SA Standards Board 

(SASB) approves/disapproves the project

Idea!

Project 

Approval 

Process

5 February 8, 2011
IEEE Standards Development: 

Project Authorization

Develop Draft 

Standard

IEEE-SA 

Standards 

Board 

Approval 

Process

Sponsor 

Ballot

Publish 

Standard

Maximum of 4 years 

• Once the PAR’s Title, Scope and Purpose has been 

determined, then it can be submitted to NesCom

 

• In order to meet the next meeting deadline, a PAR will need 

to be submitted by April 27th in order to be reviewed at the 

June 6-8

th IEEE-SA Standards Boards Meeting

Idea!

Project 

Approval 

Process

6 February 8, 2011
IEEE Standards Development: 

Project Authorization

Develop Draft 

Standard

IEEE-SA 

Standards 

Board 

Approval 

Process

Sponsor 

Ballot

Publish 

Standard

Maximum of 4 years 

PAR Options: 

• Option 1: Continue with a series of 1622 Family of 

Standards, etc P1622.1, P1622.2 each project dedicated to 

a different topic. When all the parts have been developed, 

revise the standard to roll up all the parts into one standard. 

Each .1 and .2 project will have it’s own Title Scope and 

Purpose.

• Option 2: Develop amendments to P1622, i.e. 1622a, 

1622b. After 3 amendments the amendments will need to be 

rolled up. These may have its own scope but not necessary, 

and will only cover a particular clause, not an entire 

standard.

Idea!

Project 

Approval 

Process

7 February 8, 2011
Option 1: Family of Standards: Sample Language

IEEE 1903-2011

2.1 Title: Standard for the Functional Architecture of Next Generation Service 

Overlay Networks

5.2 Scope: This Next Generation Service Overlay Network (NGSON) standard 

describes a framework of Internet Protocol(IP)-based service overlay networks 

and specifies context-aware (e.g., such as required Quality of Service (QoS) 

level, type of service such as real-time vs. data, nature of data stream such as 

I-frame vs. B-frame, and type of terminal such as TV monitor vs. personal 

digital assistant), dynamically adaptive (e.g., using locally derived information 

to discover, organize, and maintain traffic flows in the network within a local 

area network), and self-organizing networking capabilities (e.g., developing 

network structures based on the needs of the customers and the capabilities of 

existing network structures), including advanced routing and forwarding 

schemes, and that are independent of underlying networks.

5.4 Purpose: The purpose of this standard is to enable network operators, 

service/content providers, and end-users to provide and consume composite 

services by the deployment of context-aware, dynamically adaptive, and selforganizing networking capabilities.

5.5 Need for the Project: The amount of services and applications and their 

interaction are increasing at an exponential rate. This standard is needed to 

provide a better, more efficient way of providing these services and applications 

by means of context-aware, dynamically adaptive, and self-organizing 

networking capabilities.

8 February 8, 2011
Option 1: Family of Standards- Sample Language

P1903.1

2.1 Title: Standard for Content Delivery Protocols of Next 

Generation Service Overlay Network (NGSON)

5.2 Scope: This Standard specifies protocols among Content Delivery 

(CD) Functional Entity (FE), Service Routing (SR) FE, Service Policy 

Decision (SPD) FE, Service Discovery and Negotiation (SDN) FE, and 

Context Information Management (CIM) FE to support advanced 

content delivery capability in next generation service overlay 

networks.

The content delivery capability aims to support content discovery, 

content cache and storage management, content delivery control, and 

transport Quality of Service (QoS) control including context-aware 

and dynamically adaptive content delivery operations

5.4 Purpose: This standard enables network operators, 

service/content providers, and end users to provide and consume 

content services based on advanced content delivery capability of 

NGSON with context-aware and dynamically adaptive features. This 

standard provides interoperability of content services between 

network operators and content providers.

5.5 Need for the Project: The content delivery is an essential 

capability of NGSON to deliver the service content to the end-users in 

an efficient manner in terms of resource usage and QoS.

9 February 8, 2011
Option 1: Family of Standards- Sample Language

P1903.2

Title: Standard for Service Composition Protocols of Next 

Generation Service Overlay Network (NGSON)

5.2 Scope: This standard specifies protocols among Service 

Composition (SC) Functional Entity (FE), Service Discovery and 

Negotiation (SDN) FE, Context Information Management (CIM) FE, 

Service Routing (SR) FE and Service Policy Decision (SPD) FE to 

support service composition capabilities in next generation service 

overlay network. The capabilities of service composition aim to 

support service chaining and instantiation, specification interpretation, 

service brokering and execution, and context- aware and dynamically 

adaptive service composition.

5.4 Purpose: This standard enables network operators, 

service/content providers, and end users to provide and consume 

composite services based on advanced service composition capability 

of NGSON with context-aware and dynamically adaptive features. This 

standard also provides interoperability of composite services between 

network operators and service providers.

5.5 Need for the Project: Service composition is one of the most 

important features defined in NGSON to support composite services. 

This project will define a set of protocols to provide service 

10 composition capabilities of NGSON February 8, 2011
Option 2: Amendments: Sample 

Root IEEE 802.11-2007

Revision IEEE 802.11-2011

2.1 Title: Standard for Information Technology -

Telecommunications and Information Exchange Between Systems -

Local and Metropolitan Area Networks - Specific Requirements - Part 

11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer 

(PHY) Specifications

5.2 Scope: The scope of this standard is to define one medium 

access control (MAC) and several physical layer (PHY) specifications 

for wireless connectivity for fixed, portable, and moving stations 

(STAs) within a local area.

5.4 Purpose: The purpose of this standard is to provide wireless 

connectivity for fixed, portable, and moving stations within a local 

area. This standard also offers regulatory bodies a means of 

standardizing access to one or more frequency bands for the purpose 

of local area communication.

5.5 Need for the Project: The reason for this project is to 

incorporate accumulated maintenance changes (editorial and technical 

corrections) into 802.11-2007, and roll up of approved amendments 

to the standard. The approved amendments as of the filing of the 

revision PAR include IEEE 802.11k-2008, IEEE 802.11r-2008, and 

IEEEE 802.11y-2008 amendments 11 February 8, 2011
Option 2: Sample Amendment Language 

Amendment P802.11aa

2.1 Title: IEEE Standard for Information Technology - Telecommunications and 

Information Exchange Between Systems - Local and Metropolitan Area Networks - Specific 

Requirements - Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer 

(PHY) Specifications - Amendment: MAC enhancements for robust audio video 

streaming

5.2 Scope: This amendment specifies enhancements to the 802.11 MAC (Medium 

Access Control)for robust audio video streaming, while maintaining co-existence with 

other types of traffic. The MAC enhancements specified in this amendment enable:

* Graceful degradation of audio video streams when there is insufficient channel capacity, 

by enabling packet discarding without any requirement for deep packet inspection,

* Increased robustness in overlapping BSS environments, without the requirement for a 

centralised management entity,

* Intra-Access Category prioritization of transport streams by modifying EDCA timing and 

parameter selection without any requirement for deep packet inspection,

* Improved link reliability and low jitter characteristics for multicast/broadcast audio video 

streams,

* Interworking with relevant 802.1AVB mechanisms (802.1Qat, 802.1Qav, 802.1AS)

5.4 Purpose: This amendment specifies a standard for robust audio video 

stream transport over 802.11 for consumer/enterprise applications.

12 February 8, 2011
Option 2: Amendments, Sample Cont’d)

5.4 Purpose: This amendment specifies a standard for robust 

audio video stream transport over 802.11 for 

consumer/enterprise applications.

5.5 Need for the Project: 802.11 devices are widely 

deployed. While the devices, including 802.11n Draft 2.0 

devices, provide reliable data and voice performance, the 

performance of video streaming is not always of acceptable 

quality. A set of enhancements to 802.11 MAC can improve 

video streaming performance significantly while maintaining 

data and voice performance. 

8.1 Additional Explanatory Notes (Item Number and 

Explanation): 

Section 5.2/5.5 Expanded titles for referenced documents: 

802.1Qat: “Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area 

Networks - Virtual Bridged Local Area Networks - Amendment: 

9: Stream Reservation Protocol (SRP)." 

13 February 8, 2011
IEEE Standards Development: 

Project Authorization

14 February 8, 2011
IEEE 1622 PAR Language 

2.1 Title: Standard for Electronic Distribution of Blank Ballots for 

Voting Systems

5.2 Scope: This standard specifies electronic data interchange 

formats for blank ballot distribution, primarily to satisfy the needs of 

the UOCAVA (Uniform and Overseas Citizens Assistance in Voting Act) 

and MOVE (Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment) Acts. 

Subsequent standards may address other requirements for electronic 

data interchange formats used by components of voting systems for 

exchange of electronic data. This scope does not include return of cast 

ballots by electronic means.

5.4 Purpose: This standard defines common data interchange 

formats to allow export of blank ballots from voting systems, 

primarily to facilitate the casting of ballots by military and overseas 

voters.

5.5 Need for the Project: This standard will facilitate the casting of 

ballots by military and overseas voters, as distributing blank ballots to 

military and overseas voters can be lengthy and preclude returning 

the ballots in a timely manner.

8.1 Additional Explanatory Notes (Item Number and 

Explanation): We are reducing scope to get an initial standard for 

the 2012 US election. We plan later to expand our scope for a 

subsequent standard to cover other voting systems electronic data 

interchange issues. 15 February 8, 2011
IEEE Standards Development: 

Draft Development

IEEE-SA 

Standards 

Board 

Approval 

Process

Sponsor 

Ballot

Publish 

Standard

Maximum of 4 years 

• Working group (WG) is created/maintained under policies 

and procedures (P&P) of the sponsoring committee 

• WG officers are designated to start the development of the 

standard

• Write the draft of the standard 

• Submit finalized draft for Mandatory Editorial Coordination 

(MEC) to ensure conformance with IEEE requirements. 

Idea!

Develop 

Draft 

Standard

Project 

Approval 

Process

16 February 8, 2011
IEEE Standards Development: 

Sponsor Balloting

IEEE-SA 

Standards 

Board 

Approval 

Process

Publish 

Standard

Maximum of 4 years 

• A ballot group is formed using an electronic balloting system called 

myProject/myBallotTM .

• Composition of that balloting group cannot change when the ballot is initiated.

• A sponsor ballot is initiated with the draft, to be reviewed, commented, and voted 

by the ballot group.

• Needs 75% return response rate from the ballot group, and needs 75% 

affirmative(approved) votes

• WG reviews all the approved and disapproved votes with comments submitted by 

the ballot group.

• Make a reasonable attempt to resolve all negative votes

• Add or revise materials as suggested

• Submit responses to the comments

• Recirculate the revised draft standard and comments out to the ballot group .

Idea!

Project 

Approval 

Process

Develop Draft 

Standard

Sponsor 

Ballot

17 February 8, 2011
Creating a Web Account and 

MyBallot/myProject 

Access/Membership Services

Accessing the myProject system requires an 

IEEE Web Account: 

https://webapps1.ieee.org/WebAccount/Registration

 MyBallot /MyProject Link:

https://development.standards.ieee.org/my-site/home

Membership Services:

http://standards.ieee.org/membership/index.html 

18 February 8, 2011
IEEE Standards Development: 

Approval Process to Publication 

Maximum of 4 years 

• Submit the final draft standard to Standard Review Committee 

(RevCom).

• RevCom reviews the submitted documents and materials, and 

makes a recommendation to IEEE-SA Standards Board for an 

approval of the draft standard. 

• IEEE-SA Standards Board reviews the recommendation and 

approve the draft standard.

• Publish Standard

• Complimentary copies sent to the WG.

Idea!

Project 

Approval 

Process

Develop Draft 

Standard

Sponsor 

Ballot

IEEE-SA 

Standards 

Board Approval 

Process

Publish 

Standard

19 February 8, 2011
Policy Changes

Reaffirmation/Stabilization

Interpretations

ANSI Balance Rule

Invited Experts

Match Rule

Public Notice/Patent Disclaimer

20 3/15/2012
Reaffirmation/Stabilization

21 3/15/2012
New Process for Maintaining 

Active Standards

• In June 2011, the IEEE-SA Board of Governors (BoG) 

and Standards Board (SASB) approved a new process 

for maintaining active standards. 

• Changes are reflected in the policies and procedures:

• SASB Bylaws 

• SASB Operations Manual 

• The changes are available online at 

http://standards.ieee.org/about/sasb/procom/reaffchanges.pdf

22 3/15/2012
Benefits 

The IEEE-SASB, which is comprised of appointed volunteers 

who oversee the standards development process, determined 

that it was important to:

• Streamline/simplify the maintenance process to assist 

participants in complying with the policies and procedures 

of both IEEE and ANSI

• Offer Sponsors and Working Groups additional time to 

review and complete a revision cycle

• Enable Sponsors to focus on revisions of standards that 

require maintenance action, rather than a diffusion of 

Sponsor efforts to meet administrative requirements for 

reaffirmation or stabilization

• Have a process that permitted a standard to be revised 

when addressing comments during maintenance so that 

IEEE standards will remain pertinent and of high technical 

value

23 3/15/2012
Rationale

Various options were considered and it was 

determined that the new process: 

• Was simplest and least taxing on volunteer resources

• Allowed standards developers to concentrate on 

keeping IEEE standards relevant

• Reduced IEEE’s legal risk associated with outdated 

standards by making needed revisions where 

warranted by the Sponsor, Working Group, and 

Sponsor Balloting Group

24 3/15/2012
Changes 

25 3/15/2012

Effective Jan 1, 2012

• There will be no new reaffirmation or stabilization ballots

• The only actions available to Sponsors will be: 

• Revision 

• Amendment/Corrigendum (does not impact maintenance 

cycle)

• Withdrawal

• Standards will have a 10 year maintenance cycle (i.e., extended 

from 5 years to 10 years after the last date of approval or 

maintenance action)

• The status for a standard will be either active or inactive

• All standards must have a revision approved by the IEEE-SASB 

prior to the close of Year 10 in order to remain active

• Any standard not approved as a revision will become inactive 

after Year 10
Categories of Inactive Standards

26 3/15/2012

inactive-superseded: These standards have been replaced 

with a revised version of the standard, or by a compilation of 

the original active standard and all its existing amendments, 

corrigenda, and errata.

inactive-reserved: These standards are removed from active 

status through an administrative process for standards that 

have not undergone a revision process within 10 years. 

inactive-withdrawn (valid for standards categorized after 1 

January 2012): These standards have been removed from 

active status through a ballot where the standard is made 

inactive as a consensus decision of the balloting group.
Revisions

A revision ballot may result in:

• Changes to the standard 

• Changes to only the references or 

bibliography 

• No changes at all 

27 3/15/2012
Reaffirmation/Stabilization 

Transition Plan

28 3/15/2012

A. Standards reaffirmed/stabilized prior to 1 Jan 2012 – use the latest

of the following dates to complete the revision process or standard 

will be transferred to inactive status:

• By 31 December 2018 – 7 years after start of new program, or

• 10 years from initial approval, or

• 10 years from last maintenance action

B. Reaffirmation/Stabilization in invitation/ballot on 1 Jan 2012:

• 1 year to complete (approved at the December 2012 SASB 

meeting)

• If not completed by 31 Dec 2012, then item A applies

C. No new reaffirmation/stabilization invitations permitted after 

31 Dec 2011
Input from Users of a Standard 

29 3/15/2012

Users (those who use or implement a standard) can notify 

Sponsors or the IEEE if they believe a revision should occur 

prior to 10 years:

– 1) In the front matter of each standard, users are notified that 

they can contact the Secretary of the IEEE-SASB to submit 

issues/concerns

– 2) Users can contact the Sponsor directly online, or can contact a 

Staff Liaison who would be able to provide contact information or 

pass along the issues/concerns to Sponsors

– 3) Sponsors can revise, amend or withdraw their standards at any 

time prior to Year 10

– 4) An inaction on the Sponsor's part can be appealed to the IEEESASB where an appeal hearing can be performed
American National Standards

• An ANS can be revised prior to Year 10 if deemed 

appropriate

• Any standard that is currently an ANS will need to 

report to the administrator of the Standards Review 

Committee (RevCom) during Year 5 and explain 

whether a revision is in progress, or whether a revision 

is slated to be completed within the next 5 years

• IEEE has informally submitted the procedural changes 

to ANSI. No objections were obtained. The updated 

policies and procedures will be submitted to ANSI for 

audit in early 2012 along with all other 2011 procedural 

changes.

30 3/15/2012
Interpretations

31 3/15/2012
Elimination of Interpretations

• The IEEE-SA Standards Board approved a 

proposal to eliminate issuing interpretations in 

June 2011

• Current practice: Interpretations should not 

constitute an alteration to the original 

standard

– At present, they are permitted to provide 

meaning to text that is ambiguous

32 3/15/2012
Interpretations - Rationale

• Inefficient and a risk

– Interpretation responses made in an attempt to 

clarify ambiguous text to be derived from a process 

that does not inform all materially interested parties 

of the activity 

– Does not require consensus to be achieved through 

the Sponsor balloting process

33 3/15/2012
Interpretations - Solution

• More sensible to simply funnel comments on 

standards to Sponsors for handling

– Any document changes would appear in a revision 

amendment/corrigendum

– All require PARs – an open process & consensus 

through balloting

• Therefore interpretations as discrete 

documents should be discontinued

34 3/15/2012
Interpretations – Going Forward

• Elimination of Interpretations

– In order to maintain ANSI accreditation, we are 

required to have an interpretations policy. 

 Our interpretations policy can be that we do 

not supply Interpretations

• Changes will be effective 1 January 2012

• Changes to Ops Man, ByLaws, etc

– “The IEEE does not offer interpretations of its 

standards”

35 3/15/2012
Balance Rule

36 3/15/2012
ANSI Essential RequirementsBalance Rule

ANSI Essential Requirements require 

that interest categories for “safetyrelated” standards balloting can not be 

greater than 1/3 of balloters

ANSI’s audit of IEEE-SA’s procedures 

for 2009 determined that

– IEEE SA’s current rule that balance is 

achieved if no one classification is 50% 

or more

37 3/15/2012
ANSI – Balance Rule

“Safety Standard” was not defined or 

included by ANSI’s rule

IEEE left with three choices

– Adopt the 1/3 rule across the board

– Define “safety standards” 

– Implement the 1/3 rule if the word 

“safety” was included anywhere in the 

document

38 3/15/2012
ANSI – Balance Rule Resolution

Changing the ANSI Essential 

Requirement would be difficult

After significant deliberation, the 

Standards Board approved a motion:

– Balance will be achieved by not 

permitting any single interest category 

to comprise more than 1/3 of the 

Sponsor balloting group

Other categories can be considered 

beyond user, producer, general 

interest, etc.

39 3/15/2012
ANSI – Balance Rule

Going Forward

Changes to IEEE- SASB Ops Man to be 

implemented 1 March 2012

–

A Standards Board AdHoc will continue 

to create education material and to 

address implementation issues

40 3/15/2012
Balance Rule Implementation

Here are the new guidelines:

1) If your invitation was opened before 1 March 2012 you 

follow the 50% balance rule. 

If for some reason, the invitation goes stale (i.e., the 

initial ballot does not open within 6 months of the 

invitation close date), then a new invitation will need to 

occur under the 1/3 balance rule.

2) If your invitation opens on or after 1 March 2012 you 

follow the 1/3 balance rule.

So for example: If the invitation open date is Feb 29th, they 

would follow the 50% balance rule. If it opens on Mar 1, it will 

follow the 1/3 balance rule.

41 3/15/2012
Invited Experts

42 3/15/2012
Invited Experts - Elimination

Prior to 1998, IEEE membership was required 

to ballot on an IEEE standard

– IEEE membership requires certain 

technical/educational credentials

 Having invited experts beneficial then

1999 IEEE-SA created & IEEE membership no 

longer needed, just IEEE-SA

– No technical/educational credentials

43 3/15/2012
Invited Experts –

Going Forward

Invited Experts in IEEE’s balloting process is 

no longer needed

– Anyone can qualify for membership or can 

pay the per-ballot fee

Removing Invited Experts will create an equal 

participation field for all those interested in an 

IEEE ballot

Effective 1 January 2012 “Invite an Expert” 

will not be available

44 3/15/2012
Match Rule

45 3/15/2012
Match Rule - Elimination

Current Practice: Title/Scope/Purpose of the 

PAR for new and revision projects must match 

that of the draft document

Proposed change: Update ballot 

announcement in myProject to make it clear 

that one of the balloters responsibilities is to 

ensure that the scope of the draft is within the 

scope of the work authorized by the PAR

46 3/15/2012
Match Rule - Rationale

If the scope of an approved standard were to 

go beyond the scope of the PAR

– Materially interested persons may not have 

the opportunity to participate

 Fail to meet openness 

RevCom not to make judgment if scope of 

document is within scope of PAR

Match rule created unnecessary Modified PAR 

requests

47 3/15/2012
Match Rule – Going Forward

It is the job of the balloters to determine if the 

scope of the final standard is within the scope 

of the work authorized by the PAR 

– It is okay for the scope of the draft to be 

less than the scope of the PAR

Eliminate the Match Rule on January 1, 2012

48 3/15/2012
Public Notice/Patent Disclaimer

49 3/15/2012
Public Notice/Patent Disclaimer 

For published documents, at present, 

there are two options for frontmatter

disclaimer language based upon 

whether or not a patent letter of 

assurance (LOA) was on file at the time 

of publication 

Goal is to have 1 public disclaimer in 

the document

– Avoid the possibility of incorrect 

statement 50 3/15/2012
Public Notice/Patent Disclaimer

Creation of 1 disclaimer will eliminate:

– Miscommunication if an LOA is accepted

– Timing of the receipt of the patent LOA if 

received after a standard is approved

– Misunderstanding by implementers as to 

whether or not they should refer to the 

patent listing for LOAs

Effective January 2012

51 3/15/2012
Questions

• URL for FAQs: http://standards.ieee.org/faqs/reaff.html

• The current version of the IEEE-SA Standards Board Bylaws is 

available at: 

http://standards.ieee.org/develop/policies/bylaws/index.html 

(HTML version) 

http://standards.ieee.org/develop/policies/bylaws/sb_bylaws.p

df (PDF version) 

• The current version of the IEEE-SA Standards Board Operations 

Manual is available at: 

http://standards.ieee.org/develop/policies/opman/index.html 

(HTML version) 

http://standards.ieee.org/develop/policies/opman/sb_om.pdf 

(PDF version) 

52
Thank You!

Contact Information

Malia Zaman, TPD Program Manager

Email: m.zaman@ieee.org

Tel:732 562 3838

53 3/15/2012
Resource Links

54 February 8, 2011

Additional Information:

http://standards.ieee.org/develop/index.html
Comments/Questions:

55 February 8, 2011
For more information...

Contact:

Malia Zaman

Program Manager

Technical Program Development

Phone: +1 732 562 3838

 Email: m.zaman@ieee.org

56 February 8, 2011