The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has formed an interest group to explore the use of the 60 GHz band for wireless personal area networks (WPANs), which generally have a range of 10 meters.

This little-used, 7 GHz-wide portion of the radio spectrum avoids interference with nearly all electronic devices, given the high attenuation of these wavelengths by walls and floors, and promises to allow more WPANs to occupy the same building.

The IEEE 802.15.3 Millimeter Wave Interest Group was formed in July 2003 as part of an effort to develop a millimeter-wave-based alternative physical layer for the IEEE high-rate WPAN standard, IEEE 802.15.3-2003. Interest groups are the first step in the creation of a standard.

The initial meeting of the IEEE group was held in Singapore in September. Future meetings are scheduled for Nov. 9-14 in Albuquerque, N.M., and Jan. 12-16 in Vancouver, BC. Anyone who is interested in helping open the millimeter band for use in WPANs is invited to join the interest group.

The group has issued a call for papers for its upcoming meetings to help lay the groundwork for a millimeter-wave-based standard. Papers from industry, academia, regulatory bodies and other sources should describe original work related to the use of the 60 GHz band in WPANs in such areas as mobile and networked applications and network protocols and performance.

The IEEE is based in Piscataway, NJ. For more information visit ieee802.0rg/15/.