IEEE’s working group is expected to finalise a global wireless standard for 4G technology — IEEE 802.16m — to follow 3G cellular standards, this week while the members meet in Bangalore. It will later be ratified by a higher committee from IEEE.

For the first time, Indian institutes such as IIT-Madras, IIT-Bombay and IIIT-Bangalore have taken part in research for global standards and contributed to this initiative.

Roger B Marks, chairman of the IEEE 802.16 working group said that about 300 experts have been collaborating to come up with the advanced version of 4G WiMax standard since 2006.

IEEE 802.16m is one of the two technology standards being pursued by companies and organisations globally and meets International Telecommunications Union (a United Nations agency) requirements for 4G or “IMT-Advanced”, delivering higher system capacity – peak rates of more than 300mbps – lower latency and increased VOIP capacity. IEEE is an international non-profit, professional organisation with 3.95 lakh members from 150 countries.

Indian academia are contributing research and ideas to address Indian and rural requirements in the standard, according to Bhaskar Ramamurthi, professor at IIT-Madras and honourary director, CEWiT. These include key specifications such as Open Loop Region and Conjucate Data Repetition by CEWiT.

He feels that WiMax is an important technology for India, and the 802.16e standard is mature while evolving now to 802.16m. “4G broadband wireless technologies can do for India what 2G technologies did for telephony. It will expand to reach one and all,” he said.