China is to continue to promote its WAPI wireless security protocol as a standard despite its overwhelming rejection by the ISO in favour of 802.11i.
Chinese news agency Xinhua reports that sources within the China BWIPS (China Broadband Wireless IP standard Group) say it plans to appeal the decision by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to go with the alternative, better established standard from the US IEEE group.
In a fast track ballot last week at the ISO the 802.11i protocol won out by 24 votes to eight, a result described by the China BWIPS as ‘unjust’. The group alleges that the IEEE indulged in bully boy tactics at the behest of Intel, whose Centrino platform is tightly linked with the 802.11 standard.
‘We have noticed that during the comment and balloting periods, American IEEE and its representatives have used a lot of dirty tricks including deception, misinformation, confusion and reckless charging to lobby against WAPI,’ said China BWIPS in its statement.
It says that the IEEE violated ISO protocol by suggesting reasons to voting bodies for not backing WAPI and that it has evidence to that effect.
It says that the ISO proposed WAPI be used to enhance the security of the 802.11i standard rather than be considered a standard in itself – an idea the China BWIPS called ‘hypocritical’.
The Chinese government insists it will continue to support WAPI and will consider it a standard for wireless within its borders.
Last week an industry alliance was formed around WAPI, backed by 22 companies including China’s four biggest telcos and other big Chinese tech firms such a Lenovo, which bought IBM’s PC business.
US company Conexant is also believed to have applied for membership of the alliance.
Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.
