ITU’s Kaleidoscope academic conference The fully networked human? − Innovations for future networks and services (Cape Town, South Africa, 12-14 December 2011) will be made available as a live audio and video webcast in order that remote participants can see and hear presentations from wherever they are in the world.

Technically co-sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society, Kaleidoscope 2011 will bring together academia, research organizations and experts working on the standardization of telecommunications and ICTs.  (See here for programme, bios and presentation slides).

Accepted papers will be made available through the IEEE Xplore repository of academic papers. A prize fund totaling $10,000 will be awarded to the three best papers. Young Author Recognition certificates will also be issued.

In addition to an exhibition by local universities, keynote speakers and invited papers, ITU Kaleidoscope 2011 will host Jules Verne’s Corner, a special space for science fiction writers and dreamers, a Tutorial on : Future Internet Impacts on the Evolution of NGN Infrastructures and Services and a Special Session on ITU & Academia.

Register now for free remote participation.

ITU-T is to host two webinars in September – kick starting a new programme of standalone virtual events that will augment the traditional workshops programme.

The first event on 15 September will focus on Optical fibres, cables and systems and is based on the ITU-T handbook of the same name. The webinar will provide a basic overview of the handbook which offers a functional grouping of ITU standards (ITU-T Recommendations) on optical technology e.g. optical fibres and cables, physical optical interfaces, optical fibres terrestrial and submarine cable systems.

Speakers are leading experts in the field from industry and either participated in the writing of the handbook or contributed to the development of the referenced standards. The event is aimed at engineers, technicians, technologists, mid-level management and regulators active in the implementation of optical-fibres-based systems. The online event complements the 2nd ITU Tutorial on Optical Fibres Cables and Systems which will take place at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City, Mexico from 19 to 30 September 2011.

Find out more here: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/optical-fibre/201109/webinar.html

The second event on 20 September focuses on ITU-T standards for optical transport networks (OTN) which have played a leading role in transforming the Internet’s bandwidth capabilities. This work is led by ITU-T Study Group 15, which has developed a set of standards (ITU-T Recommendations) that define the existing OTN framework. SG 15 is currently developing future technologies such as gigabit-capable and 10-gigabit-capable passive optical networks (GPON and XGPON) to satisfy the unprecedented bandwidth requirements that will soon be demanded by service providers and consumers. This online event is based on the ITU-T manual on Optical Transport Networks from TDM to Packet.

Find out more here: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/otn/201109/index.html

The fully networked human? − Innovations for future networks and services the fourth ITU Kaleidoscope academic conference has extended the deadline for papers until 29 May 2011.

A prize fund totaling $10,000 will be awarded to the three best papers. The winning papers will be featured in a future special edition of IEEE Communications Magazine, with all papers available from the IEEE Xplore online catalogue. Organized by ITU-T with IEEE ComSoc as Technical Co-Sponsor, Kaleidoscope 2011 will take place at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, 12-14 December.

For additional information see the event webpage at: http://itu-kaleidoscope.org/2011.

ITU will hold a Regional Workshop on Bridging the Standardization Gap for the Americas Region in Guatemala on 6 June. It will be followed by an Interactive Training Session and Standardization Tutorial on 7 June. The event will be hosted by the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones de Guatemala.

The workshop is intended to provide concrete advice and best practices on participation by developing countries in global standards development and building national standards readiness. It will also examine standards work on key new technologies.

The Interactive Training Session and Standardization Tutorial on the second day will provide an interactive learning experience through a simulated Study Group meeting. It will be of greatest interest to those who will be, or who have begun, participating in international meetings and those who have some international experience with plans to move into leadership roles.

The event is intended for administrations and public institutions, ICT companies, service providers, vendors, manufacturers, ICT regulators, national standards bodies, test labs, certifiers, organizations from developing countries and civil society.
For more information about the event see here.

ITU’s Sixth Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change will take place 7-8 July in Ghana. The event will be hosted by the Ministry of Communications (MOC) of Ghana.

The main purpose of the event is to move forward the agenda on using ICTs to monitor climate change, mitigate and adapt to its effects and, identify future requirements for ITU’s related work.

The symposium will also focus on the issue of ICTs, the environment and climate change in Africa and the needs of developing countries. Topics to be discussed will include mitigation and adaptation to climate change, e-waste, disaster planning, cost-effective ICT technologies, methodologies for the environmental impact assessment of ICTs, challenges and opportunities in the transition to a green and resource efficient economy.

The symposium will identify possible goals, commitments and modalities for the ICT sector to be developed in the process leading to the forthcoming 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17-CMP7), to be held in Durban, South Africa in November 2011. The event will also develop a set of recommendations for action in relation to ICTs, the environment and climate change towards a green economy, as a contribution to the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD 2012 or Rio+20).

The event follows successful symposia between 2008 and 2010 in Kyoto, London, Quito, Seoul and Cairo. It will be preceded by a Training Seminar on Conformity and Interoperability for Africa that will be held from 4 to 6 July. It will bring together leading specialists in the field, from top policy-makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts and others.

For more information on the symposium see here.

Bilel Jamoussi, Chief, Study Groups Department (ITU-T) will be speaking at the Abu Dhabi Telecoms CEO Summit on Tuesday 17 May.

Jamoussi’s presentation entitled  ITU Standards are key for International Expansion will form part of Session 3  on International Expansion Strategies.

ITU will also host an ITU stand at the Exhibition from Monday 16 to Wednesday 18 May, booth number 34. Please come and visit us.

The fourth ITU Kaleidoscope academic conference - Kaleidoscope 2011 - will also host the second Jules Verne’s corner (JVc), its theme: The Chip in the Brain. A call for abstracts has been issued and invites submissions until 10 June 2011.

This year’s Jules Verne’s corner (JVc) invites us to consider challenges related to the insertion of silicon chips into humans. Positive applications, may include lifestyle improvements, establishing wireless brain-machine communication and e-health applications. But there are also complex legal, privacy, responsibility and security issues to be addressed.

JVc is the home for visionaries, science fiction writers, journalists, movie directors and anybody who can develop concepts to make possible the impossible during the second half of the XXI century.

In addition, a third call for papers has been issued for Kaleidoscope 2011 and invites submissions until 15 May 2011. A prize fund totaling $10,000 will be awarded to the three best papers. The winning papers will be featured in a future special edition of IEEE Communications Magazine, with all papers available from the IEEE Xplore online catalogue.

Kaleidoscope events are peer-reviewed academic conferences that aim at increasing the dialogue between experts working on the standardization of ICTs and academia, and at identifying emerging developments in ICTs at an early stage to generate successful products and services through the development of international standards.

For sponsorship opportunities please contact the ITU-T Kaleidoscope secretariat at kaleidoscope@itu.int.  
For additional information see the event webpage at: http://itu-kaleidoscope.org/2011.

The first meeting of ITU’s Global Standards Initiative on the Internet of Things (IoT-GSI) will take place 9-13 May in Geneva. IoT is the realization of the idea that anything can be connected at anytime from any place. The concept of connecting any kind of object to the Internet may be one of the biggest standardization challenges yet.

ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) and its membership are at the forefront of standards development in the field. The presentation here highlights some of the work so far.

With the benefit of integrated information processing capacity, many products will take on smart capabilities. They may take on electronic identities that can be queried remotely, or be equipped with sensors for detecting physical changes around them. Embedding intelligence in to our environment in this way will stimulate the creation of innovative products and new business opportunities.

The success of the Internet of Things depends on the existence and smooth and interoperability of global standards.

IoT-GSI will provide a single location for information on and development of IoT standards. This new Global Standards Initiative will give greater impetus and coordination to existing work and provide a common working platform by collocating meetings of IoT-related groups to develop the standards necessary for global IoT deployment. Taking into account the work done in other standards development bodies will also be crucial. Indeed this has already been a strong focus of work to date and ITU is actively seeking the participation of these entities in order to work towards a truly global solution.

The following list of topics includes some of the work items to be addressed:

–  Concept, vision and use cases of the Internet of Things
–  Architectural framework of the Internet of Things
–  Identification architecture for the Internet of Things
–  Requirements for IoT identifier
–  IoT Identifier format
–  Identifier resolutions for the Internet of Things
–  Directory service framework for the Internet of Things
–  Middleware architecture for the Internet of Things
–  Security issues for the Internet of Things
–  Privacy protection for the Internet of Things
–  Application interfaces among IoT service entities
–  Management for the things and communication networks for the Internet of Things
–  Location management for the Internet of Things
–  Identity management for the Internet of Things
–  Interoperability standards to incorporate various standards
–  Conformance test standards for IoT protocols

For additional information see www.itu.int/itu-t/gsi/iot or contact tsbiotgsi@itu.int.

The next twenty years will see a huge shift towards electric vehicles and integrated intelligent transport systems (ITS) said industry experts gathered for the Fully Networked Car@Geneva Motor Show event. However in order for this transformation to take place globally coordinated standards are needed. In addition experts said that more study is needed on who pays for what. For example who will pay for systems that reduce fatalities and reduce traffic flow; consumers, governments, the car industry or insurance? These business models need to be designed in parallel participants at the ITU, ISO and IEC workshop agreed.

Given the safety implications of integrating these technologies into vehicles, driver distraction was also strong topic for discussion at the event held in parallel to the Geneva Motor Show. It was shown that cognitive distraction can be significantly reduced with greater sound quality. Presentations showed that telcos moving to wideband, thereby offering much greater speech quality, will significantly enhance telephony applications.

ITU has recently convened a Focus Group on Driver Distraction (FG Distraction). The objective the group, comprising experts from the ICT and automotive industries as well as government experts, is to reduce injuries and fatalities by minimizing the cognitive demands associated with both driving and non-driving tasks. It will; propose test methodologies for subjective and objective assessment of cognitive load; investigate optimal information flow between the driver and vehicle; develop design guidelines for integrated applications; propose mechanisms for co-ordination of components, subsystems, and applications to minimize cognitive demands; identify new techniques and technologies that can be used to reduce cognitive load and co-ordinate efforts across the three standards organizations, government/industry forums, companies, academic institutions, and subject matter experts.

Live webcast: Kaleidoscope 2010 - Beyond the Internet?

ITU-T’s Kaleidoscope academic conference Beyond the Internet? − Innovations for future networks and services (Pune, India, 13-15 December 2010) will be made available as a live audio and video webcast in order that remote participants can see and hear presentations from wherever they are in the world.

Technically co-sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society. Kaleidoscope 2010 will bring together academia, research organizations and experts working on the standardization of telecommunications and ICTs.  (See here for programme, bios and presentation slides).

Accepted papers will be made available through the IEEE Xplore repository of academic papers. A prize fund totaling $10,000 will be awarded to the three best papers. Young Author Recognition certificates will also be issued.

In addition to an exhibition by local universities, keynote speakers and invited papers, ITU Kaleidoscope 2010 will host Standards Corner, a series of standardization tutorials, and Jules Verne’s Corner, a special space for science fiction writers and dreamers.

Register now for free webcast access.

The sixth http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/ict-auto/201103/index.html will take place 2-3 March 2011.

A call for abstracts has been issued with authors encouraged to submit presentations on a variety of topics including the environmental impact of electric vehicles; wireless systems and, a key focus this year, managing driver distraction.  

Texting, making calls, and other interaction with in-vehicle information and communication systems while driving is a serious source of driver distraction and increases the risk of traffic accidents. Standards and design guidelines for these systems and devices, whether portable or fixed in the vehicle, can contribute to decreasing driver distraction, allowing the driver to focus on the road ahead.

Held during the Geneva International Motor Show, The Fully Networked Car is in a unique position to engage the ICT sector with the motor industry. For the sixth year running, the event will bring together key players involved in the development of technologies and standards, as well as other major industry representatives.

International standards organizations, ITU, ISO and IEC host the event bringing together key players involved in the development of technologies and standards, as well as other major industry representatives.

Today’s communications capabilities give the potential for cars to foresee and avoid collisions, navigate the quickest route to their destination, make use of up-to-the-minute traffic reports, identify the nearest available parking slot, minimize their carbon emissions and provide multimedia communications.

ITU will hold the Fifth Symposium on ICTs and the Environment & Climate Change in Cairo, Egypt on 2-3 November 2010. The Symposium will be hosted by the Ministry of communications and Information Technology (MCIT) Egypt, and the Ministry of state for Environmental Affairs (MSEA) Egypt.

The event is particularly timely, as it will take place less than a month before the opening of the 16th UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP 16) which will take place in November 2010 in Cancun, Mexico. COP 16 will focus on adopting an achievable balanced outcome on climate change.

The Fifth Symposium on ICTs and the Environment & Climate Change will focus on the issue of ICTs, the environment and climate change in Africa and the needs of developing countries. Topics to be discussed will include adaptation to climate change, e-waste, cost-effective ICT technologies, methodology of environmental impact assessment of ICT and financing of climate change solutions. It will bring together leading specialists in the field, from top policy-makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts and others. The main purpose is to raise awareness of the importance and opportunities of using ICTs to monitor climate change, to mitigate and address its effects. The conclusions of this event will contribute towards ITU’s future work in this area.

A draft programme is available at: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/climatechange/201011/programme.html

Online registration is available at: http://www.itu.int/cgi-bin/htsh/edrs/ITU-T/workshop/edrs.registration.form?_eventid=3000188

More about the Symposium can be found at: www.itu.int/ITU-T/go/egypt

NGN GSI event: Co-located Rapporteur group Meetings,
Geneva, Switzerland, 6-16 September 2010

Registration Form

See ITU-T TSB Circular 115 for more information

Next Generation Networks Global Standards Initiative

Sixth Meeting of the Focus Group on Future Networks,
6-9 September 2010, Geneva, Switzerland

Registration Form

See ITU-T TSB Circular 128 for more information

ITU-T Focus Group on Future Networks

Second meeting of the FG Cloud,
Geneva, Switzerland, 2-6 September 2010

Registration Form

See ITU-T TSB Invitation for more information

ITU-T Focus Group on Cloud Computing (FG Cloud)

2nd meeting of the ITU IPv6 Group,
Geneva, Switzerland, 1-2 September 2010

Registration Form

See ITU-T TSB Circular 119 for more information

ITU IPv6 Group

6 Group

3rd Meeting of the Focus Group CarCOM,
Detroit, USA, 26-27 August 2010

Registration form

See ITU-T TSB Invitation for more information

ITU-T Focus Group CarCOM

ITU will be organizing a Tutorial on Optical Fibre Cables and Systems Recommendations in Rwanda from 6 to 17 September 2010. Leading experts will provide an in-depth insight into the ITU-T Recommendations that shape the optical transport networks of the world.
 
The tutorial is co-organized by ITU-T and the Ministry in Charge of Information and Communications Technology of Rwanda, in cooperation with ITU-D. Based on the ITU-T handbook “Optical fibres, cables and systems”, the tutorial is intended to assist engineers, technicians, technologists, mid-level management and regulators in the implementation of optical-fibre-based systems.   
 
Participants will gain a better understanding of the ITU-T standards, how to design and implement projects and how to make the best choices in the various elements of an optical link. They will learn how to prepare a power budget and how to establish parameters for interfaces and accessories to prepare technical specifications for supply contracts. The tutors are leading experts in the field from industry and either participated in the writing of the handbook or contributed to the development of the referenced standards. (Contact: mailto: tsbworkshops@itu.int) more.

Difficulty trying to access products, services, environments and facilities is an issue for any of us – let alone the millions of people around the world living with disabilities. To this end, an international  workshop will be held on 3 and 4 November 2010 to review and examine the standards needed for facilitating the development of accessible solutions around the world.

The workshop is the latest initiative organized by the three partner organizations of the World Standards Cooperation (WSC): IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), ITU (International Telecommunication Union), and ISO (International Organization for Standardization), which are also raising awareness of accessibility in this year's World Standards Day, celebrated each year on 14 October.

Accessibility is the degree to which a product, device, service, environment or facility is usable by as many people as possible, including by persons with disabilities. Its importance is signified by the fact that the number of persons with disabilities, either congenital, acquired or as a result of age is estimated to be at around 650 million worldwide.

The WSC workshop on “Accessibility and the contribution of International Standards” will bring together key stakeholder groups from all over the world representing disability organizations, government and regulators, standards developers, consumers, as well as product designers and manufacturers faced with accessibility requirements.  It will address three key subject areas:

•    Accessibility in the field of everyday products
•    Accessibility and buildings
•    eAccessibility and eInclusion (in Information and Communication Technologies)

In a combination of plenary and break-out group meetings, these three subject areas will be discussed and the potential of standardization – in particular international standardization – to contribute to strengthening accessibility aspects in the design of products, services, environments and facilities will be addressed.

The results of the conference will result in a better understanding of both the work on accessibility issues in standardization in the various areas and the needs of those most concerned. It is hoped that the groundwork will be laid and a road map drawn for future standardization initiatives and awareness creation initiatives with the involvement of the key stakeholders.

For further information, including the full programme and registration form for the workshop, please refer to http://www.iso.org/sites/WSC_Accessibility_2010/.

ITU together World Standards Cooperation (WSC) partners ISO and IEC will hold its first-ever Academic Week 5-9 July 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland. The event is intended to raise awareness of the importance of including standardization in programmes of higher education because of its roles in facilitating access to world markets, transferring technology and promoting good business practice and sustainable development.

A knowledge of standardization and the benefits it can bring to business, government and society as a whole is increasingly being seen as part of the essential "baggage" of future managers in both public and private sectors.

An impressive list of speakers from academia, industry and national and international standards bodies will provide insight on these matters and stimulate discussions, with a view to promote the dialogue and to foster cooperation between academic institutions and the International Standards community.

The WSC is the strategic coordination entity of the world's leading standardization organizations – the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The three partners recognize the fundamental contribution that educational institutions can make in teaching the value of international standardization, appreciate how the work of academia on the cutting edge of research and technology can benefit the development of standards and are keen to support these institutions in their efforts.

The annual workshop of the International Cooperation on Education about Standardization (ICES) – a network of individuals and organizations interested in education about standardization – will also take place during the week.

The event is being held at the International Conference Centre, Geneva, and programme comprises:
5-6 July, ICES workshop
7 July, Recognizing academic excellence
8 July, Cooperation between international standardization organizations and academic institutions (including participation by the Rector of the University of Geneva and representatives of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Lausanne)
9 July, Economic and social benefits of standards.

For further information, including full programme and registration form: www.iso.org/wscacademicweek

Follow the event on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/IECStandards
www.twitter.com/isostandards
www.twitter.com/itu_news

First meeting of the Focus Group Cloud,
Geneva, Switzerland, 14-16 June 2010

Registration form

See ITU-T TSB Circular 114 for more information

ITU-T Focus Group on Cloud Computing (FG Cloud)

First Meeting of the FG Smart - Focus Group on Smart Grid
Geneva, Switzerland, 14-16 June 2010

Registration Form

See ITU-T TSB Circular 113 for more information

ITU-T Focus Group on Smart Grid (FG Smart)

ITU will be co-organizing a one day workshop on Accessibility to ICTs at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. The event will be held on 23 July 2010 as part of i-CREATe 2010.

i-CREATe 2010’s 4th International Convention for Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology is dedicated to the promotion of assistive technologies that can improve the lives of the elderly and people with disabilities and to provide a platform to address current and future development in these areas.
            
In the field of accessibility to ICTs, ITU focuses on a series of strategic issues ranging from the rights of the disabled, making technical design standards accessible and providing education and training on accessible ICT. With more than 650 million people in the world living with disabilities today the most important goal of ITU standards work on accessibility is to make sure that newly developed standards contain the necessary elements to make services and features usable for people with as broad a range of capabilities as possible.

The three main objectives of this workshop will be to discuss current trends and the future for accessibility to ICTs in ITU, encourage organizations to implement accessibility in their daily work, and highlight the impact of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRDP) on future standardization work. With registration open to all, we eagerly invite you to get involved. You may go online for more information and find it here.

Meeting of ITU-T Study Group 15 - Optical transport networks and access network infrastructures
Geneva, Switzerland, 31 May - 11 June 2010
Registration Form
See ITU-T SG 15 Collective Letter 4 for more information.
Study Group 15 Home

ITU-T and IEEE will hold a joint workshop - The Future of Ethernet Transport - in Geneva, 28 May 2010. The workshop is the fifth in partnership with IEEE and follows two Kaleidoscope events and two workshops in the field of access and transport technologies.

Much work has been done in both organisations to progress Ethernet, developed as an enterprise technology, into a network provider technology or service. The event will focus on opportunities for further collaboration. Long-recognized as the ubiquitous LAN technology, Ethernet is now seeing increased attention as a carrier-grade technology. In part this is due to the convenience of being able to simply provide end-to-end service, but also carriers can realize savings both in terms of capital and operational expenditure.

Ethernet services are becoming popular because they allow carriers to offer considerably improved flexibility to customers through a much simpler and lower cost interface. Ethernet allows users to specify exactly how much bandwidth they want between the 10Mbit/s and emerging 100Gbit/s range currently offered. Further, as a transport technology Ethernet provides reduced operation complexity and improved scalability for carriers. And as operators look to NGN and the use of the Internet Protocol (IP), Ethernet is seen as the best fit, especially given the rise of such services as IP VPNs, VLANs and dedicated Internet access.

This event will review the work areas within ITU-T and IEEE 802.1/802.3 Working Groups on the development of Ethernet and related transport standards. The relevant standards groups are ITU-T Study Group 15 (Questions 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14) on optical transport systems including protection switching and synchronization, and IEEE P802.1Qbf Task Force on protection switching, P802.1AS and P802.3bf Task Forces on Ethernet synchronization, and P802.3ba and P802.3bg Task Forces on 40/100 Gb/s Ethernet.

ITU-T and IEEE work’s work on Ethernet technology is complementary in areas such as such as ultra high speed transport, network architecture, services, operation and maintenance, protection switching and synchronization.  In general ITU-T develops requirements from a network operators’ viewpoint as well as functional level specifications, while IEEE develops detailed design specifications to allow implementation.

ITU-T’s Study Group 17 will hold a workshop Addressing security challenges on a global scale in Geneva, 6 (afternoon)-7 December 2010.  The event will focus on how ITU and other standards developing organizations (SDOs) address the main challenges of information and communication security.

A call for abstracts with a deadline for 15 June 2010 has been issued with suggested topics including:

•    Emerging applications of PKI
•    Collaboration for ICT security standardization
•    Developing countries challenges
•    Cloud computing: Threat or opportunity
•    The cloud in the telecom space
•    Identity in the cloud
•    Smart grid security
•    Assurance, making cybersecurity measurable
•    Identity management (IdM)
•    CIRTs, sharing of information
•    Security awareness
•    IPv6 Security
•    Telebiometrics standardization
•    Meeting regulatory obligations

The workshop is also expected to provide a good opportunity to overview new areas of security studies including Smart Grid and Cloud Computing.

SG 17 aims to hold a similar workshop on annual basis from now on.

The http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/ict-auto/201003/*¹ concluded in Geneva, March 4 with participants calling for better cross-sector standards collaboration in order to facilitate the rollout of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).

Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau: “There is a will from manufacturers to implement these technologies but thus far no real breakthrough in terms of standards needed to roll this out on a global scale. Global car manufacturers don’t want to create different versions of this technology for every different market. They don’t want regional or national standards, they want global standards and ITU and its World Standards Cooperation (WSC) partners ISO and IEC are willing and able to provide these for this global partnership.”

New services and applications may be the selling points that will win car makers an advantage in the depressed market. “Today's communication capabilities give cars the potential to foresee and avoid collisions, navigate the quickest route to their destination, make use of up-to-the-minute traffic reports, identify the nearest available parking slot, alert the emergency services, monitor air pollution, minimize carbon emissions, and provide multimedia communications,” said Johnson.

The involvement  of ITU, ISO and IEC is seen as critical to ease bottlenecks resulting – in part – from poor communication between overlapping sectors; automotive, ITS players,  telecoms suppliers and operators. One conclusion of an Executive Session was that competition between standards bodies was unwelcome.

A large amount of resources has been invested in research and development, but harmonization of the many standards that exist at a proprietary or regional level is missing. This lack of global standards is considered to be an impediment  to a large scale deployment of ITS services and applications. While most agree that the technologies are at an advanced stage of development, participants agreed that clearer views are needed on what standardization work is being done and where; user, regulator and supplier liability and privacy concerns; business and payment models; interoperability requirements and who owns them.

This – the fifth - Fully Networked Car workshop organized by the World Standards Cooperation (WSC), a partnership between ISO, IEC and ITU, was held on 3-4 March at the Geneva International Motor Show 2010 and focused on the latest developments in ITS technology including network requirements for electric cars. It represented a unique  opportunity to strengthen the dialogue between the ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) key players, in particular with the motor industry.

Held during the 2nd Press Day and the first public day of the motor show, the event – attracting over 120 participants in 2010 - represents a matchless opportunity for experts and executives from the car industry, ICT community, governments, research and development institutes, academia to share their vision and strategies.

Speakers at a special Executive Session at the Fully Networked Car event included Christoph Huss, Vice President of BMW and President of the International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies (FISITA), who gave the keynote address; Juhani Jääskeläinen, European Commission; Raymond Resendes, Chief, Intelligent Technologies Research Division, United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Samuel Loyson, Orange, France; David Schutt, SAE International, USA; Yasuro Nakanomori, OKI, Japan; Russ Shields, Chairman, Ygomi and Reinhard Scholl, ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau.

In his opening remarks, Rob Steele, ISO Secretary-General, on behalf of WSC, said: "There is the need for standardization of essential technologies to provide the solid base for further innovation and the economies of scale for commercialization of technologies... Most interestingly of all, is the urgent need to consider the interoperability of all of this technology not only in the car, but in the wider infrastructure that is needed to support this revolution".

Information obtained from electronic devices as part of an in-vehicle network is critical to ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) services and applications, including emergency telecommunications. Currently, the way of extracting the vehicle information differs by manufacture, model and chassis type. Standards are being researched in the support of a Vehicle Gateway that will allow all consumer devices to work in harmony in all vehicles and with all infrastructures. Work on this in ITU is focused on a ‘Question’ within ITU-T’s Study Group 16. Contributions from ITU’s membership are being sought on a Vehicle Gateway platform for telecommunication/ITS services/applications.

Since ITS applications will have to rely mainly on existing infrastructure, NGN (Next Generation Networks) will play a key role for their deployment. This is currently considered in the framework of fix-mobile-convergence in ITU-T Study Group 13, ITU-T’s lead group lead on future networks. One of the sessions of the workshop recommended that a joint ISO / ITU-T group on in-vehicle architecture and protocols take the work forward.

Participants in one technical session at the workshop concluded that quality and naturalness of all speech services need to be increased to reduce driver distraction and seamless interaction. Agreement was reached that work on a standards-based framework for dialogue between user and device is needed, with the ITU-T Focus Group on Car Communications (ITU-T FG CarCOM) identified as the appropriate place for this work.

An electric future

Today, with the increasing deployment of electric vehicles, ICTs have a significant role to play in areas such as the careful management of battery status, warranty concerns and driver behaviour. Given the potential of these new technologies for both the automotive and the ICTs industries, it is essential for the different parties to understand the requirements for fully networked cars and agree on the solutions to be provided by the network platforms. In many cases existing telecoms infrastructure can be used.

As electric vehicles begin to find their way to our driveways and garages, knowing what is involved in charging their batteries becomes crucial. The development of smart power grids will also be vital to support the adoption of electric cars which according to some proposals can also act as storage capacity for electricity. The scale of this challenge was highlighted in one of the presentations to the workshop, citing work under way in the United States.

In the US, the electric grid is owned and operated by over 3100 utilities, using equipment and systems provided by thousands of suppliers, delivering power to hundreds of millions of users and billions of end devices. The transformation of this infrastructure into an “energy Internet” is a huge undertaking requiring an unprecedented level of cooperation and coordination across the private and public sectors as well as across industry sectors. A robust, interoperable framework of technical standards is the key to making this possible.

ITU is responding to this challenge by the formation of a new ITU-T Focus Group that will help develop the necessary global standards to hasten this move to Smart Grids. The newly formed group will look at the networking between use of current control, metering, charging and electricity distribution systems.
____________________________________________________________________________________
¹ New title for the event following agreement of Geneva Motor Show to support the event for next three years

TSB, ITU-T’s secretariat has published an online calendar of ICT events.

The calendar is a resource for all visitors to the website and aims to track ICT events around the world which may be of interest to ITU members and others.

New events should be sent to tsbpromo@itu.int.

ICTs and the green city of the future is the title of an ITU Workshop that will be held during the Shanghai World Expo 2010. The theme of the Shanghai World Expo 2010 is: "Better City, Better Life". The Workshop will aim at capturing visions of ICT’s role in providing for urban sustainability.

A call for abstracts has been issued and invites submissions until 15 March 2010. A prize fund totaling $10,000 will be awarded to the three best papers.

The Workshop will take place in the UN Pavilion dedicated to "One Earth, One UN" at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 on 14 May 2010.

ICTs and the green city of the future is an event organized within the framework of ITU Kaleidoscope activities, open to members and non members of ITU, general visitors of the Expo, students, experts and high level industry officials.

This workshop aims at increasing the dialogue between academia and experts working on the standardization of ICTs.

Submissions are encouraged by all, but especially young people, students, researchers and professors from universities and research institutions. They can cover any topic along these broad guidelines but should reflect the sessions listed in the call for abstracts.

The February issue of IEEE Communications Magazine carries a ‘feature topic’ on ITU’s Kaleidoscope event – Innovations for Digital Inclusion.

The magazine, also available online, carries the winning papers, as well as three invited papers from the second of ITU’s academic events.
Organized by ITU-T with IEEE ComSoc as Technical Co-Sponsor and supported by Cisco, and Nokia, the conference brought together some of the best academic minds from around the world to present their research supporting innovation in ICTs towards universal, sustainable, ubiquitous and affordable access by all. Among over 80 papers submitted, 32 papers were presented. The best four were awarded prizes totaling $10,000 kindly donated by Cisco.
All Kaleidoscope papers are also available in IEEE Xplore, IEEE's online library.
The third Kaleidoscope event “Beyond the Internet? − Innovations for future networks and services” will be held in Lonavala, India, 13-15 December 2010.

For more information please contact kaleidoscope@itu.int.

Meeting of Study Group 5 - Environment and climate change

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 12 - 16 April 2010

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 4/5 for more information.

Study Group 5 Home

ITU together with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will host a Web Accessibility Workshop for United Nations systems and other international organizations 2 – 5 February at WIPO headquarters, Geneva.

The objective is to promote encourage webmasters within the United Nations system and other international organizations to take accessibility into account in their daily work. Specifically, it aims to promote article 9 of the recent United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which requires that measures are taken to ensure that accessibility is taken into account in the design of new information technologies and systems.

More information available at http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/2010/wipo_itu_wai/

Beyond the Internet? Innovations for future networks and services is the title of the third ITU-T Kaleidoscope academic conference. The event will examine whether a clean slate approach is necessary for the internet of the future.

A call for papers has been issued and invites submissions until 30 April 2010. A prize fund totaling $10,000 will be awarded to the three best papers. The winning papers will be featured in a future special edition of IEEE Communications Magazine, with all papers available from the IEEE Xplore online catalogue.Young Author Recognition certificates will also be issued.

Organized by ITU-T with IEEE ComSoc as Technical Co-Sponsor and supported by Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks, Kaleidoscope 2010 will take place in Lonavala, Maharashtra, India, 13-15 December.

Thus far, the Internet has proven to be robust and flexible and its continuous evolution has seen growth from a small experiment into a giant collaborative network capable of meeting the demands of more than one billion users. The rise of mobile access and its integration with optical transport networks present new challenges. Some experts question whether the current underlying architecture is sufficiently strong to address future demands or if a “clean slate” approach is needed to develop a really innovative internet of the future.

Kaleidoscope 2010 will highlight multidisciplinary aspects: technologies enabling future ICTs for future services and applications, their standardization, as well as their social and economic impact. The focus will be on innovative technologies and contributors are invited to challenge the fundamental networking design principles of the Internet.

This year, in addition to an exhibition for local universities and the presence of outstanding keynote speakers and invited papers, ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2010 will host Standards Corner, a series of standardization tutorials and Jules Verne’s corner, a special space for science fiction writers and dreamers.

Kaleidoscope events are peer-reviewed academic conferences that aim at increasing the dialogue between experts working on the standardization of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and academia. The first Kaleidoscope event – Innovations in NGN - was held in Geneva, 12-13 May 2008, and the second one - Innovations for Digital Inclusion – was held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 August – 1 September 2009.

For sponsorship opportunities please contact the ITU-T Kaleidoscope secretariat at kaleidoscope@itu.int. For additional details see the event webpage at: www.itu-kaleidoscope.org/2010.

ITU is to host a workshop - Greening the Internet - 17 November 2009 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, as part of 4th IGF (Internet Governance Forum) meeting.

A key component of the economic stimulus agenda in US, Japan, Europe and other regions, is investment in broadband, so Greening the Internet and addressing climate change is a major concern. Internet based-applications can unleash many opportunities for real solutions to climate change, such as smart homes, smart appliances, smart transportation and smart energy grids. Many companies today are already recognizing that going Green makes good business sense.

The ICT industry has been making progress in energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy, and best practices can be already shared. Even new technologies such as NGN, are innately green compared to their predecessors.

ITU-T’s Study Group on Environment and Climate Change examines how to measure and reduce the impact of ICTs on the environment in order to help advance the Green ICT agenda. At its last meeting, the Study Group consented a standard describing an energy-efficient universal charging solution (UCS) for mobile phones, but also digital cameras and other devices with micro-USB interfaces.
 
Greening the Internet, will examine new Internet trends, the potential impacts on climate change and the ways in which the Internet can evolve in an environmentally-friendly manner.

Panelists are Joseph Alhadeff, VP for Global Public Policy at Oracle Corporation; Catherine Trautmann, Member of the European Parliament; Catalina McGregor, Founder and Deputy Champion of the Green ICT CIO/CTO Council of the UK Government; George Sadowsky, Director of ICANN, Alice Munyua of the Kenya ICT Action Network; Tony Vetter of the International Institute for Sustainable Development and Nezar Sami of Nile University.

The workshop will be opened with a keynote message given by Malcolm Johnson, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, and moderated by Arthur Levin, Head of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Policy Division.

Speakers’ biographies and information on logistics and registration are posted on the website of the workshop.

A meeting of the Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate Change (DCICC) will take place one day earlier, on 16 November 2009. The DCICC is an open body of 29 members committed to moderating the environmental impact of the Internet, seeking new ways to embrace the power of the Internet for reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, and enabling transformation in line with the objectives set and to be set under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Meeting and Coalition are open to governments, private sector, standards development organizations, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, researchers, vendors, network operators, academia and other bodies. A draft agenda is available on the DCICC website.


17 November 2009: Greening the Internet: Workshop website

16 November 2009: Meeting of the Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate Change: Website

Meeting of Working Parties 1, 2, 3 & 4/11

Geneva, 28 January 2010 PM

Registration form

See ITU-T SG 11 Collective Letter 4 for more information.

ITU-T Study Group 11 Home

ITU-T Workshop on "The impact of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the work of the ITU-T"

Geneva, 2 November 2009

Registration form

See ITU-T SG 16 Collective Letter 4 for more information.

More information

Meeting of FG-FN - Focus Group on Future Networks

Salt Lake City, USA, 16-20 November 2009

Registration form

See ITU-T TSB Circular 57 for more information.

FG-FN Home

Meeting of ITU-T SG 12 - Performance, QoS and QoE

Geneva, 3-12 November 2009

Registration form

See ITU-T SG 12 Collective Letter 2 for more information.

ITU-T Study Group 12 Home

Meeting of ITU-T SG 9 - Television and sound transmission and integrated broadband cable networks

Geneva, 26-30 October 2009

Registration form

See ITU-T SG 9 Collective Letter 2 for more information.

ITU-T Study Group 9 Home

Meeting of ITU-T SG 16 - Multimedia coding, systems and applications

Geneva, 26 October - 06 November 2009

Registration form

See ITU-T SG 16 Collective Letter 4 for more information.

ITU-T Study Group 16 Home

Meeting of IPTV-GSI - IPTV Global Standards Initiative

Geneva, 26-30 October 2009

Registration form

See TSB Circular 56 for more information.

IPTV-GSI Home

Meeting of JCA-NID - Joint Coordination Activity on Network Aspects of Identification Systems (including RFID)

Geneva, 26-27 October 2009

Registration form

See Meeting Announcement for more information.

JCA-NID Home

The winning papers from ITU's Kaleidoscope 2009 - Innovations for Digital Inclusion academic conference shared a prize fund of USD$10,000 on 1 September. Also, at the event held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Linux project and now President of the Free Software Foundation, presented a paper Is digital inclusion a good thing? How can we make sure it is?.

Eng. Alicia Alonso Becerra, Rector of the José A. Echeverría Superior Polytechnic Institute, Cuba awarded the prizes to the presenters:

Kamugisha Kazaura from Tanzania of Waseda University, Japan, for:  

·         ROFSO: A universal platform for convergence of fiber and free-space optical communication networks, Kamugisha Kazaura; Kazuhiko Wakamori; Mitsuji Matsumoto; Takeshi Higashino; Katsutoshi Tsukamoto; Shozo Komaki.

Ms Lina Gomez from Columbia staff member at the Centro de Investigacion de las Telecomunicaciones, Columbia for:

·         Discrimination in NGN service markets: Opportunity or barrier to digital inclusion?, Fernando Beltran; Lina Gomez.

Ms Eva Ibarrola from Spain studying at University of the Basque Country, Spain for:  

·         Quality of Service management for ISP: A model and implementation methodology based on ITU-T Rec.802 framework, Eva Ibarrola; Jin Xiao; Fidel Liberal; Armando Ferro.

Ved Kafle from India of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan for:

·         An ID/Locator Split Architecture of Future Networks, Ved Kafle; Hideki Otsuki; Masugi Inoue.

The many academics in attendance expressed the importance of the role of universities in the standardization process and the high value of strong collaboration between ITU, academia, and research institutes.

Malcolm Johnson, Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU highlighted a recently approved Resolution (Resolution 71) which invites the ITU Council to consider the admission of academic institutions, universities and associated research establishments to ITU-T at reduced cost. His proposal to the ITU Council to be held in October for a reduced fee of $2000 was welcomed by participants.

Innovations for Digital Inclusion was held at the kind invitation of Ministerio de Planificación Federal Inversión Pública y Servicios and hosted by the National Communications Commission and the Secretariat of Communications of Argentina, was organized by ITU with IEEE Communications Society as Technical Co-Sponsor and supported by Cisco and Nokia. The conference brought together the best academic minds from around the world to present their future visions to achieve digital Inclusion. The conference also included an exhibition by local Universities which provided insight into their activities.

In addition to the three invited papers, from 80+ papers submitted, 32 were presented, and the best four awarded prizes. The winning papers will also be featured in a future special edition of IEEE Communications Magazine. The consolidated Proceedings of the conference are also available and all papers will be soon also available from IEEE Xplore online catalogue.

In addition to the prize pool, eight entrants - Jose Simões, Lina Gomez, Tullio Bertini, Aline Zim, Kei Wada, Juan Pablo Bernal, Paul Plantinga and Alberto Diez Albaladejo - received a Young Author Recognition Certificate.

Building on the success of the first and second Kaleidoscope events, a third conference is planned for end 2010.

For more information and presentations from Kaleidoscope 2009, see the event web page.

Attendees of the world’s first Virtual Symposium on ICTs and Climate Change are being asked to send questions to speakers via Twitter or e-mail ITU-CC@tta.or.kr. Virtual coffee breaks will also give attendees a chance to discuss among themselves - via Twitter - the topics covered in the sessions. Speakers from the event will also join in this discussion, with key experts on hand to answer questions and join the conversation.

Questions or comments should be sent using the hashtag #VCCKR. You can follow ITU on Twitter here.

The event will feature keynote speeches from Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Secretary-General of ITU speaking from New York and H. E. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hung, Vice-Minister, Ministry of Information and Communications, Viet Nam.

Sessions will see individual presentations from speakers in the UK, US, China, India, Switzerland, Viet Nam and Korea followed by a virtual roundtable discussion.

ITU-T SG 2 Meeting, Geneva, Switzerland 16–24 November 2009

Meeting of Study Group 2 - Operational aspects of service provision and telecommunications management

Geneva, Switzerland 16–24 November 2009

Registration form

See ITU-T SG 2 Collective Letter 2 for more information.

Study Group 2 Home

ITU together with the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) is co-organizing the first ever Virtual International Symposium on ICTs and Climate Change. The event, also supported by Korea’s Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), will feature speakers participating virtually from locations around the world.

The symposium will bring together key specialists in the field from top decision-makers to engineers, designers, government officials and regulators.

Topics to be discussed will include green ICTs to tackle climate change, clean technologies and smart applications, reducing the environmental impact of ICTs and building a green future.

The Virtual International Symposium on ICTs and Climate Change will launch a new era in conducting events, offering all the benefits of physical participation but without the environmental costs. The event’s virtual nature will allow more participation from developing and least developed countries, providing a deeper knowledge of their needs and creating a sound basis for solutions that take into account all stakeholders.

This event is open to anyone and can be watched without prior registration. If you want to actively participate, comment or ask questions you must register here. Please choose "Participants" as your function.

Participants at a unique international gathering of standards development organizations have agreed that a major concern, especially for developing countries, is a lack of equipment interoperability. Delegates at the Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) meeting taking place at ITU Headquarters, Geneva agreed that providing for interoperability should be an important aim of standardization.

The Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) provides an opportunity to exchange information, collaborate to reduce duplication, and to support the ITU as the preeminent global telecommunication and radiocommunication standards development organization.

In addition to interoperability, standards aimed at mitigating climate change continued as a key topic of discussion, with all participants agreeing that collaboration and focus is of key importance here.

The GSC meeting saw a broad spectrum of issues covered including international mobile telecommunications (IMT), NGN (next generation networks), home networks, emergency communication, security and lawful interception, identity management, IPTV, reconfigurable radio systems, broadband wireless access and intelligent transport systems (ITS). Topics highlighted as warranting further investigation included smart grid, service oriented networks, future networks and machine-to-machine communications /smart embedded device communications.

The host, Malcolm Johnson, Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU: “Increasing the probability of interoperability will greatly increase both the quality of standards and quality of service for service providers and end users alike. ITU welcomes the opportunity to work with the world’s most important standards bodies on this and other important matters. GSC has an enormously important role to play in globalizing the standardization process. GSC promotes the value of standardization to the international community by sending a clear message of efficiency and commitment to address global needs by working together to avoid the duplication of effort and wasted intellectual resource.”

Zhu Gaofeng, Chairman of the Council of China Communications Standards Association, next year’s GSC host: “GSC continues to be an important venue for coordination of global standardization strategies. It is clear that in an age with a proliferation of standards bodies and newly emerging technologies, industry requires this level of collaboration. I am very happy that we have achieved – again – this high-level agreement on a diverse range of issues, some of which are not just important in terms of market development but have much wider ranging social impact.”

Susan M. Miller, President and CEO of ATIS, last year’s GSC host: “The tremendous collaborative work of GSC expands our ability to deliver global standards which, at heart, are designed to promote innovation, foster market competition, advance infrastructure development, and enhance interoperability. The ability to do this is fundamental to the global ICT industry’s primary objective – responding to and delivering on user needs with innovative services and solutions in a timely and cost-effective basis.”

More than one hundred participants from eight Participating Standards Organizations (PSO) attended, along with observers from additional groups.

Participants at GSC-14 included the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) of Japan, the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA) of China, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the ICT Standards Advisory Council of Canada (ISACC), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) from the U.S., the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) of Korea and the Telecommunications Technology Committee (TTC) of Japan.

Guests and observers included representatives from American National Standards Institute (ANSI), APT Wireless Forum, Broadband Forum, CDMA Development Group (CDG), European Patent Office (EPO), Home Gateway Initiative, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Sector Boards 4 (SB4), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), UMTS Forum, and the U.S. Patent & Trade Office.

The official communique from the event can be found here

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Achieving climate justice is in the interest of all countries and citizens. This was a conclusion of the recent ITU Symposium on ICTs and Climate Change, Quito, Ecuador, 8-10 July 2009, the first ITU Symposium on the topic in a developing country and the first to focus on the concerns of the Americas.

Participants agreed that global effort to combat climate change should not impede the economic and social growth of developing countries and that bridging the digital divide and bringing the benefits of ICTs to all citizens is fundamental to tackling climate change. They recognized that while Latin American and Caribbean countries are minor contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions they are often victims of the extreme weather events and other negative impacts of climate change.

Equitable access and ensuring connectivity to schools, rural communities and health facilities are vital to economic development and to making effective use of ICTs to combat climate change. Increased deployment of affordable broadband will help facilitate this participants agreed.  

The conclusions of the symposium also acknowledged the growing problem of e-waste while highlighting the positive role of ICTs as enabling technologies to reduce GHG emissions in other sectors. Increased use of clean renewable energy sources and preservation of the jungles, savannah and oceans, the conclusion says, are key to the future and a real opportunity in Latin America.

Equitable solutions must be found so that the major contributors to GHG emissions cooperate with the countries that are suffering most from climatic impacts or those that are making efforts against deforestation, in particular through reduction of the digital divide and the environmental divide.

The Symposium was attended by 60 virtual as well as 450 physical attendees from 20 countries and was hosted by Centro Internacional de Investigación Científica en Telecomunicaciones, Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (CITIC) Ecuador. The Symposium was chaired by Ing. Jorge Glas Espinel, representing the President of the Republic of Ecuador, Economist Rafael Correa.

A meeting report containing a general summary of the event will be made available from the symposium website.

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Meeting of NGN-GSI - Next Generation Networks Global Standards Initiative

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2–12 September 2009

Registration form

NGN-GSI Home

Meeting of IPTV-GSI - IPTV Global Standards Initiative

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2–8 September 2009

Registration form

IPTV-GSI Home

ITU-T SG 13 Meeting, Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2–12 September 2009

Meeting of Study Group 13 - Future networks including mobile and NGN

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2–12 September 2009

Registration form

See ITU-T SG 13 Collective Letter 3 for more information.

Study Group 13 Home

Meeting of Study Group 11 - Signalling requirements, protocols and test specifications

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2–10 September 2009

Registration form

See ITU-T SG 11 Collective Letter 3 for more information.

Study Group 11 Home

Meeting of SG2 RG-ARB - Regional Group of SG2 in the ARAB Region

Beirut, Lebanon, 8 July 2009

See ITU-T SG 2 RG-ARB Collective Letter 1 for more information.

SG 2 RG-ARB Home

ITU will hold a Consultation meeting to capture the views of all stakeholders with regards to Resolution 76: Studies related to conformance and interoperability testing, assistance to developing countries, and a possible future ITU mark programme.

Participants will learn how conformity assessment can be beneficial to all stakeholders, increasing the probability of interoperability, quality of standards and quality of service. Those wishing to submit contributions to the discussion should send them to tsbworkshops@itu.int by 11 July 2009.

2008’s World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-08) addressed conformance and interoperability testing resulting in the first Resolution on the topic. The aim is to have ITU-T Study Groups more actively involved in developing test suites in key areas of ICTs and to have ITU-T’s secretariat (TSB) assist developing countries in their capacity to conduct tests. This includes the planning and creation of their own test facilities.

More information and registration details here.

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Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s standardization bureau - is interviewed here on ITU’s recent work on ICTs climate change.

The video is in support of the Light Reading Green Telecom East: Transitioning to Environmentally Responsible Networks event, taking place Wednesday, June 17, at The Westin Times Square in New York City. ITU is an official association sponsor of the conference.

Light Reading has kindly offered an unlimited number of discounted VIP Guest Packages to ITU members. In addition free admission will be granted to registrants employed by a cable or service provider, or network professionals at a large enterprise, educational establishment, utility, or government agency. Details of the offer here.

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The June issue of IEEE Communications Magazine carries a ‘feature topic’ on ITU’s Kaleidoscope event – Innovations in Next Generation Networks (NGN).

The magazine, also available online, carries the winning papers, as well as two invited papers from the first of ITU’s academic events.

The winning papers were:

• Architecture and business model of open heterogeneous mobile network, Yoshitoshi Murata; Mikio Hasegawa; Homare Murakami; Hiroshi Harada; Shuzo Kato.
• Differential phase shift quantum key distribution, Hiroki Takesue; Toshimori Honjo; Kiyoshi Tamaki; Yasuhiro Tokura.
• Open API standardisation for the NGN platform, Catherine Mulligan.

Organized by ITU-T with IEEE ComSoc as Technical Co-Sponsor and supported by Cisco, Intel, the International Communications Foundation of Japan and Sun Microsystems, the conference brought together the best academic minds from around the world to present their future visions for Next-Generation Networks (NGN).

Among over 140 papers submitted. 53 papers were presented and the best three were awarded prizes totaling $10,000 kindly donated by Cisco. These papers will be included in a future special edition of the IEEE Communications Magazine.

The second Kaleidoscope event - Innovations for Digital Inclusion - will be held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 August – 1 September 2009.

Kaleidoscope events are a series of peer-reviewed academic conferences aiming to increase the dialogue between experts working on the standardization of information and communications technologies (ICT) and academia.

Kaleidoscope 2009 will feature original academic papers offering innovative approaches to digital inclusion. As before prizes totaling USD 10k will be granted to the best papers. In addition a young author recognition certificate will be granted to authors presenting papers whoare pursuing their studies and do not – at the time of the event - have a PhD.

Accepted papers will be presented during the event, published in the proceedings and made available through IEEE Xplore. The best papers will be evaluated for potential publication in IEEE Communications Magazine.

Kaleidoscope-2009 will analyze technologies, services and applications five years and beyond that will capitalize on NGN infrastructure and promote digital inclusion. The event will cover multidisciplinary aspects, including regulatory and societal challenges as well as analysis of standardization needed.

Innovative technologies will help bring the benefits of ICTs to all segments of the population, in particular those in underserved communities and developing countries. The event seeks to promote research that supports innovation in ICTs toward universal, sustainable, ubiquitous and affordable access by all.

For more information please contact kaleidoscope@itu.int.

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A two day Forum on Implementation of decisions of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly-08 (WTSA-08) will take place in Accra, Ghana, 16 to 17 June 2009.

The event hosted by the Ministry of Communications, Ghana will review WTSA-08 results from an African perspective and consider how to implement those Resolutions that are of interest to the region. Participants will share experiences in order to identify areas of cooperation and to establish priorities and an action plan to ensure that they gain most benefit from the WTSA-08 Resolutions.

Leading representatives from governments, regulators, industry and academia will join with operators and service providers from the African region. Key topics to be discussed include conformity and interoperability testing, IP-based networks, misappropriation of numbering resources, cybersecurity initiatives, IPv6 and CIRTs. 

Other topics include environment and climate change, accessibility, measurement concerns related to human exposure to electromagnetic fields, and emergency communications.

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A workshop on Overlay Networking will be held on Friday, 15 May at ITU headquarters in Geneva. The event is jointly organised by ITU-T’s Future Networks and NGN Study Group (SG13) and the IEEE Next Generation Service Overlay Network (NGSON) Working Group.

Overlay networking provides the ability to customize a network via a virtual communications structure laid over the physical network. Overlay networking techniques have been proposed for various purposes, including as a way to improve Internet routing and to enhance content delivery capabilities.

The workshop will act as a way for the two groups to exchange information on their respective ongoing and planned activities in the Overlay Networking area, with a view to future collaboration.

Session topics will include: an overview of the Next Generation Service Overlay Network (NGSON) framework and status of related standards activities; the business vision behind NGSON; NGN services and capabilities and NGN architecture, and information about current and planned activities for an advanced service infrastructure from both services/capabilities and architecture perspectives.

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Meeting of TSB Director's Ad Hoc Group on IPR

Geneva, 1 May 2009

Registration form

Ad Hoc Group on IPR Home

Meeting of TSAG - Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group

Geneva, 28-30 April 2009

Registration form

See ITU-T TSAG Collective Letter 1 for more information.

TSAG Home

Meeting of Study Group 2 - Operational aspects of service provision and telecommunications management

Geneva, 24 March - 02 April 2009

Registration form

See ITU-T SG 2 Collective Letter 1 for more information.

Study Group 2 Home

Third meeting of the Focus Group on ICTs and Climate Change (FG ICT & CC)

24-27 March 2009, Hiroshima, Japan

Registration form

Practical information

See TSB Circular 11 for more information.

FG ICT & CC Home

Fourth meeting of the Focus Group on From/In/To Cars Communication II (FG CarCom)

Geneva, 06 March 2009

Registration form

See Invitation letter for more information.

FG CarCom Home

Study Group 3 Regional Group for Asia and Oceania (SG3RG-AO) (former TAS Group) and the associated BDT Workshop

Hanoi, Viet Nam, 04-06 March 2009

See ITU-T SG3RG-AO Collective Letter 3 for more information.

SG3RG-AO Home

ITU will team up with ISO and IEC for a fourth time on  4-5 March 2009 to present the Fully Networked Car. The three organisations working together under the World Standards Cooperation (WSC) banner will host the workshop and exhibition at one of the world’s leading automotive events, the Geneva International Motor Show.

The question of how can ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) in vehicles help mitigate and monitor climate change will be retained as a key theme for 2009. The Lightning Car Company has kindly agreed to display, as the key feature of the exhibition, its Lightning GT prototype electric vehicle to give special emphasis to the environmental theme.

Experts believe that more sophisticated traffic management and driver assistance systems can help reduce the environmental impact caused by motoring.

2009 will see keynote speeches from:
Burkhard Göschel, CTO, Magna International 
Jürgen Leohold, Executive Director Group Research, Volkswagen
Russ Shields, Chairman, Ygomi
Tadao Saito, CTO, Toyota InfoTechnology Center
Hermann Meyer, CEO, ERTICO (ITS Europe).

In general, the event will focus on (ICT) in motor vehicles and specifically standards that will facilitate the convergence of these industries.

ICT in vehicles represents a significant value-add for consumers in terms of safety, comfort and mobility. Predictions for the size of the market run into billions of dollars and stakeholders agree that standardization is key to the development of new technologies and that coordination between the traditionally remote vehicle manufacturing and ICT industries is crucial.

The Fully Networked Car brings together experts ranging from top decision-makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts and analysts. The workshop programme features speakers from some of the biggest names in the ICT and automobile industries.

The panel of high-level global experts that will frame the major issues and engage the audience in discussion come from companies including: Magna International, Toyota, ERTICO, Freescale Semiconductor, IEEE, Telcordia, Aachen University, Thinking Highways, Connexis, Daimler AG, Telecom Italia, Volkswagen, France Telecom/Orange, NXP Semiconductors and Harman/Becker Automotive Systems GmbH.

Among other topics to be discussed are car to x communication, safety and security and voice and audiovisual services.

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Study Group 12 - Performance, QoS and QoE

Geneva, 10-19 March 2009

Registration Form

See TSB Collective 1/12 for more information.

Study Group 12 Home

The paper submission deadline for the ITU-T Kaleidoscope 2009 event: Innovations for Digital Inclusion has been extended by two weeks. The new deadline is 1 February 2009.

Innovations for Digital Inclusion is the second in a series of peer-reviewed academic conferences that aims at increasing the dialogue between experts working on the standardization of information and communications technologies (ICT) and academia.

Study Group 2 - Operational aspects of service provision and telecommunications management

Geneva, 24 March - 2 April 2009

Registration Form

See TSB Collective 1/2 for more information.

Study Group 2 Home

Study Group 17 - Security

Geneva, 11 - 20 February 2009

Registration Form

See TSB Collective 1/17 for more information.

Study Group 17 Home

Study Group 9 - Television and sound transmission and integrated broadband cable networks

Geneva, 2 - 6 February 2009

Registration Form

See TSB Collective 1/9 for more information.

Study Group 09 Home

Study Group 16 - Multimedia coding, systems and applications

Geneva, 27 January- 2 February 2009

Registration Form

See TSB Collective 1/16 for more information.

Study Group 16 Home

Study Group 15 - Optical transport networks and access network infrastructures

Geneva, 01-12 December 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Collective 6/15 for more information.

Study Group 15 Home

FG ICT & CC - Focus Group on ICTs and Climate Change

Geneva, 25-28 November 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Circular 243 for more information.

FG ICT & CC Home

IPTV-GSI - Internet Protocol Television Global Standards Initiative

Geneva, 24-28 November 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Circular 244 for more information.

IPTV-GSI Home

Meeting of Study Group 5 - Protection against electromagnetic environment effects

Geneva, 24-28 November 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 8/5 for more information.

Study Group 5 Home

A call for abstracts has been issued for ITU, ISO and IEC’s regular event focusing on information and communication technologies (ICT) in motor vehicles.

For the fourth year running The Fully Networked Car is being organized by ITU, ISO and IEC, working together as the World Standards Cooperation (WSC) under the leadership of ITU. Taking place at one of the world’s leading automotive events, the Geneva International Motor Show, the event will take place between 4 and 5 March 2009.

Presentations are sought that bring light to some of the complex questions that the ICT industry and the car industry are faced with. As was the case this year, a major topic will be ICT and climate change. Examples for other topics are standards and spectrum; car-to-x communications; nomadic devices; voice and audiovisual services; advanced driver assistance systems; wireless technologies for car production lines; safety; and security and privacy.

Authors wishing to present papers should submit a half-page abstract, including the title of the paper and the author’s full name, short biography, address, telephone and e-mail, to tsbcar@itu.int by Friday, 28 November 2008.

The final programme and input documents for ITU’s Workshop on IPv6 4-5 September have been announced.

The event will be made available as an audio webcast, click here for details.

Cisco will host a reception on 4 September from 18:30 to 20:00 and all the coffee breaks are offered by Tiscali International Network.

See also previous newslog entry.

ITU-T has issued a call for papers for its Kaleidoscope 2009 event - Innovations for Digital Inclusion - to be held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, 31 August – 1 September 2009. The event is the second in a series of peer-reviewed academic conferences that aims at increasing the dialogue between experts working on the standardization of information and communications technologies (ICT) and academia.

The first Kaleidoscope event – Innovations in NGN - was held in Geneva, 12-13 May 2008.

Kaleidoscope 2009 is calling for original academic papers offering innovative approaches to digital inclusion. Prizes totalling USD 10k will be granted to the best papers, as judged by the organizing and programme committees. In addition a young author recognition certificate will be granted to authors presenting papers who are pursuing their studies and do not – at the time of the event - have a PhD. Accepted papers will be presented during the event, published in the proceedings and made available through IEEE Xplore. The best papers will be evaluated for potential publication in IEEE Communications Magazine.

Kaleidoscope-2009 will analyze technologies, services and applications five years and beyond that will capitalize on NGN infrastructure and promote digital inclusion. The event will cover multidisciplinary aspects, including regulatory and societal challenges as well as analysis of standardization needed.

Innovative technologies will help bring the benefits of ICTs to all segments of the population, in particular those in underserved communities and developing countries. The event seeks to promote research that supports innovation in ICTs toward universal, sustainable, ubiquitous and affordable access by all.

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact the ITU-T Kaleidoscope secretariat at kaleidoscope@itu.int.

ITU will host a workshop to address international public policy issues on the migration to IPv6, as well as the economic aspects related to IP address allocation 4-5 September in Geneva.

With the massive deployment of Internet-related resources worldwide and the integration of IP-enabled consumer devices connected directly to the network, the issue of the depletion of IPv4 addresses is becoming pertinent. Indeed, there is wide recognition of the need for better awareness of the availability of IPv4 addresses and the deployment of IPv6.

Despite the use of network address translation (NAT) as a strategy for reducing the use of public IPv4 addresses, several experts forecast depletion in the next few years. In addition to other features, IPv6 with its 128 bit address space is aimed at addressing the current shortage of public IPv4 addresses. However the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is going at a rather slow rate, with both versions being used in parallel. Many informed observers attribute this to market forces and other economic considerations.

There is growing interest in IPv6 especially among the organizations involved in its management. ITU is organizing this workshop in order to foster dialogue and international cooperation on IPv6 related issues.

The workshop will provide a platform for dialogue where key players in the field, including all ITU sectors, as well as other interested entities will be able to discuss and address international public policy issues on the migration to IPv6, as well as the economic aspects related to IP address allocation.

The workshop is designed to stimulate discussion and interaction with the audience, rather than offer a string of presentations and speeches provided by panelists and speakers.

Meeting of TSAG - Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group

Geneva, 02-09 July 2008

Registration Form

See TSAG Collective Letter 6 for more information.

TSAG Home

Next meeting the TSB Director's Ad Hoc Group on IPR

Geneva, 26-27 June 2008

Registration Form

TSB Director's Ad Hoc Group on IPR Home

The second ITU Symposium on ICTs and Climate Change (June 17-18 in London, UK, hosted by BT) will be made available as a live webcast in order that remote participants can see and hear presentations from wherever they are in the world.

The symposium will bring together key specialists in the field, from top decision-makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts and others. (See here for programme, bios and presentation slides).

Remote participants may also submit questions in real-time to: TSBSPD@itu.int.

Register now for free webcast access.

NXTComm, June 16-19, Las Vegas, USA will see ITU-T members, and guests stage an interoperability showcase for fibre to the premises (FTTP) related standards.

ITU, together with Telcordia, have collaborated to organize a multi-company interoperability demonstration featuring gigabit passive optical network (G-PON) equipment built according to the ITU-T G.984 series of Recommendations (standards) , including the recently consented G-PON reach extender (ITU-T G.984.6). PON technology is used in the local loop environment to cost effectively connect residential and small and medium enterprises (SME) end users premises in an all-fibre network.

The G-PON Pavilion features live demonstrations of G-PON equipment interoperability; with interoperability being a critical enabler to reducing G-PON equipment costs. Triple-play interoperability demonstrations are provided by the following device and equipment manufactures: Cambridge Industries Group, Freescale Semiconductor, Iamba Network, Ikanos Communications, LS Cable, XAVi Technologies, ZTE Corporation. Corning is providing a bend-insensitive fibre (built to ITU-T G.657 specs) based optical distribution network over which the 2488 Mbps/1244 Mbps (downstream/upstream) G-PON systems will be operating.

With PONs, signals are carried by lasers and sent to their destination without the need for active electronics in the outside plant of the telecommunications network. Carriers can realize significant savings with fiber sharing in the local loop, equipment sharing in the central office and by eliminating the dependence on expensive active network elements.

ITU-T’s G.984series Recommendations detail gigabit PONs (G-PON), the latest generation of PON technology. With gigabit capacity today and the ability to transparently support future capacity upgrades through ITU-T G.984.5 compatible overlays, ITU-T G.984-based systems should more than satisfy foreseeable customer demands. G-PON (ITU-T G.984.6) reach extender solutions allow operation over as much as 60 km of fiber, with split ratios as high as 1x128.

Next meeting of the Internet Protocol Television Global Standards Initiative (IPTV-GSI)

Geneva, 23-27 June 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Circular 221 for more information.

IPTV GSI Home

First meeting of the Focus Group on From/In/To Cars Communication II (FG CarCom)

Naerum, Denmark, 12 June 2008

Registration Form

Meeting Documents

FG CarCom Home

The Regional Development Forum for the Americas Region closed 20 May 2008, in Brasilia, Brazil. The Forum, was jointly organized by ITU-T and ITU-D,  in cooperation with Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL), and hosted by ANATEL, Brazil. 

More than 200 participants attended, from 17 countries in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean. 

At the opening ceremony, the chairman,  H.E. Ambassador Ronaldo Sardenberg, President of Anatel, Brazil, confirmed the  Anatel’s interest in increasing its cooperation with  ITU and other regulatory agencies . He stressed the importance of the Forum in terms of preparing for WTSA-08 and discussing the “standardization gap”. He pointed out that the capacity to participate in the standardization process is of fundamental importance to decrease this standardization gap between developed and developing countries.

In his speech Mr. Clovis Baptista, Executive Secretary of  CITEL underlined the great impact that the information society has on society. The information society responds to society’s needs and helps people build on progress, he said. Baptista also reported an increase in the number of available services within the Americas region. A universal and suitable infrastructure is one of the objectives necessary to accelerate the process of American integration he said.

Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), Malcolm Johnson, thanked the Ambassador for hosting the event and  the cooperation of CITEL. He expressed his appreciation to countries in the Americas for their active support of ITU’s activities, especially its standardization work. He highlighted the importance of standards for international communications and global trade. Globalisation requires global standards, and a global standards body like ITU clearly has an increasing role to play, he said.

In his speech, Johnson also raised the serious problem of cost of participation, especially in meetings in Geneva, as well as the cost of membership, particularly for small start-up companies in developing countries. He said that there had been attempts to overcome these difficulties, and that the issues would be hot topics at the upcoming World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-08). Johnson said that he had long encouraged members to host meetings in the regions, and had recently established a fund to assist hosts with the cost of doing so, as well as for providing fellowships to attend the meetings. He also mentioned the invitation to hold an NGN Global Standards Initiative (GSI) meeting in the Americas region in September 2009. Moreover, he added that ITU-T has also been trialling new collaboration tools which will allow remote participation in ITU-T meetings.

 

ITU-T and IEEE Communications Society (Comsoc) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aiming to better collaboration between academia and the standards world.

The document was signed during the first ITU-T Kaleidoscope conference, Innovations in NGN - Future Network and Services by Malcolm Johnson, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, and Alexander D. Gelman, Director of Standards, IEEE ComSoc.

The objective of the MoU is to increase cooperation particularly in the area of events (e.g. workshops, seminars, symposia, forums and academic conferences) and publications.

The conference was the first in a series that aims at increasing the dialogue between academia, research institutes and ITU experts working on the standardization of ICTs. Held in Geneva, 12-13 May, it was attended by more than 220 participants.

Organized by ITU-T with IEEE ComSoc as Technical Co-Sponsor and supported by Cisco, Intel, the International Communications Foundation of Japan) and Sun Microsystems, the conference brought together the best academic minds from around the world to present their future visions for Next-Generation Networks (NGN).

Among over 140 papers submitted. 53 papers were presented and the best three were awarded prizes totaling $10,000 kindly donated by Cisco. These papers will be included in a future special edition of the IEEE Communications Magazine.

The winning papers were:

• Architecture and business model of open heterogeneous mobile network, Yoshitoshi Murata; Mikio Hasegawa; Homare Murakami; Hiroshi Harada; Shuzo Kato.
  
• Differential phase shift quantum key distribution, Hiroki Takesue; Toshimori Honjo; Kiyoshi Tamaki; Yasuhiro Tokura.
  
• Open API standardisation for the NGN platform, Catherine Mulligan.

In addition to the prize pool 16 entrants received a Young Author Recognition Certificate, a recognition ITU will continue to give in future.

The conference highlighted technologies, services and applications that will capitalize on the NGN infrastructure as well as looking beyond NGN. It covered multidisciplinary aspects related to the deployment of NGN, including analysis of regulatory and societal challenges.

Attendees agreed on the the importance of strong collaboration between ITU-T, academia, and research institutes, which would be to the benefit all. The many academics in attendance expressed the importance of the role of universities in the standardization process. One issue discussed was the lowering of the ITU membership fee for such organizations, a topic that will likely be discussed at the coming WTSA-08 .

Building on the success of the first Kaleidoscope event, a second conference is planned for 2009.

A live audiocast, and archived audio of the conference can be accessed here.

Meeting of Working Parties 1, 2, 3 and 4/13

Geneva, 22 May 2008 (afternoon)

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 10/13 for more information.

Study Group 13 Home

Meeting of Study Group 12 - Performance and quality of service

Geneva, 22-30 May 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 6/12 for more information.

Study Group 12 Home

ITU is hosting a workshop that will examine the critical issue of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and ICT standards.

The one day workshop will be held at ITU headquarters, 1 July.

The event, aimed at intellectual property specialists and standards makers will discuss the inclusion of patented technology in standards and the patent policy approaches to address this. International experts from both the public and private sectors from around the world will help provide an overview of the issues and share their insights on present and future developments.

The exchange of ideas and experiences facilitated by this workshop will provide valuable insight and input that can help to guide future discussion of the related issues – both at the ITU and in other fora.

Press release on common patent policy.

More information and registration here.

Preparatory meetings for the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-08) will take place in Brazil, Ghana, Uzbekistan, Syria and Viet Nam during the months leading up to the event in October. Alongside each event a Regional Development Forum addressing the standardization gap between developed and developing countries will be held.

WTSA is the quadrennial event that defines the future direction for the ITU’s Standardization Sector (ITU-T).

Regional organizations APT, ATU, Arab Group, CEPT, CITEL, RCC will host the meetings aiming to coordinate regional views on issues considered to be of particular relevance to each area, and develop common regional proposals for submission to WTSA-08.

The Regional Forums are aimed at encouraging greater understanding of, and participation in, the work of ITU-T. They will explain the status of the current hot topics under discussion in ITU-T, and how to become involved in ITU-T activities in order to champion the interests of each region in the development of international ICT standards.

For details see here.

Identity Management Global Standards Initiative (IdM-GSI) Meeting

Geneva, 14-15 May 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Circular 199 for more information.

IdM-GSI Home

Next Generation Networks Global Standards Initiative (NGN-GSI) Meeting

Geneva, 12–22 May 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Circular 199 for more information.

NGN-GSI Home

Internet Protocol Television Global Standards Initiative (IPTV-GSI) Meeting

Geneva, 30 April - 7 May 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Circular 199 for more information.

IPTV-GSI Home

The ITU/MIC Kyoto Symposium on ICTs and Climate Change closed 16 April with agreement that ITU should play a significant role in the global effort to combat climate change.

A number of actions were recommended for ITU. Among them was a task for ITU’s Standardization Sector (ITU-T) which was tasked with the development of an internationally agreed standard methodology to measure the impact of ICTs on climate change, both in terms of the direct emission of greenhouse gases, and the savings that can be generated in other sectors of industry through the application of ICTs.

Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), Malcolm Johnson, supported the meeting’s recommendation that an ITU-T Focus Group would be an appropriate vehicle to take forward this work. He said that he would propose the formation of a new group to ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) at its next meeting in July. However, to move quickly, he encouraged the submission of proposals on the terms of reference for this group, as well as initial proposals on methodologies, to: tsbtechwatch@itu.int.

Johnson also proposed that a draft Resolution would be presented at this year’s World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-08), in Johannesburg, October. The document is expected to outline ITU-T’s responsibility in identifying the role that ICTs should play in the mitigation and monitoring of climate change and target reductions for the industry.

Experts agreed that the chairman’s report of the Kyoto event provides an excellent start point for the Resolution which will be discussed in further detail at the second ITU symposium on ICTs and climate change, 17-18 June 2008 in London. More information is also available in the meeting summary and the ITU background report.

The chairman’s report of the Kyoto symposium will also be forwarded to upcoming meetings of the World Economic Forum, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ministerial meeting in the Republic of Korea, the G8 meeting in Japan and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The second ITU symposium on ICTs and climate change, will be held 17-18 June in London, hosted by BT. The London event will also be broadcast as a live Webinar. Register: [more information]

Presentations from Kyoto can be viewed here.

See also climate change news feed for more detailed reports on the Kyoto event.

ITU-T IPTV experts Ghassem Koleyni and Simon Jones will lead a live web seminar (webinar) on IPTV standardization, May 7 at 1600 CET.

Click here to register, for the webinar hosted by industry analyst Heavy Reading. By registering you will be able to listen to and take part in discussion as well as view presentation slides.

Koleyni and Jones will present standardization from an ITU perspective with experts from other standards bodies, including the DSL Forum and ATIS, explaining how they have worked with ITU to produce the first set of global IPTV specifications, available here. Malcolm Johnson, Director ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau said: “I encourage anyone involved in the deployment of IPTV services at any level to take this opportunity to learn about this important set of standards as well as quiz our experts on the topic.

We have already seen first generation IPTV services and as these mature we may see a change in regulation or market demand that will require interoperation between service and/or network providers. A potential outcome of this will be that a customer can go into shop, buy an IPTV box, call their network operator and sign-up and then access services from a range of third party service providers. It is to meet that need that the value of ITU’s work on standardisation will be realised. ”

If you can’t join the live event registration will give access to an archive file of the event.

The first ITU Symposium on ICTs and Climate Change (April 15-16 in Kyoto, Japan, co-organized and hosted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) will be available as a webinar in order that remote participants can see and hear presentations from wherever they are in the world.

Remote participants may also submit questions in real-time to: TSBSPD@itu.int.

To register:

•  for Day 1, 15 April click here.
•  for Day 2, 16 April click here.

Programme including bios and presentations (times in JST, London -8, New York -13).

System requirements

Live audio stream here.

ITU Background Paper on ICTs and Climate Change

ITU will host a tutorial on how to improve websites and meeting facilities, in order to meet the requirements for an accessible ICT infrastructure. The event will take place 22 April 0900 – 1300, at ITU headquarters in Geneva.

Accessible ICT is one of the key obligations of the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Recently, a Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF) has been established by ITU-T's Study Group 2 to coordinate standardization activities in the field. See previous story on ITU’s latest work in the field of accessibility.

The tutorial is aimed at ITU staff but open to staff of similar organizations working on public policy, web content management, web development and conference organization.

The event will provide a high-level overview of the delivery of accessible content on the web, including a discussion of the problems of inaccessible web content, markup of images, online forms and PDFs, as well as the solutions for addressing these barriers. Public policy benefits will also be addressed including the benefits of the accessible web for people without disabilities. Emergence of technical standards for the accessible design of ICTs will also be covered. Practical demonstrations of remote web captioning will be conducted and free resources for checking websites for accessibility will be highlighted.

See the event's website for more information. The tutorial is free of charge, if you need assistance to obtain access to the ITU premises in order to attend please contact the JCA-AHF Secretariat at: tsbjcaahf[at]itu.int

Press release.

An ITU event will bring together the best academic minds from around the world to present their future visions for next generation networks (NGN). The three best papers will be awarded from a prize fund donated by Cisco totaling $10,000.

Innovations in NGN, 12-13 May, Geneva is the first in a series of conferences under the banner ‘Kaleidoscope’ that will bring closer ties between ITU, academia and research organizations. The event, technically co-sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society attracted around 140 contributions with its initial call for papers. From this, 54 of the most visionary papers have been selected by a review panel of 140 experts from around the world for presentation at the conference. The event will also host the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between ITU and IEEE Communications Society.

Innovations in NGN will highlight technologies, services and applications five years and beyond that will capitalize on the NGN infrastructure and lead to the ubiquitous network society in which information can be accessed anywhere and anytime by anyone and anything. It will also cover multidisciplinary aspects related to the deployment of NGN, including analysis of regulatory and societal challenges.

Malcolm Johnson, Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau: “Technology is a critical determinant of sustainable growth and poverty reduction. And, education is key to the accelerated development of information and communications technologies (ICT) and contributes to the increased use of these technologies all over the world. Without the involvement of the world’s universities and other academic and research institutions we would not have reached the level of innovation that we see today. The Kaleidoscope series is an excellent innitiative to capitalize on the fruitful relationship that we already have with academia and take it to another level.”

ITU has a long history of collaboration with academia and many standards (ITU-T Recommendations) have been developed with academic input. Some leading Study Group positions are held by university professors. The Kaleidoscope initiative will encourage a new type of engagement along the lines of an academic conference. Authors whose works are selected for the event’s proceedings will gain extra academic recognition by being published online by IEEE. The standards world will profit from new ideas for possible future development.

Innovations in NGN is to inspire contributions towards a kaleidoscopic view of communication habits for the future. We know what NGN is in terms of the underlying technology, but we don’t know what services will emerge, how NGN will affect the marketplace for ICT, and how society will be affected. This, first in the series of Kaleidoscope conferences is free for anyone to attend and will shed light on some of these questions as well as inspire debate and future work on the future of ICT and ICT standardization. Please register at www.itu.int/ITU-T/uni/kaleidoscope/.

ITU-T is seeking sponsors to join Cisco, ICF and Sun Microsystems and help fund the various activities connected to the event including publication of proceedings, coffee-breaks and reception. For more details contact kaleidoscope@itu.int.

ITU together with G3ict is holding a joint Forum to review areas of challenges and opportunities for international ICT accessibility standards in light of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The event will take place at ITU Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday, 21 April 2008. See previous story on ITU’s latest work in the field of accessibility.

The Convention has been signed by an unprecedentedly high number of UN Member States in a relatively short time – 126 since 30 March 2007. This makes it all the more urgent to promote ICT accessibility standards that will support a better and faster implementation around the world of the many dispositions of the Convention regarding ICTs.

For the first time since the Convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly, an international group of experts from industry, standards development organizations, NGOs representing persons with disabilities, international development institutions, governments and academia will examine in detail its many implications for ICT accessibility standards. Proceedings will be edited to serve as a reference for future accessibility standards developments.

The event will review existing and in-progress technology standards and standardization of product development methodologies; discuss the role of public policy and procurement in support of standardization and the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and identify follow-up actions to facilitate its implementation.

Max Mosley, the head of Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, calls for accelerated standards development to support ICTs in vehicles for improvements in safety, and the mitigation and monitoring of climate change. Speaking at ITU’s annual Fully Networked Car event at the Geneva Motor Show, Mosley said that the leading edge expertise within F1 to develop “green” technologies could have applications beyond the sport, particularly in the area of fuel efficiency and monitoring of environmental impact. Most F1 teams have as many as 300 channels of information flowing between the cars and the pit crew and as the complexity of systems grow their interconnection will become critical he said.

Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary-General, reminded participants that the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has called climate change the “moral challenge of our generation”. He said: “With the Fully Networked Car we can provide traffic management, monitoring, and analysis, all of which will help meet the climate change challenge. Those who successfully meet this challenge will end up with a real competitive advantage in world markets.”

The new 2008 Honda Racing F1 “Earthdreams” car with Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary-General; Max Mosley, President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Malcolm Johnson, Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU.

Michel Mayer, CEO Freescale Semiconductor, a leading supplier of ICTs to F1 and one of the sponsors of the event, expressed concerns at the proliferation of proprietary standards and called for global standards bodies such as ITU to take a lead. He said that it is critical that further development be standards-driven.

The event also featured a keynote presentation from David Butler, Marketing Director, Honda Racing F1 Team, who emphasised how the powerful brand platform of F1 can present a global environmental message. The Fully Networked Car event had as its centrepiece the new 2008 Honda Racing F1 “Earthdreams” car.

A particular concern, according to experts, is in the areas of telematics and the application of intelligent transport systems (ITS) which participants at the Fully Networked Car agreed offer the best solution for a reduced carbon footprint from the global use of vehicles.

ITU will help to push this standards work and convergence between the ICT and automotive industries with initiatives such as its FITCAR (From/In/To Cars Communication) Focus Group, and the hosting of the Advisory Panel for Standards Cooperation on Telecommunications related to Motor Vehicles (ASPC TELEMOV). Also helping to step up this activity, Malcolm Johnson, ITU’s director of standards, announced that the Fully Networked Car event – already in its fourth year - will now become a regular fixture bringing together the two industries. The 2009 event is planned for 4-6 March. ITU will also be organising two ITU symposia on ICTs and Climate Change: in Kyoto, 15-16 April, hosted by the government of Japan; and in London, 17-18 June, hosted by BT.

Priorities identified for future standardization included: a common set of standards for the full range of nomadic devices; standards for software defined radios; standards to cope with the gap between the short lifecycle of mobile phones compared to the relatively long lifecycle of cars; and privacy, where there is a need for a common understanding about what data is reasonable to collect and retain.

The Fully Networked Car event brought together over 200 experts from the ICT and automotive worlds. It was organised by ITU with the support of ISO and IEC under the World Standards Cooperation (WSC) banner.

Enquiries to: Toby Johnson, +41 79 249 4868 or toby.johnson@itu.int.

More photos on Flickr

Study Group 6 Meeting - Outside Plant and related indoor installations

Wuhan, China, 14-18 April 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 6/6 for more information.

Study Group 6 Home

Working Parties 1, 2, 3 and 4/13 Meetings - Next Generation Networks

Geneva, 22 May 2008 (afternoon)

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 10/13 for more information.

Study Group 13 Home

Meeting of Study Group 9 - Integrated broadband cable networks and television and sound transmission

Geneva, 5 - 9 May 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 7/9 for more information.

Study Group 9 Home

Meeting of Study Group 16 - Multimedia terminals, systems and applications

Geneva, 22 April - 2 May 2008

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 9/16 for more information.

Study Group 16 Home

The quadrennial event that defines the future direction for the ITU’s Standardization Sector (ITU-T) – the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) – will take place for the first time in Africa in 2008. It will also be the first chaired by a woman (Ms Lyndall Shope-Mafole, Director-General of the South African Department of Communications), and for the first time is preceded by a Global Standards Symposium (GSS). WTSA-08 will be held 21 - 30 October 2008, at the Emperors Palace, Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.

An official ‘Circular’ letter has been issued encouraging Member States and ITU-T Sector Members to participate in discussions on the future structure of the Sector: the study groups (including regional tariff groups under Study Group 3); and the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG). WTSA-08 will also be unique in that the term limit for chairmanships agreed at the WTSA-2000 will apply for the first time and many of the current chairmen and vice-chairmen will retire. Although this will mean the loss of much experience, it does offer the opportunity to consider a major restructuring of the Sector. Member States and ITU-T Sector Members are therefore advised to await the outcome of the next TSAG meeting in July, when a new structure for the Sector should be clearer, before submitting candidatures for chairmen or vice-chairmen.

The Global Standards Symposium (GSS) will be held at the same venue on 20 October 2008. It will see leading figures in the telecom/ICT field, both from government and the industry, give their vision of the future, and suggest ways of increasing the involvement of developing countries in the development and implementation of standards (bridging the standardization gap). Additionally the event will examine global ICT standards challenges, such as accessibility, climate change and collaboration among standards development organisations (SDOs). Although not formally a part of the WTSA-08, the GSS will provide a report to the WTSA for information and action as appropriate, giving participants a unique opportunity to provide input to the event that decides the future direction for ITU-T.

ITU will team up with ISO and IEC for a third time in 2008 to present the Fully Networked Car. The three organisations working together under the World Standards Cooperation (WSC) banner will host the workshop and exhibition at one of the world’s leading automotive events, the Geneva International Motor Show.

Key for 2008 is the question: How can ICTs in vehicles help mitigate and monitor climate change? The Honda Racing F1 Team has kindly agreed to display, as the key feature of the exhibition, its new 2008 F1 “Earthdreams car” to give special emphasis to the environmental theme. Experts believe that more sophisticated traffic management and driver assistance systems can help reduce the environmental impact caused by motoring.

2008 will see a keynote speech from Max Mosley, president of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile), organizer of the Formula One World Championship.

In general, the event, 5 - 7 March, will focus on information and communication technologies (ICT) in motor vehicles and specifically standards that will facilitate the convergence of these industries.

ICT in vehicles represents a significant value-add for consumers in terms of safety, comfort and mobility. Predictions for the size of the market run into billions of dollars and stakeholders agree that standardization is key to the development of new technologies and that coordination between the traditionally remote vehicle manufacturing and ICT industries is crucial.

The Fully Networked Car brings together experts ranging from top decision-makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts and analysts. The workshop programme features speakers from some of the biggest names in the ICT and automobile industries. The panel of high-level global experts that will frame the major issues and engage the audience in discussion on this important topic come from companies including: BMW, Connexis, Fiat, Ford, Freescale Semiconductor, Honda, Intel, Motorola, Oracle, SVOX, Telefonica, Telcordia, Toyota-InfoTechnology Center, T-Systems, Volvo and Wavecom.

Among other topics to be discussed are the radio spectrum used for car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communications; the convergence of telematics and infotainment and systems and standards related to safety.

In the context of ITU-T's efforts to address climate change issues, Study Group 15 will hold three tutorials on energy saving techniques during its February meeting.

A checklist for developers of standards is already under development in SG 15. The technologies considered in the list include optical transport networks and access network transport technologies such as digital subscriber line (DSL) and Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Networks (GPON). Together these technologies represent a significant consumption of energy worldwide. The idea is that the checklist is applied before the work commences, during the work and after the completion of the work. The use of the checklist should ideally be complemented by involving energy efficiency experts and users in the process.

The tutorials to be held 13, 14 and 15 February will look at the checklist as well as topics such as energy efficient Ethernet and opportunities and techniques for power saving in DSL and PON. A general introduction to the issues surrounding ICTs and climate change, (to be addressed in two upcoming ITU Symposia on ICTs and Climate Change), and an update on the outcome of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, December 2007, will be included.

ITU has issued a call for papers/speakers for its upcoming Symposia on ICTs and Climate Change, to be held April 15-16 2008 in Kyoto, Japan, hosted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and 17-18 June 2008 in London, hosted by BT.

The events are part of a new initiative by ITU to better understand how ICTs can help mitigate and adapt to climate change as well as monitoring its impact.

Click here for a document detailing some ITU-T highlights for 2007.

An Information Note from the ITU IS Department is available to help you configure your laptop for the ITU's Wireless LAN.

• ITU's Wireless LAN facilities for Delegates NEW! [Ver.10 Updated 28.11.2007]

See the EWM FAQs page

Next meeting of TSAG - Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group

Geneva, 3-7 December 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 5/TSAG for more information.

TSAG Home

The government of Rwanda generously hosted ITU’s first ever global Forum on Bridging the ICT standardization and development gap between developed and developing countries, in Kigali, Rwanda, 2-4 October. Participants welcomed the recent establishment of a special fund for voluntary contributions from world governments and industry to address the issue.

The ICT standardization gap refers to the shortage of human resources in developing countries, relative to developed ones, in terms of being able to participate effectively in the standards-making and implementation process. Standards are an essential tool in bridging the digital divide, in reducing costs, and bringing vital aid to developing countries in building their infrastructure and encouraging economic development.

Over 160 participants from 38 countries took part in the meeting, with several countries being represented at government Minister or company CEO level. The conclusions of the Forum, outlining the importance of addressing the standardization gap, will be provided as input to the upcoming Connect Africa summit to be held in Kigali, 29-30 October.

The Forum was formally opened by H.E. Albert Butare, Minister of State in charge of Energy and Communications. He drew attention to the country’s National Information and Communications Infrastructure (NICI) Plan where the aim is to focus on the benefits of ICTs for national development and prosperity so that by 2020 Rwanda will have achieved middle-income status as a knowledge-based economy. The Minister welcomed the support being given by ITU and the international community in helping Rwanda to achieve its goals.

Mr. Malcolm Johnson, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, speaking in Kigali at the opening of the Forum, said: “The significance of the standardization gap is that it contributes to the persistence of the wider digital divide in ICTs. That is because one of the underlying causes of the digital divide is unequal access to technology and the ability to implement and use that technology. The process of technology transfer and implementation will happen much faster when African engineers can participate in standards development, particularly at the requirements-gathering stage, and are familiar with the relevant standards.”

Meeting participants agreed that a sustained commitment to raising standards awareness and to capacity-building is of particular importance and the meeting called on the ITU to step up its efforts, welcoming ITU’s organisation of a Global Standardization Symposium to address the issue. This will be held on 20 October 2008 just ahead of the next World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-08), planned for South Africa.

A chairman’s report from the Forum is available online as well as a full set of presentations: here.

ITU is holding a workshop - Making accessibility a reality in emerging technologies - at the second meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro, 13 November, 1430-1600.

ITU’s standardization arm - ITU-T - has a long history of providing standards in the field of accessibility. It started in the early 90's with the international text telephone standard, ITU-T Recommendation V.18, which ties together text telephone protocols allowing different textphone types to communicate.

ITU-T’s accessibility experts have helped to incorporate accessibility needs into standards for multimedia, network interoperability, multimedia service descriptions and multimedia conferencing.

The latest work has focused on taking accessibility needs into account in the development of all standards. For this reason an ‘Accessibility Checklist’ has been created for the makers of standards to ensure that they are taking into account the needs of those to whom accessibility to ICTs are restricted, the deaf or hard-of-hearing for example. Experts say that such a list will help to ensure that accessibility needs are taken into account at an early stage, rather than ‘retrofitted’.

An area of current intensive standardization activity is that on the next generation network (NGN). Accessibility features have been included at the first stage of standards work where requirements are defined. However it is important that these needs are taken into account as work progresses.

This workshop, organized by ITU, as part of the Internet Governance Forum brings together experts from around the world to examine how best to take into account accessibility needs in emerging technologies.

Further information here (ITU page) here (IGF page).

World Standards Day is celebrated each year on 14 October to pay tribute to the efforts of thousands of experts worldwide who collaborate within IEC, ISO and ITU to develop voluntary International Standards that facilitate trade, spread knowledge and disseminate technological advances.

International Standards help citizens to exercise their rights and to meet their obligations within the Global Village. This link between standards and global citizenship is the theme of this year's World Standards Day message, “Standards and the citizen: Contributing to society”. The message is signed by the leaders of the three principal international standardization organizations: Mr. Renzo Tani, President of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), Mr. Håkan Murby, President of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The three leaders point out that standards solve problems in all spheres of activity and give the following examples: “A world without standards would soon grind to a halt. Transport and trade would seize up. The Internet would simply not function. Hundreds of thousands of systems dependent on information and communication technologies would falter or fail — from government and banking to healthcare and air traffic control, emergency services, disaster relief and even international diplomacy.”

International Standards are ubiquitous in the modern world, making many everyday tasks easier and safer. The heads of the three standardization organizations point out that even the simple act of reading the World Standards Day message on a computer screen depends on hundreds of standards that allow the computer to function, provide access to Internet, or simplify the printing and distribution of hard copies through standardized paper sizes.

The leaders of IEC, ISO and ITU underline how much standards underpin our daily lives: "Without standards, consider how difficult — or even dangerous — it would be to carry out ordinary, daily tasks. Safety standards for machinery protect us at work and at play. At home, standards keep electrical appliances connected to the national grid and keep our refrigerators and air conditioners compliant with environmental safeguards to prevent global warming. Our audio systems, television sets and DVD players, mobile phones and WiFi all comply with standards to make them compatible with other systems. From mobile videos and music to online education, telemedicine, e-banking and satellite navigation systems for our cars and aircraft — where would we be without standards in an increasingly networked world?"

Through their work in developing standards, IEC, ISO and ITU help to open up markets, promote environmental protection, safety, security, health and access to information, and to break down barriers between rich and poor nations. Their standards also foster technological innovation, healthy commerce and fair prices.

The leaders of the three organizations conclude their message, "As we move into the future, the work of IEC, ISO and ITU will continue to facilitate the development and diffusion of new technologies that will drive the world economy, contributing to the well being of all of the world’s inhabitants."

Working Party 2/17 Meeting - Security, languages and telecommunication software

Geneva 10 - 14 December 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 8/17 for more information.

Study Group 17 Home

A call for abstracts has been issued for ITU, ISO and IEC’s now regular event focusing on information and communication technologies (ICT) in motor vehicles.

For the third year running The Fully Networked Car is being organized by ITU, ISO and IEC, working together as the World Standards Cooperation (WSC). Taking place at one of the world’s leading automotive events, the Geneva International Motor Show, the event will comprise a workshop with demonstrations and will take place between 5 and 7 March 2008.

Authors wishing to present papers should submit a half-page abstract, including the title of the paper and the author’s full name, short biography, address, telephone and e-mail, to tsbcar@itu.int by Friday, 16 November 2007. A new topic area for 2008 is ICT and the environment, suggestions for other topics can be found on the event's webpage.

This year’s event will feature a keynote speech from Max Mosley, president of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) which is also the organizer of the Formula One World Championship).

Optical Expo is a Light Reading event 2-3 October in Dallas.

Under the session heading The Drive to 100-GigE, Steve Trowbridge, Vice Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 15, will provide the latest updates on ITU standardization efforts as the industry moves to 40 Gbit/s and ultimately 100-GigE.

Meeting of Study Group 6 - Outside Plant and related indoor installations

Geneva 19 - 23 November 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 5/6 for more information.

Study Group 6 Home

A prize fund totaling $10,000 has been kindly donated by Cisco to be awarded to the three best papers submitted to the upcoming Innovations in Next Generation Networks event to be held in May 2008.

The fund is announced in a third call for papers which has been issued to attract contributions towards a kaleidoscopic view of communication habits for the future.

The call for papers has also been updated to announce the availability of an online submission tool.

Cisco’s prize fund will be split into three: First prize, $5,000, second $3,000 and third $2,000. Innovations in Next Generation Networks is organized by ITU-T with IEEE Communications Society as Technical Co-Sponsor.

Those wanting to submit papers are asked to consider questions such as what services will emerge in NGN, how NGN will affect the marketplace for ICT, and how society will be affected. The event is the first in a series, under the banner “Kaleidoscope Conferences”. The events will increase the dialogue between academia and experts working on the standardization of information and communications technologies (ICT).

Deadline for the call for papers is 15 October 2007.

IEEE Communications Society has been announced as Technical Co-Sponsor of the International Telecommunication Union’s upcoming Innovations in Next Generation Networks event to be held in Geneva, Switzerland May 2008. The partnership means that IEEE Communications Society will encourage members to respond to a call for papers issued by ITU.

The call for papers is to inspire contributions towards a kaleidoscopic view of communication habits for the future. We know what NGN is in terms of the underlying technology, but we don’t know what services will emerge, how NGN will affect the marketplace for ICT, and how society will be affected. Innovations in NGN is the first in a series of events, under the banner “Kaleidoscope Conferences”, that aims at increasing the dialogue between academia and experts working on the standardization of information and communications technologies (ICT).

By viewing technologies through a kaleidoscope, these forward looking conferences will also seek to identify new topics for standardization. Innovations in NGN will bring together visionary ideas on the future of NGN. It will highlight technologies, services and applications five years and beyond that will capitalize on the NGN infrastructure and lead to the ubiquitous network society in which information can be accessed anywhere and anytime by anyone and anything. The event will also cover multidisciplinary aspects related to the deployment of NGN, including analysis of regulatory and societal challenges.

Meeting of Study Group 9 - - Integrated broadband cable networks and television and sound transmission

Louisville, Colorado, USA, 29 October - 2 November 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 6/9 for more information.

Study Group 9 Home

Working Parties 1/5 and 2/5 Meeting - Protection against electromagnetic environment effects

Geneva, 19-23 November 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 6/5 for more information.

Study Group 5 Home

Meeting of Study Group 12 - Performance and quality of service

Geneva, 2-11 October 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 5/12 for more information.

Study Group 12 Home

Meeting of Study Group 3 - Tariff and accounting principles including related telecommunication economic and policy issues

Geneva, 2 - 9 October, 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 5/3 for more information.

Study Group 3 Home

Meeting of Study Group 17 - Security, languages and telecommunication software

Geneva, 19 - 28 September 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 7/17 for more information.

Study Group 17 Home

Meetings of Study Group 2 - Operational aspects of service provision, networks and performance

Geneva, 30 October - 8 November 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 6/2 for more information.

Study Group 2 Home

Meetings of Study Group 4 - Telecommunication management

Geneva, 28 August - 7 September 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 6/4 for more information.

Study Group 4 Home

Meetings of Study Group 19 - Mobile telecommunication networks

Geneva, 21 September 2007 (afternoon)

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 7/19 for more information.

Study Group 19 Home

Working Party 1, 2, 3, and 4/13 Meetings of Study Group 13 - Next Generation Networks

Geneva, 21 September 2007 (afternoon)

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 8/13 for more information.

Study Group 13 Home

ITU-T is establishing an ''Expert Group'' which will review the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs). 

The ITRs are an international treaty whose purpose is to promote the development of telecommunication services and their most efficient operation while harmonizing the development of facilities for worldwide telecommunications.

The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) was requested by the Plenipotentiary Conference of 2006 to start the review process of the ITRs, which was last updated in 1988. The review is considered appropriate in light of the changing ICT environment characterized by convergence of telecoms, IT, broadcast as well as other industry sectors and also the liberalization of telecoms markets.

The Expert Group will examine the existing ITRs. The output of the ITU-T review will feed into a World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) scheduled for 2012. A different process, the World Telecommunication Policy Form (WTPF), will consider emerging telecommunications policy and regulatory issues with respect to international telecommunication networks and services.

The first meeting of the Expert Group will be held in Geneva, 10-11 October 2007. Information relating to the expert group will be available on the ITU-T website here . Information on the WTPF is available on the ITU-T website here.

ITU-T has issued a call for papers for an event - Innovations in Next Generation Networks - to be held in Geneva, 12-13 May 2008. The event is the first in a series that will increase the dialogue between academia and experts working on the standardization of information and communications technologies (ICT). Awards will be granted to selected best papers, as judged by the organizing and programme committee. Details will be announced later.

Innovations in NGN is to inspire contributions towards a kaleidoscopic view of communication habits for the future. We know what NGN is in terms of the underlying technology, but we don’t know what services will emerge, how NGN will affect the marketplace for ICT, and how society will be affected. The call for papers lists a number of suggested topics.

Innovations in NGN will bring together new and visionary ideas on the future of NGN. It will highlight technologies, services and applications five years from now that will capitalize on the NGN infrastructure and will lead us to the so-called ubiquitous network society in which information can be accessed anywhere, at anytime, by anyone and anything. The event will also cover multidisciplinary aspects related to the deployment of NGN, including analysis of the regulatory and societal challenges that the deployment of NGN will bring.

Recognizing that satellite systems could be an important part of emerging Next Generation Networks (NGN), an ITU-T Workshop entitled “Satellites in the NGN?” will take place 13 July 2007 in Montreal, Canada. Following the workshop, the third meeting of the Intersector Coordination Group on Satellite Matters (ICG SAT) will take place.

The objectives of the workshop, hosted by ATIS, include examination of the role of satellite systems in NGN, and development of a perspective on current and future NGN standards. Participation is open to all interested parties.

Sessions will give an overview of NGN, examine QoS and QoE (E for experience), IPTV and mobility support, network management and requirements for disaster relief.

The role of the ICG SAT is to monitor and coordinate the work programmes of the relevant Study Groups in ITU-R and ITU-T in relation to the use of satellites. It aims also to draw the attention of the relevant Study Groups to emerging technologies and perform gap analysis to identify new work areas.

Fifth meeting of the Focus Group on IPTV (FG IPTV)
Geneva, 23-31 July 2007

See TSB Circular 147 for more information

IPTV Focus Group (FG IPTV) Home

Third Meeting of the Focus Group "From/In/To Cars Communication"

ITU Headquarters, Geneva

25 June 2007 (in advance of SG 16 meeting)

Registration Form

FG FIT Home

Working Party 2/11, Working Party 3/11 Meetings of Study Group 11 - Signalling requirements and protocols

Geneva, 21 September 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 8/11 for more information.

Study Group 11 Home

NXTComm, June 18-21, Chicago will see ITU-T members, and guests stage an interoperability showcase for fibre to the premises (FTTP) related standards.

ITU, together with Telcordia, have collaborated to organize a multi-company interoperability demonstration featuring gigabit passive optical network (G-PON) equipment built according to the ITU-T G.984 Recommendation. PON technology is used in the local loop environment to cost effectively connect residential and Small and medium enterprises (SME) end users premises in an all-fibre network.

The G-PON Pavilion features live demonstrations of G-PON equipment interoperability; with interoperability being a critical enabler to reducing G-PON equipment costs. Triple-play interoperability demonstrations are provided by the following device and equipment manufactures: Alphion, Cambridge Industries Group, Hitachi, Huawei, iamba Networks, LS Cable, PMC-Sierra, Tellabs, Terawave Communications, TXP Corporation, XAVi Technologies, ZTE Corporation. Corning is providing the optical distribution network components over which the 2488 Mbps/1244 Mbps (downstream/upstream) G-PON systems will be operating.

With PONs, signals are carried by lasers and sent to their destination without the need for active electronics in the outside plant of the telecommunications network. Carriers can realize significant savings with fiber sharing in the local loop, equipment sharing in the Central Office and by eliminating the dependence on expensive active network elements.

ITU-T Recommendations in the G.984 series detail gigabit PONs (G-PON), the latest generation of PON technology. Increasing capacity to gigabit levels should more than satisfy foreseeable customer demands, offering video applications, high-speed Internet access, multimedia and other high-bandwidth capabilities. G-PON maintains the same optical distribution network, wavelength plan and full-service network design principles of broadband PONs (B-PON) defined in ITU-T Rec G.983. As well as allowing for increased network capacity, the new standard offers more efficient IP and Ethernet handling.

ITU and the IEEE will hold a workshop on carrier-class Ethernet, 31 May - 1 June.Much work has been done in both organisations to progress Ethernet, developed as an enterprise technology, into a carrier service. The event will focus on opportunities for further collaboration. Long-recognized as the ubiquitous LAN technology, Ethernet is now seeing increased attention as a carrier-grade service. In part this is due to the convenience of being able to simply provide end-to-end service, but also carriers can realize savings both in terms of capital and operational expenditure.

Ethernet services are becoming popular because they allow carriers to offer considerably improved flexibility to customers through a much simpler and lower cost interface. Ethernet allows users to specify exactly how much bandwidth they want between the 10Mbit/s and 1Gbit/s range currently offered. Further, Ethernet provides reduced operation complexity and improved scalability for carriers. And as operators look to NGN and the use of the Internet Protocol (IP), Ethernet is seen as the best fit, especially given the rise of such services as IP VPNs, VLANs and dedicated Internet access.

The event will start with an overview of the standards work from ITU-T and IEEE and will then drill down into detail with sessions focusing on: Ethernet based and Ethernet capable access networks; Ethernet network transport; Ethernet Bridging architecture; Ethernet OAM and management; Ethernet QoS, timing and synchronization. A closing session will bring together reports from all of the session chairs in order to identify the direction of future work.

Meeting of Study Group 9 - Integrated broadband cable networks and television and sound transmission

Singapore, 14-20 June 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 5/9 and Addendum 1 to TSB Collective-letter 5/9 for more information.

Study Group 9 Home

Meeting of Study Group 16 - Multimedia terminals, systems and applications

Geneva, 26 June – 6 July 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 7/16 for more information.

Study Group 16 Home

A Seminar on Standardization and Development of Next-Generation Networks for the Arab Region, will take place in Manama, Bahrain from 29 April to 2 May (morning) 2007.

Hosted by the Bahrain Telecommunications Company (BATELCO), the event is organized by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) and the Standardization Bureau (TSB) of ITU.

The seminar will be followed by a Workshop on NGN Interconnection from 2 to 3 May 2007. The objectives of the seminar are two fold: first, to discuss the current trends, status and future evolution of NGN technology and standardization. Second, NGN regulatory and policy issues which will allow developing countries to exploit its full potential will be discussed.

The objective of the interconnection workshop is to look at the challenges for regulatory and policy frameworks associated with the deployment of NGN in the region. It will focus, in particular, on what kinds of interconnection arrangements make sense in an NGN world.

A call for papers has been issued for the 10th Asia-Pacific Network Operations and Management Symposium (APNOMS 2007).

The event will be held in Sapporo, Japan from October 10 to 12, 2007 with the theme “Managing Next Generation Networks and Services.”

From the call for papers: “Recently, various convergences in wired and wireless networks, and convergence of telecommunications and broadcastings are taking place for ubiquitous multimedia service provisioning. For example, broadband IP/MPLS wired networks are actively converged with IEEE 802.11e wireless LAN, IEEE 802.16 Wireless MAN, 3G/4G wireless cellular networks, and direct multimedia broadcast (DMB) network. For efficient support of service provisioning for ubiquitous multimedia services on the broadband convergence networks, well-designed and implemented network operations and management functions with QoS-guaranteed traffic engineering are essential.”

“In APNOMS 2007, the topics of interest include, but not limited to, network & service management for broadband convergence networks, business operations & management, service-oriented managements (e.g., SLA/SLS, security, billing), management architecture and technologies, various experiences, and recent standardization activities.”

Next meeting of Study Group 2 - Operational aspects of service provision, networks and performance

Geneva, 27 - 31 August 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 5/2 for more information.

Study Group 2 Home

Meeting of Study Group 15 - Optical and other transport network infrastructures

Geneva, 4-15 June 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 4/15 for more information.

Study Group 15 Home

The first meeting of the Regional Group of Study Group 2 in the Arab region will take place 26th March 2007, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

The objective of the Regional Group is to facilitate the involvement of developing countries (DC) in SG2 standardization activities, reflection of DC needs and requirements in SG2 questions, promote the implementation of SG2 Recommendations, and increase awareness of DC with SG2 standardization areas.

Study Group 2 is the Lead Study Group on Service definition, Numbering and Routing.

Among the methodologies to achieve these goals are: Convening regional meetings, use of electronic means and collaboration of experts from the developed countries - as flagship Ggroup leaders - with DC experts.

An e-Forum is now active for discussions and questions about NNA (naming, numbering and addressing) issues. Post your questions to the forum on the here.

Regional Group of Study Group 2 in the ARAB Region Home 

Next meeting of Study Group 6 - Outside Plant and related indoor installations

Geneva, 14 - 18 May 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 4/6 for more information.

Study Group 6 Home

The Fully Networked Car workshop held during the Geneva Motor Show has closed today, Friday 9 March, with participants and speakers declaring the event a great success. 191 people participated in the event according to the organizers. 

Malcolm Johnson, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, underlined his commitment to working with other standards bodies at the opening of the recent Fully Networked Car event in Geneva. "We are now placing great emphasis on bringing together the various standards bodies to avoid duplication of effort and to address convergence in areas such as the one addressed in this workshop,” he said. “That is why I am so pleased to have had the cooperation of ISO and IEC in the organization of this workshop."

The workshop (accompanied by an exhibition on 6-10 March) was the latest initiative organized by the three partner organizations of the World Standards Cooperation (WSC): IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), ITU (International Telecommunication Union), and ISO (International Organization for Standardization).

ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden remarked: “Following the previous workshops that we have organized with IEC and ITU on health technologies and the digital home, this workshop on the fully networked car is another example of the initiatives we have taken in the area of converging technologies."

The workshop addressed the market for information and communication technologies (ICT) in motor vehicles, which represents an ever-increasing share of innovation and added value in the automotive sector. The “fully networked car", taking full advantage of ICT for vehicles and road transport systems, is expected to offer a range of benefits including improved safety, reduced traffic congestion and pollution, and a smoother driving experience.

The WSC event provided a forum for the key specialists in the field, from top decision makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts and others. It helped to identify how and which standards can speed the development of the fully networked car and its introduction into the market.

Participants at the Fully Networked Car Event.

Meeting of Study Group 13 - Next Generation Networks

Geneva, 16 – 27 April 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 7/13 for more information.

Study Group 13 Home

Meeting of Study Group 11 - Signalling requirements and protocols

Geneva, 23 – 27 April 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 7/11 for more information.

Study Group 11 Home

Meeting of Study Group 19 - Mobile telecommunication networks
 
Geneva, 19-26 April 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 6/19 for more information.

Study Group 19 Home

Standards that will ease the wide spread rollout of video over IP networks took a step forward in January.

IPTV architecture and requirements, two fundamentally important areas in standards work were progressed at a recent meeting of the ITU-T Focus Group on IPTV. There was general consensus in the meeting that FG IPTV will successfully develop documents which will accelerate introduction of IPTV to the global market. Setting the architecture and requirements in stone allows the rest of the work to continue with greater ease.

Meeting at the Microsoft conference center, Mountain View California, at the invitation of the Alliance for Telecom Industry Standards (ATIS) the group saw a record number of contributions and experts worked often late to keep up with the workload. Nearly 90 documents were dealt with in the fields of architecture and requirements alone.

Malcolm Johnson, newly elected Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau said in a message he sent to the event: “The excellent cooperation between ITU-T and ATIS is an example of the spirit of cooperation that I believe now pervades in the standards world... From what I have seen there is a great deal to be satisfied by in terms of the progress that FG IPTV has achieved so far.”

In opening comments, ATIS President & CEO Susan Miller shared with the 200 meeting attendees that IPTV is serving as a “change agent” for the industry, and “as both the business case and principal driver for accelerating deployment of the next generation network.” Miller noted that for North American service providers in particular, “IPTV is a critical ingredient to bundled service offerings that encompass television services, mobile services, Internet access, and much more. We have seen in the last decade, enormous investments in broadband, and fiber deployments to the home and to the premise,” said Miller.

Also important a document outlining terms and definitions in the field was created. While seemingly mundane this work is crucially important in ensuring consistency of comprehension in an area where many standards outlining different aspects of IPTV will co-exist.

Further discussion is expected on whether and how to treat the issue of redistribution of content to a point past an IPTV terminal device, and, in particular, how content protection and content management functions can or should apply in a home network environment.

Other issues examined and progressed were accessibility issues for people with disabilities, AV codecs and content format requirements. Output (and other) documents can be seen here.

The next meeting of FG IPTV will be held from 7 to 11 May 2007 in Bled, Slovenia.

 

 

ITU and the IEEE will hold a workshop on carrier-class Ethernet, 31 May- 1 June.

Much work has been done in both organisations to progress Ethernet, developed as an enterprise technology, into a carrier service. The event will focus on opportunities for further collaboration.

Long-recognized as the ubiquitous LAN technology, Ethernet is now seeing increased attention as a carrier-grade service. In part this is due to the convenience of being able to simply provide end-to-end service, but also carriers can realize savings both in terms of capital and operational expenditure.

Ethernet services are becoming popular because they allow carriers to offer considerably improved flexibility to customers through a much simpler and lower cost interface. Ethernet allows users to specify exactly how much bandwidth they want between the 10Mbit/s and 1Gbit/s range currently offered. Further, Ethernet provides reduced operation complexity and improved scalability for carriers. And as operators look to NGN and the use of the Internet Protocol (IP), Ethernet is seen as the best fit, especially given the rise of such services as IP VPNs, VLANs and dedicated Internet access.

The event will start with an overview of the standards work from ITU-T and IEEE and will then drill down into detail with sessions focusing on: Ethernet based and Ethernet capable access networks; Ethernet network transport; Ethernet Bridging architecture; Ethernet OAM and management; Ethernet QoS, timing and synchronization. A closing session will bring together reports from all of the session chairs in order to identify the direction of future work.

Study Group 16 - Multimedia terminals, systems and applications

Working Party 3/16 Meeting

Geneva, 30 March 2007

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 6/16 for more information.

Study Group 17 - Security, languages and telecommunication software

Working Parties 1, 2 and 3/17 Meetings

Geneva, 20, 16-20, 18-20 April 2007, respectively

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 6/17 for more information.

Representatives of the car industry joined with more traditional ITU-T members at the first meeting of the Focus Group From/In/To Car Communication.

The Focus Group meeting in Geneva, January, worked on specifications that will enhance communications in vehicles. Using as a starting point a specification developed by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) the Focus Group is looking to improve a draft Recommendation – P.Carhft – under development by ITU-T’s Study Group 12. The Focus Group concept allows for non-members, in this case the auto industry to participate.

A first priority is to deal with speakerphone audio quality, aiming to provide a specification that will help to improve the speech- and sound - quality between different devices. Second priority is requirements for headsets including wireless. Chairman of the group, Hans Gierlich of Head Acoustics noted also that a major problem for the car industry is car-to-car communications.

While first concentrating on narrowband speech (3.4kHz), the group will eventually move into better quality - wideband (8kHz). Input is also required in the area of testing for interaction between the network and hands-free terminals. In addition speech recognition will be addressed.

Participating companies included Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, DaimlerChrysler, France Telecom, Harman/Becker, Head Acoustics, Mitsubushi, Nortel and Volkswagen.

A second FG meeting hosted by HARMAN/BECKER Automotive Systems is planned for March 15 in Ulm, Germany following the ITU, ISO and IEC event, The Fully Networked Car, Information and Communication Technologies in Motor Vehicles. The event taking place at the Geneva Motor Show will review and examine the implications of the latest developments in this fast-moving market. A significant value-add will be an exhibition showcasing the latest technologies in the field.

 

At Study Group 9’s last meeting: Tokyo, 2-6 October, 2006, Mayumi Matsumoto, Rapporteur for Q.5/9 made a short video giving an excellent introduction to the Study Group’s work.

The movie contains footage of a demonstration of technologies for emerging broadband services in the home including interviews with some of the exhibitors.

It’s a unique insight into a Study Group meeting and the events surrounding it. Watch it here.

Following ITU-T’s Workshop on Digital Identity for NGN Geneva, 5 December 2006 a decision has been made to set up a Focus Group on Identity Management (IdM) under the parentage of Study Group 17.

Digital identity refers to the online representation of a user’s or network element’s identity and the identity of those that the user or network element interacts with. It does not mean the positive validation of a person. Information regarding device identities is becoming an increasingly valuable commodity, and as a consequence, its protection and management are vital to a healthy and inclusive digital world.

There are different approaches for representing identities and different identity management frameworks. The lack of a common view on digital identity and its management has so far resulted in incompatible applications.

The Focus Group will explore mechanisms that allow different frameworks to interoperate together. Experts said there is a need to identify current gaps in proposed solutions. For example, IdM solutions that involve the telecom network level and in general lower layers have not been addressed sufficiently, they said. The Focus Group will act as a platform for an exchange of information in order to bring about necessary harmonisation.

All standards organizations and developer forums involved in identity management worldwide, including institutes, forums, companies, experts and individuals regardless of whether ITU members or not are encouraged to participate.

The first meeting of the FG IdM is scheduled to take place at ITU Headquarters, in Geneva, from 13 to 16 February 2007.

Next meeting of Study Group 4 - Telecommunication Management

Geneva, 5 - 14 February 2007

Registration form

See TSB Collective-letter 5/4 for more information.

Next meeting of Study Group 3 - Tariff and accounting principles including related telecommunication economic and policy issues

Geneva, 26 - 30 March 2007

Registration form

See TSB Collective-letter 4/3 for more information.