The Mobile Management Task Force, set up by manufacturers to define network management specifications for mobile environments and having published its initial specifications, looks to be in severe danger of collapsing, despite the fact that it has yet to achieve all of the aims it set out in its mission statement. Although no decision has been made whether to disband the group, – that will be decided at meetings over the coming months – the signs are that divisions within the forum, founded by Xircom Inc and Epilogue Technology Group, will lead to its demise. Outwardly, the group is trying to put a positive spin on the situation, saying that now the Task Force’s specifications are ready to be presented to the Internet Engineering and Desktop Management Task Forces, the group’s work is done. It adds that there may still be a role for the Forum, but this has yet to be decided. The Forum’s mission statement, however, reveals that this is not the case: it originally set out not only to present specifications to the standards bodies but to work within the IETF structure until the Mobile MIB is adopted as a full RFC (Request for Comment). Indeed, there seem to be two behind-the- scenes reasons for the Forum’s shaky future: dissatisfaction by some members with the way the group approached its work, and by others about the limited support it has received from some of its members. In terms of the group’s approach, some members – notably Motorola Inc – are not entirely satisfied with the Forum’s move from defining specifications for each type of mobile connection – cellular, infra-red and so forth – to a generic set of four specifications intended to cover all network connection types.
Resources to continue
Richard Watson, director of technology for Motorola’s airmobile products group, expressed disappointment that the first draft did not address some of Motorola’s wireless issues, and went on to say that my own perspective is that you could have a design that could accommodate both generic requirements, and specific needs for different connection types. Other sources, however, suggest that the Mobile Management Task Force’s two founders – Xircom Inc and Epilogue Technology Corp – had been left with the majority of the development work, and that they do not have the resources to continue it. Ironically, all of the parties involved agree that much more work is needed before mobile users have the management support that they need, although they differ on whether this should be done within the Task Force. If the group does disband however, it is far from certain that the Internet Engineering and Desktop Management Task Forces will recognize the problems of mobile management, and provide satisfactory offerings – it was the fact that they had not done so previously that occasioned the formation of the Mobile Task Force in the first place (CI No 2,729).
