ITU-T e-FLASH
Telecommunication Standardization Sector
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High-level ITU talks address rampant patent litigation
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In light of recent patent disputes that have caused shipments of
goods to be impounded at docks and the worldwide increase in
standard essential patent (SEP) litigation, ITU will host a
high-level roundtable discussion between standards organizations,
key industry players and government officials at ITU headquarters in
Geneva, on 10 October 2012.
The ITU Patent Roundtable will address the worldwide surge in
patent litigation and the growing lack of adherence to standards
bodies’ existing patent policies. Topics include potential
improvements to existing policy frameworks, entitlement to
injunctive reliefs, and definitions of what constitutes a royalty
base.
Discussions on the relevance of current arrangements based
around reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) patent policies will
be a key focus. RAND-based policies have thus far been an effective
way of managing natural tensions between patent holders, standards
implementers and end-users. However, the definition of what
constitutes ‘reasonable’, and whether or not holders of SEPs are
entitled to injunctive relief are now emerging as major points of
contention.
Read
full press release |
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Green Standards Week drives tech sustainability strategies
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ITU’s second annual ‘Green Standards Week’ (GSW), to be held in
Paris from 17-21 September, will stimulate the creation of
international ‘green ICT’ standards with a view to further expanding
the capabilities of information and communication technologies to
boost environmental efficiency across all industry sectors.
Organized by ITU and TechAmerica Europe and hosted by
Microsoft, it will gather policy makers, regulators, private sector
entities, research institutes and standards development
organizations (SDOs) to discuss the standardization of ICT from an
environmental perspective. A High-Level Segment featuring key
industry and government figures will discuss the role of global
standards in spreading access to green ICT, as well the development
of new standards that reflect the interdependence of industry
sectors.
Read
full press release
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Social Electricity takes first prize in ITU’s 2nd Green ICT Application Challenge
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Andreas Kamilaris, a PhD student at the University of Cyprus, has
been awarded first prize in the second ITU Green ICT Application
Challenge for his “Social Electricity” proposal. The Facebook
application lends a competitive edge to smart-meter readings by
enabling users to compare their energy consumption with that of
friends and family, or with neighborhood, state and national
averages.
Malcolm Johnson, Director of the Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau (TSB), ITU, and Silvia Guzmán Araña,
Telefónica’s Global Sustainablity and Reputation Director, will
present Andreas first prize of USD 3,000 at an award ceremony to be
held on the 19th of September in Paris, at the ITU Green Standards
Week. Telefónica co-organized the competition together with ITU.
Kamilaris’ motivation for the application was to create a
means of better quantifying the energy-consumption data produced by
smart meters. The Challenge’s panel of judges – representing ITU,
Telefónica, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the
European Commission – deemed his socially-powered concept the best
to satisfy the Challenge’s theme of “Sustainable Energy for All”.
The development of the app is almost complete and, at Green
Standards Week, Kamilaris will showcase its use and operation as
well as any preliminary results garnered from the “Social
Electricity” pilot soon to be launched across Cyprus.
Electricity-related measurements will be provided by the Electricity
Authority of Cyprus, which supports this project.
Honourable Mentions were awarded to another four promising
apps, all similarly targeting ICT-enabled energy management.
Full story |
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New ITU standards define the Internet of Things and provide the blueprints for its development
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ITU-T
Study Group 13 – Future Networks including Cloud Computing and
NGN – has approved new standards offering a definition of the
Internet of Things (IoT), characterizing the emerging IoT
environment, and outlining the functional requirements of
machine-oriented communication applications in an NGN context:
- Recommendation ITU-T Y.2060, Overview of the Internet of Things
- Recommendation ITU-T Y.2061, Requirements for support of machine- oriented communication applications in the NGN environment
ITU-T Y.2060 marks ITU members’ approval of a definition of
IoT, terming it: “A global infrastructure for the Information
Society, enabling advanced services by interconnecting (physical and
virtual) things based on, existing and evolving, interoperable
information and communication technologies.
”Recommendation ITU-T Y.2060 provides an overview of the
Internet of Things (IoT), clarifying the concept and scope of IoT,
identifying its fundamental characteristics and high-level
requirements, and offering a detailed description of the IoT
reference model. Additionally, the standard presents an informative
appendix discussing the IoT ecosystem and the business models of
which it will be composed.
The definition is accompanied by a qualification which notes
that, from a broad perspective, IoT can be perceived as a vision
with technological and societal implications; which will, through
the exploitation of identification, data capture, processing and
communication capabilities, make full use of "Things" to offer
services to all kinds of applications, whilst ensuring that security
and privacy requirements are fulfilled.
Recommendation ITU-T Y.2061 provides an overview of
machine-oriented communication (MOC) applications in next-generation
network (NGN) environments; covering the NGN extensions, additions
and device capabilities required to support MOC applications.
Full story |
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ITU and ETSI renew Memorandum of Understanding
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ITU and the European Telecommunications Standardization
Institute (ETSI) have agreed on a new Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) that will smooth the way for
regional standards, developed by ETSI, to be recognised
internationally.
In addition, the new MoU creates a single
framework through which to channel ITU, ETSI
collaboration. The agreement will replace existing MoUs
with ITU-T and ITU-R, signed in 2000 and 2002
respectively.
ITU and ETSI possess complementary roles as
Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), with ITU
recognized as an international standardization body in
the ICT field and ETSI as the European standardization
organization for telecommunications.
The agreement between ETSI and ITU follows last
year’s MoU between key Asian standards developers ARIB,
CCSA, TTA and TTC. See press release
here.
Mutual cooperation between SDOs is key to
ensuring a coordinated approach to standards
development. International standardization re-engineers
regional standards to allow them international reach, or
reconciles regional standards to form cohesive
international standards.
Clear, coordinated action from standards bodies,
will provide the business community with greater clarity
regarding standards under development. This increased
certainty will promote a faster, more efficient adoption
of standards in products manufactured; leading to
greater economies of scale and lower costs to consumers.
Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: “ITU
standards allow international access to the innovations
progressing our Information Society. This is achieved
through cooperation with national and regional standards
bodies to uncover the most valuable innovations and
standards, no matter where they originate. It is thus
very encouraging to see an extension of ITU’s MoU with
ETSI, an action which will ensure ITU standards reflect
the current ‘state of the art’ in European ICT
standardization at the international level.”
Luis Jorge Romero, Director General, ETSI: “ETSI
is recognized by industry for its work in standards for
ICT in the fixed, radio, mobile and broadcast domains,
and our drive for excellence can be seen in our
continuing focus on testing and interoperability. Our
membership has grown to become global and in many cases
is common with the ITU, which has resulted in a strong
partnership and common goals being built up between us.
Today we welcome the renewal of our relationship with
the ITU and the extension of our co-operation into new
fields.” |
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Kaleidoscope 2013: Last Call for Papers
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10 September 2012 is the submission deadline for academic papers
discussing ICT’s role as an essential tool in “Building Sustainable
Communities”.
Kaleidoscope 2013 will be held at Kyoto University,
Japan, 22-24 April, and a prize fund totaling $10,000 will be
awarded to the three best papers, which will also be considered for
publication in a special edition of IEEE Communications Magazine.
Kaleidoscope events are peer-reviewed academic conferences
with the aim of increasing dialogue between academics and experts
working on the standardization of ICTs.
Kaleidoscope 2013 is being organized by ITU with the
technical co-sponsorship of IEEE ComSoc and the Institute of
Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) of
Japan; with financial support from Telkom SA; and in partnership
with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) of
Japan, Waseda University, the Institute of Image Electronics
Engineers of Japan (I.I.E.E.J.), and the European Academy for
Standardization (EURAS).
Additionally, Kaleidoscope 2013 recently announced the
membership of its
Technical Programme Committee, and has attracted
two new partners from Japan: the National Institute of Information
and Communication Technology (NICT), and the Telecommunications
Technology Committee (TTC). Research in Motion (RIM) has also
offered its support for the event, donating two Blackberry Playbooks
as awards for the best papers produced by those eligible for Young
Author Recognition Certificates (presented to authors under 30 years
old).
Full story |
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New ITU/WMO/UNESCO-IOC reports investigate the climate-monitoring and disaster-warning potential of submarine communications cables
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The ITU, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and UNESCO’s
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC) have
published three new reports analyzing the potential use of submarine
communications cables to monitor the environment and provide
disaster warnings. The reports provide an examination of the
project’s engineering and legal considerations, and offer a
“strategy and roadmap” to move the agenda forward.
The reports are freely available on
ITU’s website…
Equipping ‘repeaters’– instruments amplifying optical
signals, placed an average of 100 km apart on a submarine
communications cable – with climate-monitoring sensors could make
the telecommunications network part of a real-time global
ocean-observation network.
An Engineering Feasibility Study (Peter Phibbs and Stephen
Lentz, Mallin Consultants Ltd.) investigates the technical
feasibility of the project, outlining the requirements of a “green
repeater” equipped with scientific sensors to provide decades-long
time series of the rate and degree of climatic change. Concluding
that it is possible to equip repeaters with a modest number of
low-power scientific instruments, the report finds that the
project’s principal engineering challenge remains the construction
of green repeaters with a reliability and longevity equal to that of
robust communications cables.
Opportunities and Legal Challenges (Kent Bressie,
Wiltshire & Grannis LLP.) analyzes the project’s legal considerations; noting
that commercial telecommunications and scientific applications of
submarine fibre-optic cables have traditionally operated
independently of one another, and that the convergence of these
applications presents a scenario not easily fitting within the
jurisdictional categories established by international law.
Finally, a Strategy and Roadmap (Rhett Butler,
University of
Hawaii) takes into account the scientific, business, engineering and
legal considerations of this ambitious project; offering a United
Nations “strategy and roadmap” to advance the agenda led by ITU, WMO
and UNESCO-IOC.The reports’ conclusions will provide fuel to
discussions at an upcoming workshop on the subject, 20-21 September,
hosted by ITU, WMO and UNESCO-IOC. The workshop is part of the
second ITU Green Standards Week in Paris, 17-21 September, an event
gathering players from all industry sectors to determine how ‘green
ICT’ standards can effect economy-wide improvements in environmental
sustainability. |
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Second meeting of ITU-T’s Focus Group on Smart Cable Television
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All interested parties are invited to participate in the second
meeting of ITU-T’s Focus Group on Smart Cable Television (FG SmartCable) in Boulder, USA, 20-21 September 2012, hosted by Cisco
Systems. The deadline for contributions to this meeting is 13
September. The meeting is open to participation by all interested
parties, including non-members of ITU, free of charge.
FG SmartCable is on course to mapping Smart Cable TV’s
standardization landscape; gathering experts from government,
industry and the standardization community to determine the field’s
interoperability shortfalls and standardization gaps, and thereby
provide the basis for future ITU-T standardization work in this
regard.
At the same venue, 17-19 September, Cisco Systems will host a
number of “rapporteur group meetings” for participants in the work
of FG SmartCable’s parent group, ITU-T
Study Group 9 (Broadband
cable and TV).
FG SmartCable’s first meeting in June, well attended in
Geneva and remotely, decided the group’s management team and initial
work plan.
In broad terms, the group will examine: the use cases and
requirements of Smart Cable TV applications, advanced transport
technologies including cable-related aspects of Machine to Machine
communications (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT), secure content
and application delivery, user interfaces and accessibility, and
multi-screen and mobile device applications.
For more information on FG SmartCable’s structure and working
methods, please visit the group’s webpage
here.
To participate in the group’s work, please contact ITU-T’s FG
SmartCable Secretariat at tsbfgsmartcable@itu.int. |
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Standards education group established
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A new group has been established to investigate academia’s approach
to ICT standardization, with a view to increasing the weight
assigned to the subject in academic curricula. It will also aim to
identify ITU-T action to aid its academic membership in this
endeavour. The Draft Terms of Reference for the TSB Director's Ad
Hoc Group on Standards Education are available
here.
The Ad Hoc Group will include representatives of ITU-T,
academia and other standards development organizations (SDOs)
interested in collaborating to advance standards education
worldwide. Participation is open to all interested parties,
including non-members of ITU, free of charge.
In this context, “standards education” relates not to
technology-focused topics, but rather to education on the importance
of standards to the ICT sector, and by extension, to the operation
of businesses and economies at large. ICT today underpins almost all
commercial activity and it is essential that we familiarize students
with ICT standards development processes, standard strategy
planning, and business case studies demonstrating the importance of
international standards to industry.
A tentative work plan for the group includes; performing a
“gap analysis” regarding ICT standardization courses currently
offered by universities; gathering information on standards
education programs from relevant external groups; developing course
or curricula “templates” to be used by academia in constructing
standards-education offerings; and identifying strategies to
facilitate the adoption of credit-eligible courses in undergraduate
and graduate programmes.
The group’s first meeting will take place during the
Joint
ITU-GISFI-DS-CTIF Standards Education Workshop, 8-9 October 2012,
Aalborg University, Denmark.
For more information, please see the Ad Hoc Group’s webpage
here. |
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African regional groups identify their priorities for ITU-T
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Recent ITU meetings addressed the challenges facing African
countries in the measurement of Quality of Service (QoS)/Quality of
Experience (QoE) parameters for voice, 3G and Internet mobile
networks – nearing completion of guidelines for a QoS regulatory
framework for ICT services. The meetings also addressed
environmental concerns associated with ICT development, such as the
growing e-waste challenge, the measurement of human exposure to
Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields (RF EMF), and the need to
develop a sustainable means of extending telecoms-network coverage
to the rural areas of developing countries.
The four ITU events were held in Cotonou, Benin, 16-20 July,
hosted by Benin’s Autorité Transitoire de Régulation des Postes et
Télécommunications (ATRPT):
Workshop on practical measurement of QoS/QoE parameters for
regulatory compliance; and Meeting of Africa Regional Group within
ITU-T Study Group 12 (Performance, QoS and QoE)
The workshop was attended by over 80 participants from 21
African countries, gathering representatives of ministries,
regulators, operators and vendors to discuss QoS/QoE aspects of
Africa’s expanding mobile networks.
The Africa regional group within ITU-T
Study Group 12 (SG 12)
advanced its draft guidelines for a QoS regulatory framework for ICT
services, which are intended to supplement existing ITU-T
recommendations on QoS. Nearing this task’s completion, the group
indicated that it will now direct its attention to ‘QoE web
browsing’ under Question 13/12, and the ‘Roadmap for Interconnection
of Packet-based Networks’ under Question 12/12.
Workshop on Tackling Climate Change and SAR Measurement; and
Meeting of Africa Regional Group within ITU-T Study Group 5
(Environment and climate change)
The workshop was attended by over 70 participants from 21
African countries, discussing the application of ITU-T’s ‘green ICT’
standards and the measurement of the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)
of RF EMF produced by mobile-telephony base stations and devices.
The Africa regional group within ITU-T
Study Group 5 (SG 5)
highlighted energy efficiency, e-waste reduction and issues related
to climate change as its priorities for 2013.
Full story |
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Lao PDR Workshop offers concrete actions to bridge the standardization gap
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A recent ITU workshop in Lao PDR has offered a number of actionable
suggestions to extend ITU’s efforts to bridge the standardization
gap. Notably participants called on ITU to assist governments of
developing Asian countries in establishing national and regional
“standardization secretariats” to oversee the development of
countries’ standardization capabilities and to ensure all regions an
equitable representation in international standardization processes.
Held in Vientiane, 30-31 July, the workshop was ITU’s first
event in Lao PDR and attracted over seventy participants, including
representatives of Lao’s key trade partners such as Vietnam,
Cambodia, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. The event was organized in
association with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Lao
PDR and the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) of the
Republic of Korea, with the generous support of the Korea
Communications Commission (KCC).ITU was urged to assist countries in
their establishment of standardization secretariats, to aid in the
development of policy and regulatory frameworks conducive to the
rollout of broadband and Next-generation Networks (NGN), and to
offer guidance in the spectrum planning required to support mobile
broadband and the shift from analogue to digital television.
Environmental protection and sustainable development also
featured prominently in the workshop’s discussions and, to address
these concerns, the region’s countries were encouraged to form an
Asia Pacific ‘regional group’ within ITU-T
Study Group 5
(Environment and climate change).
Specifically, the regional group will highlight e-waste as a
major concern to the naturally-rich region, and will play a role in
the development of guidelines to developing nations on the
implementation of ITU-T’s ‘green ICT’ standards.
Full story |
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ITU-T's work on ICTs and driver distraction gets boost
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ITU Council has endorsed “ICTs and improving road safety” as the
theme for 2013’s World Telecommunication and Information Society Day
acknowledging that information and communication technology (ICT)
standards have the potential to significantly reduce driver
distraction and road accidents.
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD)
aims to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of
the Internet and other information and communication technologies
(ICT) can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to
bridge the digital divide. It takes place on 17 May every year,
which is the anniversary of the signing of the first International
Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International
Telecommunication Union.
Given the critical need to filter the provision of
information in such a way that it does not distract drivers’,
ITU-T’s Focus Group on Driver Distraction (FG Driver Distraction)
has been bringing together experts from government agencies;
standards development organisations; academic and research
institutes; and the automotive, telecommunications and consumer
electronics sectors since the beginning of 2011.
Open to participation by all interested parties, including
non-members of ITU, the group is essentially undertaking the
groundwork required to launch ITU-T standardization activity in the
field of driver distraction.
Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau: “Intelligent transport systems will enable
vehicles to communicate to optimize the flow of traffic, decrease
greenhouse gas emissions, increase safety, and significantly improve
the driving experience. With the advent of the Internet of Things
there is the potential of a ‘fully-networked car’ that can save
millions of lives.”
Full story |
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Alex Ntoko appointed ITU-T’s Chief of Operations and Planning
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Alexander Ntoko has taken up a new role in the ITU as Chief of the
TSB’s Operations and Planning Department, a post of critical
importance in crafting and executing the strategic movements of
ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T).
Ntoko relinquishes the post he held for five years as Chief
of ITU’s Corporate Strategy Division (CSD) where his
responsibilities included ensuring organization-wide consensus and
support for the development, implementation and evaluation of the
ITU Strategic Plan. He has also assisted and advised the
Secretary-General in policy and strategic decisions and was
responsible for the coordination of ITU’s inter-sectoral activities
in many areas, perhaps most notably regarding the Internet and
Cybersecurity.
He has been a member of ITU’s staff for more than 20 years;
playing a key role in the introduction of Internet and Cybersecurity
to ITU’s work plan in the ’90s, and leading the implementation of
projects related to the Internet, ICT applications (e.g., e-health,
e-government, e-agriculture, e-education, e-payment and e-business)
and cybersecurity solutions involving advanced security technologies
such as biometric authentication and Public Key Infrastructure.
Ntoko’s appointment follows a rigorous application process receiving
250 individual applications and interviewing 12 candidates in a
first-round of interviews as well as another 4 in a second.
Malcolm Johnson, Director of the Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau (TSB), ITU: “Alex Ntoko will add great value
to the activities of ITU-T, and we are very pleased to have filled
this important position with someone of his caliber. Drawing from
his extensive experience in the ICT field, Alex won’t hesitate to
effect the changes needed to improve our services, and we are
privileged to count him a member of ITU-T’s strategic management
team.” |
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