China’s fight for international standards
China’s recent knock back by the International Standardisation officials (ISO) has not halted plan’s for self administered standards. China plans to continue implementing actions to initiate individual standardisation in line with their proposal for WLAN security technology WAPI. China plans to pursue attempts to promote WAPI in an effort to decrease the reliance on foreign technology and propagate a competitive lead for its native technology companies.
China will endeavour to launch an appeal to overthrow the decision to reject the countries WAPI standardisation on all own produced WLAN security technology. Officials from China’s BWIPS (China Broadband Wireless IP standard Group) called for reconsideration after the fast track ballot polling the decision arrived at a conspicuous result. Of the 30 national bodies running in the poll, only 8 of the votes were in favour whereas 31 national bodies who cast vote on the American group led by U.S. based Intel Corp., 24 of the votes proved to be in favour of the American 802.11I standard.
BWIPs will continue to lobby against the decision made by the ISO in support of their argument that WAPI’s advanced technology reinforces the security loopholes of the American 802.11I. The resounding fear is that the adoption of the 802.11I into international standardisation will run the risk of WLAN suffering the threat of a monopoly by ‘insecure technologies.
However it is alleged, the conclusion of the fast track ballot poll is not definitive in the sense that it does not confirm the proposal has been rejected by the international standards but more so is a step in a long process for the international standardisation and will be preceded by a ballot resolution meeting and review by headquarters of ISO/IEC. The BWIPS will contact ISO officials to contest the issue and seek redress.
