The Resilient Packet Ring Alliance (San Jose, CA), has announced that the IEEE 802.17 RPR working group has released version 2.0 of the draft RPR standard for working-group ballot, passing a milestone in the standards process.

With this working-group ballot, members will approve or disapprove the draft in its current form. Disapproving voters can indicate specific areas of improvement.

The working-group ballot requires 75% approval of the voting members before the next stage: a sponsor ballot whereby a broad community of users and vendors of the technology will review the draft. The sponsor ballot is expected spring 2003.

Infineon Technologies, Munich, has upgraded its membership in the RPR Alliance, joining Cisco Systems, Corrigent Systems, Lantern Communications, Mindspeed Technologies, and Nortel Networks as principal members.

Kathleen Richards, Lightwave