Accelerating wireless intelligent network standards through formal techniques

Wireless standards such as ANSI-41 and WIN are dynamic in nature, continuously evolving to meet subscriber requirements with ever shorter intervals for standards development. The current timeliness at which a new version of the specification is to be completed to the needed level of precision, quality and completeness cannot be accommodated using existing specification techniques. A key assumption is that future standards work must apply techniques that can be automated. The use of formal documentation techniques using commercial tools will shorten the standards development cycle, introduce a formal test methodology, and assist in rapid validation and verification, harmonization, and evolution of ANSI-41/WIN standards. This paper begins with an introduction of certain relevant documentation techniques. The techniques utilized for the creation of ANSI-41 and the wireless intelligent network (WIN) standard are examined and analyzed. This is used to identify opportunities to utilize documentation techniques to enhance ANSI41/WIN standards development from an efficacy and timeliness perspective. The requirement to develop global capabilities and services to support third generation wireless networks provides further challenges, necessitating a fundamental change in the specification techniques used in the future.