Feb 2015 doc.: IEEE 802.11-15/247r0
IEEE P802.11
Wireless LANs
IEEE P802.11ah D4.0 Mandatory Draft Review (MDR) Report
Date: 2015-02-26
Author(s):
Name / Company / Address / Phone / email
Adrian Stephens / Intel Corporation /
Peter Ecclesine / Cisco Systems /
1 Introduction
1.1 Purpose of this document
This document is the report from the group of volunteers that participated in the P802.11ah Draft 4 mandatory draft review.
This document contains recommendations for changes to P802.11ah to bring it into improved compliance to IEEE-SA and WG11 style.
Those recommended changes need to be reviewed by TGah and approved, or ownership of the issues taken by TGah.
1.2 Process / references
The MDR process is described in:
· 11-11/615r5 – Mandatory Draft Review process
o https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/11/11-11-0615-05-0000-wg802-11-mec-process.doc
And references:
· 11-09/1034r10 – 802.11 Editorial Style Guide
o https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/09/11-09-1034-10-0000-802-11-editorial-style-guide.doc
A setup meeting was held, and review topics identified and assigned to volunteers. The volunteers provided their review comments, which have been compiled into this document, with some editorial changes.
1.3 Acknowledgements
The 802.11 technical editors (Adrian Stephens and Peter Ecclesine) gratefully acknowledge the work and contribution of:
· Robert Stacey
· Edward Au
· Alfred Asterjadhi
· Yongho Seok
Review assignments:
i. Style guide clause 2 to 2.9 inclusive - Robert
ii. Style guide clause 2.10 to 2.18 - Edward
iii. Style guide clause 3 - inc MIB Style - Alfred
iv. MIB compiles with no extra warnings - Yongho
1. Baseline from REVmc + changes from TGah
2. Add TGai changes if possible prior to validating TGah
3. Set of changes to .11ah to make it compile with no additional warnings
v. ANA check - Adrian
1.4 Actions arising
See editor instructions embedded in the findings.
2 Style Section 2 Findings
Grammar
73.63, 74.1, 88.34, 88.48 (perhaps others) “of frames except S1G Control frames”
Editor [M]: Replace these instances to: “of a frame that is not an S1G Control frame.” or “frames that are not S1G Control frames”.
103.60 “A non-DMG STA assigns … for a non S1G STA and … for an S1G STA”. Assignment is made for a purpose or to an entity.
Editor [M]: Change that portion of the sentence to “A non-DMG STA assigns the value of the AID in the range 1–2007 if it is a non-S1G STA and in the range 1-8191 if it is an S1G STA, …”
122.58 Editor [A]: Replace “for which type of STA the information provided by this element is intended to.” withà “the type of STA for which the information in the element is provided.”
137.17 parenthetical “unsigned integer in microsecond”
Editor [M]: Replace “unsigned integer in microsecond” with “, in units of microsecond,”
138.29 “in the unit of (short) beacon interval”
138.39, 141.38, 141.48, 142.57, 143.1, 143.6, 143.10 “in units of (short) beacon interval”
Editor [J]: There is a technical document in LB207 that takes care of this.
138.33 “except when the PRAW Validity subfield is equal to 0 that indicates the PRAW validity value is not determined”
Editor [M]: Replace “The value of the PRAW Validity subfield is equal to the number of remaining PRAW occurrences, except when the PRAW Validity subfield is equal to 0 that indicates the PRAW validity value is not determined” with: “A nonzero PRAW Validity subfield indicates the number of remaining PRAW occurrences, while a PRAW Validity subfield equal to 0 indicates that the PRAW validity is not determined.”
143.58 “the time interval expressed in units of 10 milliseconds each”
Editor [M]: Replace “the time interval expressed in units of 10 milliseconds each” with “the time interval, in units of 10 ms,”
174.1 General grammar check needed on column “Meaning” [MDR2]
Editor [M]: Replace the first row (ignoring the heading row) of the Meaning column of Table 8-258a10 “Indicates whether Full SSID or Compressed SSID is requested to be included in the Short Probe Response” with “Requests that the SSID returned in the Short Probe Response frame not be compressed”
Replace “Indicates” with “Requests that the” and remove “is requested to” from each row in the meaning column of the Tables in subclause 8.4.2.206 except for the first row of the first table.
558.58 “This attribute, when true, indicates that the STA is capable of accepting a relay to associate to it.” [MDR2]
Editor [MJ]: Instruction to the editor not sufficiently detailed to perform changes.
Replace “is capable of accepting a relay to associate to it” with “permits association by a relay STA”.
Redundant field size description (info also present in associated figure)
78.21 Remove sentence “The Bandwidth Indication field is 3 bits… 1 bit.”
Editor [A].
79.3 Remove “is 1 bit and”
Editor [M]: Remove “is 1 bit and” throughout the 11ah draft keeping grammatical consistency for the sentence that contains it.
79.9 Remove “is 1 bit and”
Editor [A]
79.14 Remove “is 2 bits and”
Editor [M]: Remove “is 2 bits and” ” throughout the 11ah draft keeping grammatical consistency for the sentence that contains it.
196.1: Remove “is 3 bits and” throughout the draft keeping grammatical consistency for the sentence. Perform, whenever possible, the same change throughout the draft when “is x bits and” follows the name of a subfield or field to indicate the length of the field or subfield. Keep grammatical consistency within the sentence when performing this change.
Editor [A].
208.48 Remove “The Reserved field is 1 bit.”
Editor [A].
222.39 Remove “The Duration field is 10 bits.” and “The Duration field is 14 bits.” in 223.17.
Editor [A].
80.32-33 Replace “bit” with “field” throughout the sentence and add “the” when necessary prior to “AP”. Perform the same change every time the bit(s) follow the name of a field. If the “bit(s)” follows the name of a subfield then replace with “subfield”.
Editor [A].
165.62 Remove “The Deferral subfield and the Authentication Control Threshold are 1 bit and 10 bits in length respectively.”
Editor [A].
166.51-59 Remove “is a x-bit/octet unsigned integer,”
Editor [A].
196.11 Replace “The Receive Sector Bitmap field is 8 bits.” With “The Receive Sector Bitmap field indicates a bit map.”
Editor [A].
Editing instructions
88.51 Paragraph position should be relative to a paragraph and not a figure since figures float.
Editor [M]: Replace “after Figure 8-18” with “at the end of this subclause”
95.30, 97.31 Change markup for AID row appears to be missing.
Editor [M]: Underline the sentence added at the third column of the second row.
102.59 The figure appears to have floated away from its title
Editor [J]: It is a frame maker issue.
128.1 Paragraph format.
Editor [M]: Change the paragraph format to Editor’s instruction format.
General
134.42 No closing brace.
Editor [M]: Add closing brace.
140.47 “device’s characteristics”?
Editor [M]: Replace “device’s characteristics” with “characteristics of the device”
173.51 tilda as range indication.
Editor [M]: Replace “~” with “to” twice, and add “respectively at the end of the sentence.
496.49-51 Editing instructions to reader. Perhaps reword as “where requirements for the VHT-SIG-A field apply to the SIG or SIG-A field”, etc. [MDR 2]
Editor [MJ]: Instruction to the editor are not sufficiently clear to make the change.
Replace with the following (editing instructions are present in the paragraph):
The PHY optionally filters out the PPDU based on the GID, MU[0-3] NSTS UPLINK_INDICATION, and ID fields of SIG or SIG-A and the contents of the PHYCONFIG_VECTOR as follows:
— The PHY shall not filter out the PPDU if one of the following is true:
— (g = 0) and (l00 is true) and (partialaid is included in PARTIAL_AID_LIST_GID00)
— (g = 63) and (l63 is true) and (partialaid is included in PARTIAL_AID_LIST_GID63)
— (1<= g <= 62) and (MembershipStatusInGroupID[g] = 1) and (nSTS[UserPositionInGroupID[g]] > 0)
— where
— lNN is the one of the LISTEN_TO_GIDNN parameters of the PHYCONFIG_VECTOR
— MembershipStatusInGroupID[g] is the Membership Status Array field of the
GROUP_ID_MANAGEMENT parameter of the PHYCONFIG_VECTOR for group g
— g is defined to be:
1. The value of the GroupID field of the SIG-A for an S1G MU PPDU
2. 0 for an S1G SU PPDU when UPLINK_INDICATION is equal to 1
3. 63, in all other cases
— nSTS[u] is the value of the MU[u] NSTS field of SIG or SIG-A
— UserPositionInGroupID[g] is the User Position Array field of the GROUP_ID_MANAGEMENT parameter of the PHYCONFIG_VECTOR for group g
— partialaid is the value of the ID field of SIG or SIG-A
— Otherwise, the PHY may filter out the PPDU.
2 General 802.11 Style
2.1 Frames
2.1.1 Frame Format Figures
103.4 The B6 field contains a statement and does not appear to be a field name [MDR2]
Editor [M]: Remove subclause 8.4.1.4 (and the figure within as well) as part of the resolution of ANA item 2 below.
103.51 A better figure title seems appropriate.
Editor [M]: Replace “Bit encoding” with “Listen Interval field when it is carried in an S1G PPDU”.
109.24 Figure title already used (Figure 8-115 in REVmc D4.0).
Editor [M]: Replace the title with “Operating Mode field when it is carried in an S1G PPDU”.
402.46, 403.7, 403.24 Each box represents a field, as in the STF field, the LTF1 field, etc. “LTF2~LTFN_LTF”, “D-LTF1~D-LTFN_LTF” are poor field names and not referenced in the text in the manner they are identified in the figure. There seems to be some confusion around field vs symbol vs sequence (a problem we had in 11ac as well). It also doesn’t help that the F in the acronym stands for field. I would suggest renaming as “LTF2” and “D-LTF2” and then make sure that the text refers to “LTF2 field”, “LTF2 field symbols” or “LTF sequence” as appropriate. There should be no use of the ambiguous, standalone “LTF”. [MDR2]
Editor [M]: Insert “field” after the “term” when the term refer to a field.
440.14, 440.25, 440.48 Bit numbering in SIG field figures does not follow “B<number<tab>B<number>” above some fields.
Editor [M]: Fix the issue such that the figures follow the abovementioned convention.
2.1.2 Naming Frames
No issues found.
2.2 Case of true/false
No issues found.
2.3 “Is set to”
89.52 Replace “that contains a duration value which is set as described in” withà “that contains a duration value as described in”
Editor [A].
89.59 Replace “equal to” withà “set to”.
Editor [M]: Perform the same change to P89L45 as well.
2.4 Information Elements/Subelements
2.4.1 Naming
90.49 Figure 8-51a appears to use the names “RA (A1)” and “TA (A2)” for the fields. However, the text refers to “RA field” and “TA field”. Recommend that the bracketed A1 and A2 be removed from figure. Editor [M]: Remove “(A1)” and “(A2)” from the figure.
91.28 Pentapartial Timestamp field. Nice name!
Editor [J]: Not sufficient information to perform changes to the draft.
91.52 (related to 90.49 above)
A2 field à TA field
Editor [M]: Replace “A2 field” with “TA field”.
2.5 Naming of MIB Variables
555.18 dot11PageSlicingSupported. Control variable, so “Supported” à “Activated”
Editor [M]: Replace “Supported” with “Activated” within the variable dot11PageSlicingSupported throughout the draft.
555.04 dot11PageSlicingCapability. Capability variable.
Editor [M]: Replace “Capability” with “Implemented” within the variable dot11PageSlicingCapability throughout the draft.
555.61, 556.9, 558.7, 558.51, 559.58, 561.47 Capability variables, so “Support” à “Implemented”. For example, “dot11AMSDUSupport” should be “dot11AMSDUImplemented”.
Editor [M]: Replace “dot11AMSDUSupport” with “dot11AMSDUImplemented”, replace “dot11AMPDUSupport” with “dot11AMPDUImplemented”,and replace “dot11RelaySupport” with dot11RelayImplemented throughout the draft.
556.36 dot11AsymmetricBlockAckSupport. Control variable, so “Support” à “Activated”.
Editor [M]: Perform suggested change throughout the draft.
557.14 dot11RAWOptionActivated, but dot11RAWOperationSupported. Inconsistency between capability and control variable for same function. Option à Operation
Editor [M]: Perform suggested change throughout the draft.
556.64 dot11RAWOperationSupported. Capability variable, so “Supported” à “Implemented”.
Editor [M]: Perform suggested change throughout the draft.
558.64 dot11RelayAPOperation. Append “Activated” to this control variable.
Editor [M]: Perform suggested change throughout the draft.
559.13 dot11RelaySTACapable. “Capable” à “Implemented”. I’m somewhat confused by the definition “indicates that the STA implementation is a relay STA inside a relay” and suggest this be clarified. Perhaps the variable should be “dot11RelayOperationImplemented” with similar change to the associated control variable.
Editor [M]: Replace “dot11RelaySTACapable” with dot11RelaySTAImplemented” throughout the draft.
559.27 dot11RelaySTAOperation. Append “Activated” to this control variable. NOTE that there is also a technical problem here. MIB variables should only have one writer. According to the description there appear to be at least two writers: a management entity and the STA itself (from MIB description: “This attribute can be modified during the life of the STA in the BSS by sending Relay Activation element.”)
(The note is a topic of a LB comment, and therefore not part of the MDR report.)
Editor [M]: Replace “dot11RelaySTACapable” with dot11RelaySTAImplemented” throughout the draft.
NOTE: Action Item: Check which one of the MIB variables should the “dot11RelaySTA” variable be converted to.
560.8 dot11S1GActivityEnabled. Enabled à Activated
Editor [M]: Perform suggested change throughout the draft.
563.3 dot11BDTCapable à dot11BDTImplemented
Editor [M]: Perform suggested change throughout the draft.
2.6 Removal of functions and features
No issues identified.
2.7 Capitalization
103.38 ListenInterval value. There seems to be some significance to the word ListenInterval (capitalized, single word) in this paragraph. After doing a search, I think it most likely refers to an MLME parameter added to the MLME-ASSOCIATE.request primitive. If indeed, it refers to this MLME parameter, then the proper reference is “the ListenInterval parameter of the MLME-ASSOCIATE.request primitive” and not “ListenInterval value”. [MDR2]
Editor [MJ]: Not sufficient editorial instructions for making changes to the draft.
Replace “ListenInterval value” with “the value of the ListenInterval parameter used by the MLME primitives.”
103.36, 141.54, 143.17 Unified Scaling Factor (USF). If this is a term, it should not be capitalized. I would recommend rewriting this whole paragraph (at 103.36). The field format has a figure (although the figure has a terrible name). Give the fields proper names (“Value” is not a good name). In the text, refer to the field names instead of “two MSBs of the Listen Interval field”, etc. I’m sure someone moderately skilled in the art could come up with something better than this. [MDR2]