The January meeting of the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) has established a new Focus Group on Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Service Layer.

M2M refers to the ability of a machine to sense and measure certain variables, and communicate this information to other machines in a network. Included under the larger umbrella of the “Internet of Things” (IoT), M2M technologies have applications in a number of industries – e-health, fleet management, sales and payment, security and surveillance, intelligent transport systems (ITS) etc.

The group will study and evaluate the M2M landscape and M2M work currently being undertaken by regional and national standards development organizations (SDOs), with a view to identifying a common set of requirements.

The Focus Group will initially focus on the APIs and protocols to support e-health applications and services, and develop technical reports in these areas. It is suggested that the Focus Group establish three sub-working groups: “M2M use cases and service models”, “M2M service layer requirements” and “M2M APIs and protocols.” Strong collaboration with stakeholders such as Continua Health Alliance and World Health Organization (WHO) is foreseen.The Focus Group concept allows for greater operational flexibility and crucially allows non ITU members and other interested organisations to participate.

The group is expected to carry out the following specific tasks:

• Research, collect and analyze the vertical market M2M service layer needs, initially focusing on e-health.
• Identify a minimum common set of M2M service layer requirements and capabilities, initially focusing on e-health applications and services.
• Study APIs and relevant protocols that satisfy the above requirements and capabilities to support the communications between the M2M applications and the telecom networks.
• Develop technical reports to address the identified gaps and propose future standardization work for ITU-T developments on M2M.
• Support global harmonization and consolidation by inputting its final deliverables to the parent Study Group and other relevant Study Groups as appropriate.

These terms of reference are subject to consultation of the next four-weeks.The Focus Group will work closely with all ITU-T Study Groups, especially Study Groups 13 and 16, with the other ITU sectors (ITU-R, ITU-D) and with other relevant UN agencies, SDOs, forums/consortia, regulators, policy makers, industry and academia. Within the ITU, the group will work particularly closely with the Internet of Things Global Standards Initiative (IoT-GSI).

Standardization Committee for Vocabulary, 11 January 2012 face-to-face meeting

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Third Metting of Joint Coordination Activity on Internet of Things (JCA-IoT), Geneva, 28 - 29 November 2011

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JCA-IoT

 

Internet of Things Global Standards Initiative (IoT-GSI) - Third event Geneva, 21 - 25 November 2011

Convening letter (TSB Circular 221)

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Internet of Things Global Standards Initiative (IoT-GSI)

Meeting of Study Group 11,  Geneva, Switzerland, 17-21 October 2011

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SG11

ITU-T NGN-GSI Event : Co-located Meetings of Study Groups 11 and 13, Geneva, Switzerland, 10 – 21 October 2011

How to participate

Next Generation Networks Global Standards Initiative

 

 

A new Standards Q&A Forum will promote more interactive discussion between the experts creating ICT standards and those applying them. The pilot project has been launched to enable the submission of queries on all aspects of ITU-T Recommendations, in particular from developing countries.
 
Alongside the transfer of knowledge to developing nations, industry members in the developed world gain an opportunity to tap into new markets; making their products and services known to rapidly growing markets in developing nations.
 
The open, moderated forum will focus on the standardization work of ITU and offers participants a unique opportunity to engage with the experts that develop the standards underpinning ICT. An FAQ section introduces strangers to standardization and the ITU-T, covering all manner of questions from, “Why do we need international standards?,” to, “How does the ITU-T decide what needs standardization?” The forum is then organized into the major themes or questions being dealt with by ITU-T study groups.
 

 

The first meeting of ITU’s new Internet of Things Global Standards Initiative (IoT-GSI) has ended with industry and government participants agreeing on a solid work plan and on the importance of moving quickly forward with the first stages of that plan. GSI-IoT will act as an umbrella for IoT standards development worldwide. Two further meetings have been scheduled for 2011.

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. See previous story.  

One of the first important steps, as with any new area of standardization, is to agree on the scope of the work and agreed terminology. Thus the initiation of two major work-items are instrumental to the development of a work-plan for IoT standardization. The first work-item IoT Overview is intended to be approved as an ITU-T Recommendation by February 2012, it will clarify the scope of IoT as well as its high level requirements, key features, business models and ecosystem. The second work-item is a draft Recommendation on IoT terminology, that will include a definition of IoT, which is currently seen from two very different viewpoints: IoT as a global information and communication infrastructure or IoT as a philosophy - e.g. a social phenomenon to be considered for developing relevant technologies/specifications in the ICT area.

The group, meeting in Geneva, saw participation from a number of international, national and regional organizations including ISO/IEC JTC1, TIA from USA, and ETSI Europe.  The next IoT-GSI event will take place in Geneva, 22-26 August 2011, alongside a meeting of ITU-T’s Cybersecurity group - SG17, to facilitate the participation of experts in ICT security.

The group’s leadership is encouraging participation from all leading SDOs and the various industry sectors where IoT could be deployed in order that the requirements of those sectors can be taken into account at an early stage… Sectors include e-health; e-government, automotive, geo-information, remote sensing, home networking (home automation), e-business and e-commerce, climate change mitigation. Those interested in making a contribution or participating should contact tsbiotgsi@itu.int.

IPTV-GSI (Geneva, Switzerland, 16-20 May 2011)

TSB Circular 179

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IPTV Global Standards Initiative (IPTV-GSI)

Meeting of Study Group 11, WPs 1, 2, 3 and 4 (Geneva, 13 and 20 May 2011)

Collective Letter 8

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Study Group 11

Internet of Things Global Standards Initiative (IoT-GSI), Geneva, 9-13 May 2011

Convening letter (TSB Circular 182)

Online registration

Internet of Things Global Standards Initiative (IoT-GSI)

ITU-T IPTV-GSI event, Geneva, 14 - 18 March 2011

TSB Circular 160

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Meeting of Study Group 11, Geneva, 24 - 28 January 2011

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SG11 Collective Letter

ITU-T NGN GSI event: Co-located Meetings of Study Groups 11 and 13, Geneva, Switzerland, 17-28 January 2011

Convening letter (TSB Circular 147)

On-line registration form

for Study Group 11

for Study Group 13

Next Generation Networks Global Standards Initiative

SG 11 WPs 2,3,4/11
Geneva, Switzerland, 10 September 2010

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See TSB Collective letter 6/11 for more information

SG 11 WPs 2,3,4/11

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

Geneva, 28 January 2010 PM

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

ITU-T Study Group 11 Home

Meeting of IPTV-GSI - IPTV Global Standards Initiative

Geneva, 26-30 October 2009

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See TSB Circular 56 for more information.

IPTV-GSI Home

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

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2–12 September 2009

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NGN-GSI Home

Meeting of IPTV-GSI - IPTV Global Standards Initiative

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2–8 September 2009

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IPTV-GSI Home

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

Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2–10 September 2009

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

Study Group 11 Home

Live video streaming of the Forum on Next Generation Network (NGN) Standardization, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7 - 10 April 2009 will be available here.

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

Geneva, 23-27 June 2008

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See TSB Circular 221 for more information.

IPTV GSI Home

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

Geneva, 12–22 May 2008

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See TSB Circular 199 for more information.

NGN-GSI Home

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

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

TSAG Home

Standards produced by ITU — ITU-T Recommendations — are now available without charge. The announcement follows a highly successful trial conducted from January−October 2007, during which some two million ITU-T Recommendations were downloaded throughout the world.

The experiment’s aim was to “increase the visibility and easy availability of the output of ITU-T”. Offering standards for free is a significant step for the standards community as well as the wider information and communication technologies (ICT) industry. Now, anyone with Internet access will be able to download one of over 3000 ITU-T Recommendations that underpin most of the world’s ICT. The move further demonstrates ITU’s commitment to bridging the digital divide by extending the results of its work to the global community.

Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) Malcolm Johnson, presenting the results of the trial to the 2007 meeting of ITU’s Council, said that not only had the experiment been a success in raising awareness of ITU-T, it would also attract new members. Most importantly, he noted, it had helped efforts to bridge the “standardization gap” between countries with resources to pursue standardization issues and those without. “There has been very positive feedback from developing countries,” said Johnson. “Last year exactly 500 ITU-T Recommendations had been sold to developing countries; this year, after allowing free access, they have downloaded some 300 000.”

ITU-T Recommendations are developed in a unique contribution-driven and consensus-based environment by industry and government members, with industry providing the most significant input. A strong focus of current standards work is providing the foundations for the so-called next-generation network (NGN). Other key areas include IPTV, ICT in vehicles, cybersecurity, quality of service, multimedia, emergency communications and standards for access, such as VDSL 2 — very high speed digital subscriber line 2, the newest and most advanced standard of DSL broadband wireline communications.

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

Study Group 11 meeting in Geneva, end April has consented three important documents charting protocols for quality of service (QoS) in NGN. The protocols will ensure interoperability between network elements and systems as well as giving service providers the ability to specify rules for specific communication types.

The announcement marks a significant step forward for ITU-T’s NGN work. Protocol development is seen as the final stage of standards development following identification of the requirements, architecture, services etc. The Recommendations are a crucial part of the NGN standards package and a concrete realization of the functional architecture defined in ITU-T Rec. Y.2111 - Resource and admission control functions in Next Generation Networks.

The protocols agreed at the April meeting will guarantee that when a service request is made QoS needs are transmitted, ensuring that each network element provisions the correct level of bandwith and resources to ensure the class of QoS for that particular application. So – for example – more bandwidth can be allocated and guaranteed for IPTV than for voice.

The three ITU-T Recommendations include the specification of the physical entities involved in resource control signalling, the interfaces across which signalling takes place, and the mapping between these entities and interfaces and the corresponding functional entities and reference points in ITU-T Rec. Y.2111. An Appendix provides a further mapping between the interfaces and the protocol specifications which realize those interfaces.

The Recommendations refer to signalling used in different geographical parts of the world: ITU-T Recommendation H.248/Megaco used in for example Japan, COPS used for example in China and Diameter which is used in North America.

Another three protocols in the field of resource control were consented by Study Group 11 earlier in the year.

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.

ITU-T will hold a Workshop on Multimedia in NGN, Geneva, 10-11 September.

Multimedia applications and services are migrating towards a single converged user-centric communications network. The “internet of things” represents one of the key challenges for NGN standardization.

This migration, or evolution, has been recognized in ITU-T and a number of initiatives have started for the development of global standards in specific areas like IPTV, GRID, networked aspects of identification (including RFID aspects), sensor networks and more.

An aim of the NGN is to provide the necessary service capabilities to support present and future multimedia applications and services.

This workshop will contribute to the NGN vision of supporting future multimedia services and applications, and will facilitate experience and knowledge sharing between the NGN community, multimedia service and application experts. The various sessions will identify future developments at the service and application level and their impact on NGN capabilities.

The workshop will investigate future trends driven by technology and business needs in the area of multimedia services and applications, including those resulting from fixed-mobile-broadcast convergence.

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

Next meeting of TSAG - Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (including meeting of the Seminar Coordination Committee (SCC))
 
Geneva, 26 February - 1 March 2007

Registration Form

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

TSAG Home

http://www.itu.int/plenipotentiary/2006/newsroom/elections/results/directors.html#tsb
Press release: http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2006/25.html

A new tool that will give a unique overview of ITU-T’s next generation network (NGN) work has gone live. The NGN Project Management Tool, was developed with the support of a voluntary contribution from Siemens.

Since the work towards standards for NGN is taking place across a number of different ITU-T study groups and other standards development organizations (SDOs) the ability to coordinate and view all NGN work in one place will be invaluable to the swift and efficient publication of NGN specifications.

Essentially a repository of information from ITU and other SDOs, the system was asked for by members of the various Study Groups working on NGN. Key will be the ability to keep track of the latest versions of Recommendations and provide detailed information for experts and summaries for management.

Over seven hundred people voted for the most influential standards work from ITU-T in a recent poll to celebrate 50 years of CCITT/ITU-T.

The work area receiving the most votes was video coding. The task of video coding is to establish efficient formats for storing and transmitting video data. The work of ITU–T in this field was pioneered in joint projects with the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC).

Gary Sullivan Rapporteur of the group that has led video coding work: “It is a great honor to see our video coding work so highly appreciated. Much of the credit should go to my predecessors in leading the ITU-T video coding work, Sakae Okubo, Richard Schaphorst, and Karel Rijkse, and also to my Associate Rapporteur Thomas Wiegand, as well as to all our contributors and our ISO/IEC collaborators. One key technical contributor I would cite in particular is Gisle Bjøntegaard.

Besides the two video standards that were explicitly mentioned in the poll question (H.262/MPEG2-Video and H.264/AVC), there were several others of substantial importance in the standardization of that field. Specifically, that includes H.120, H.261, and H.263.

I think perhaps our edge over SS7 and other such telephony network standards in the voting was really just a matter of our work being more familiar to most people and perhaps fresher in people's minds. The work of the ITU has been at the heart of developing a reliable world-wide telephony network, and that has been hugely important to us all.”

Signalling System number 7 (SS7) received the second highest number of votes. SS7 is a common channel signalling system that separates network resource control from the resources being controlled. This fundamental shift enabled the implementation of highly efficient centralized databases for call control, especially valuable for services that may be accessed from any subscriber line (Intelligent Networks, 800/Freephone, credit card, VPN, etc.), and an integral capability on which today’s ubiquitous mobile phone systems depend. Among other service supporting capabilities, it enables monitoring the status of a line to see if it is busy or idle, alerts that indicate the arrival of a call, and the addressing system that routes calls.

John Visser, Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 19: "SS7 is felt by many to be a cornerstone technology of modern telecommunications.” Visser describes the group which developed the SS7 Recommendations and who were recognized by their peers as ‘Knights of SS7’, as “…a camaraderie… who proudly display the certificates awarded to them as part of this recognition of their efforts.”

Voting results can be seen here.

 

ITU-T Study Groups meeting under the auspices of the NGN Global Standards Initiative (NGN-GSI), July, finalized a substantial body of work. Sixteen new standards went into the final stages of the ITU approval process in areas including requirements, architecture, QoS and security. Around 650 documents were considered by the lead SG on NGN, Study Group 13, alone. Study Group management reported high levels of participation and good progress.

Two rather fundamental documents describing requirements for NGN and describing the functional architecture of the NGN will be published as ITU-T Recommendations after formal approval. Also, QoS, a crucial element as networks move to an environment inherently more susceptible to delay, interference etc. was a key focus, one new Recommendation was consented in this field.

Experts also point to the importance of a Recommendation (ITU-T Rec. Y.2021) describing how the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) as specified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) can be used in the NGN context. A Rec. from Study Group 19 on mobility management was also highlighted, see story here.

Introduction

Following the first couple of meetings under the auspices of the NGN-GSI and in line with the strategy of reinforcing the NGN work in ITU-T by means of co-location of Rapporteur group meetings, the next NGN-GSI event will take place at the ITU premises, Geneva, from 24 October (PM) – 3 November 2006.

This event will follow the ITU-T/OGF workshop "ITU-T/OGF Workshop on Next Generation Networks and Grids", which will take place at the same location on 23 – 24 (AM) October 2006. Information related to this workshop is contained in TSB Circular 95.

Objectives for this meeting

• to progress the draft Recommendations that are targeted to be consented in 4Q2006 and early 2007
• to progress other deliverables, e.g. Supplements

More details

NGN-GSI Home

Introduction

ITU-T is hosting a workshop NGN and Grids in collaboration with the Open Grid Forum (OGF) in Geneva, 23-24 October 2006.

ITU-T’s Global Standards Initiative on Next Generation Network (NGN-GSI) is well under way and is responding to urgent market needs for global NGN standards. NGN offers increased quality and service features for users, independent of the underlying transport technology.

Grids have been widely used in the scientific community. Increasingly, Grids are being deployed within commercial settings. The Open Grid Forum is actively reaching out to communities such as the Telco community to advance Grid adoption, interoperability and scalability. Different scenarios for Telcos can be envisioned: Telcos may 1) specialize in network SLAs that are optimally suited to Grids; 2) use Grids for their IT internal needs; and/or 3) offer Grids as a managed service to customers.

Objectives

• The joint ITU-T/OGF workshop will bring together the telecoms industry and the Grid community to:
• Review the present status of applications, services and business opportunities in Grid networks and NGNs.
• Discuss future evolution for Grids and NGNs both in terms of business opportunities and related technical requirements.
• Identify relevant existing international standards as well as gaps in the standardization framework for Grids and NGNs.
• Understand what additional features required by Grids should be considered in ITU-T’s NGN Release 2.
• Identify the impact of NGN on Grids.
• Contribute to the establishment of a roadmap for future standardization activities among major players.
• Prepare a coordinated action plan on urgent standardization issues between standards developing organizations and fora/consortia working in this area.

More details

ITU-T Workshops and Seminars 

Introduction

At the kind invitation of the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), the International Telecommunications Union - Standardization Bureau (ITU-T) and the International Telecommunication Union - Development Bureau (ITU-D) are jointly organizing a Workshop on “Next Generation Networks” which will take place from 3-5 October 2006 inclusive, at the Markham Suites Hotels, Dar-Es-Salaam, in the United Republic of Tanzania.

The objectives of the seminar are twofold: first, to discuss the current trends, status and future evolution of Next Generation Networks technology and standardization, as being addressed by the ITU-T and share the experiences of NGN design, development and deployment. Central to these are: what areas of technology innovation hold the greatest promise for NGNs; what are the most innovative applications and services possible with NGNs? To this effect, issues revolving around NGN architecture, NGN technology and quality of service requirements, as well as evolution will be explored. Second, as NGNs are a major departure from the network today - these developments will likely change the ways of the telecommunication sector operates, NGN regulatory and policy issues for developing countries to exploit its full potential for development will also be discussed.

More details

ITU-T Workshops and Seminars

As part of celebrations for the 50^th anniversary of ITU-T, you are invited to vote for the most influential standards work from ITU-T.

ITU work is behind many of the worlds most prevalent information and communications technologies. Choose here from our shortlist which you think has best shaped the ICT world of today, or feel free to suggest your own idea.

 

 

ITU-T is hosting a workshop NGN and Grids in collaboration with the Global Grid Forum (GGF) in Geneva, 23-24 October 2006.

ITU-T’s Global Standards Initiative on Next Generation Network (NGN-GSI) is well under way and is responding to urgent market needs for global NGN standards. NGN offers increased quality and service features for users, independent of the underlying transport technology.

Grids have been widely used in the scientific community. Increasingly, Grids are being deployed within commercial settings. The Global Grid Forum is actively reaching out to communities such as the Telco community to advance Grid adoption, interoperability and scalability. Different scenarios for Telcos can be envisioned: Telcos may 1) specialize in network SLAs that are optimally suited to Grids; 2) use Grids for their IT internal needs; and/or 3) offer Grids as a managed service to customers.

More information

January saw a gathering of hundreds of NGN experts in Geneva for the first NGN-GSI (global standards initiative) event. Good progress was reported in several key areas particularly in the important area of functional architecture and requirements for resource and admission control functions (RACF) in NGNs. The Recommendation covering RACF is said to be stable and is expected to be consented at the July GSI event.

The January event comprised three full Study Group meetings (11, 13 and 19). Experts from various other Study Groups were in attendance for this first meeting of the GSI following its launch in November, 2005.

Study Group 13, the lead for NGN work, alone saw over 250 contributions, many a result of the work of the Focus Group on NGN. SG 13 saw three new Recommendations consented, see separate stories (Y.1731, Y.1452, Y.1453).

Study Group 11 reported that 50 contributions were received and launched work on an NGN Protocol Set. According to SG documents ITU-T NGN-Protocol Set 1 will define protocols for the support of:

· Network to Network Interface (NNI) session control;

· User to network Interface (UNI) session control;

· Resource Control Interfaces;

· Network Attachment Interfaces.

Protocol Set 1 is targeted for completion by the end of 2006.

The chair of Study Group 19 reported good progress in the area of FMC (fixed-mobile convergence).  

It is expected that many other of the outputs of the Focus Group on NGN will be consented at this July meeting. Among them will be a Recommendation dealing with performance, management and measurement, another key area in NGN. See the work programmes for the various Study Groups involved in NGN for a full list.

If you missed the recent ITU-T webinar on NGN you may be interested to know that the whole thing including slides, audio and the question and answer session is available in Light Reading’s archive.

Nearly 400 people attended the live event on 23 January, submitting close to 100 questions to the speakers.

ITU’s Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU) is hosting a workshop 23-24 March in Geneva focusing on the policy and regulatory challenges related to the deployment of IP-enabled NGNs. The draft workshop concept document gives additional details on the objectives of the workshop.

An ITU-T workshop - NGN and its Transport Networks - will take place at the International Conference Center Kobe (ICCK), Japan, 20 to 21 April 2006.

NGN Standardization work is now well underway in the ITU-T and other SDOs. Following the success of the NGN Focus Group and the establishment of the NGN Global Standards Initiative (NGN-GSI) in ITU-T, this ITU-T workshop will be an opportunity to review the status of the work, identify technology trends, and provide a framework for moving forward standardization work.

This event will provide an overview of the architecture, performance and transport aspects of NGN as well as the market drivers and challenges. Particular emphasis will be given to network technologies, standards that address architecture and the performance aspects of NGN and transport networks aspects to support NGN services. More.

ITU-T together with the US Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) will hold a workshop, Next Generation Network Technology and Standardization at the Mandalay Bay Convention Centre in Las Vegas, USA, from 19 to 20 March 2006. This workshop will be held during the TelecomNEXT event.

NGN Standardization work is now well underway in the ITU-T, ATIS and other SDOs. Following the success of the ITU-T’s Focus Group on NGN (FGNGN), the establishment of the NGN Global Standards Initiative (NGN-GSI) in ITU-T and the activities within the ATIS NGN Focus Group and Technical committees, this free workshop will be an opportunity to review the status of the work, identify technology trends, and seek to identify areas where the ITU-T and ATIS together with regional experts can further coordinate their standardization work.

ATIS has kindly negotiated registration rates for workshop participants who are also interested in attending TelecomNEXT. For details please see http://www.techthink.org/registration.html

More.

NGN-GSI will build on the successful completion by the Focus Group on NGN (FG NGN) of its Release 1 deliverables. NGN-GSI will focus on developing the detailed standards necessary for NGN deployment to give service providers the means to offer the wide range of services expected in NGN. NGN-GSI will harmonize, in collaboration with other bodies, different approaches to NGN architecture worldwide. More on NGN-GSI

The latest meeting of TSAG saw the formation of a new correspondence group to examine what role ITU-T should have in conformance and interoperability testing for its standards.

The stamp of approval that shows conformance to a standard could be a potent marketing tool for manufacturers of equipment. 

The convener of the group Arve Meisingset of Telenor R&D in Norway, and Vice Chairman of Study Group 17 said: “There are many possibilities, from maintaining the status quo in which third parties can test for conformance without a complete set of ITU testing standards to the setting-up of actual testing labs based on ITU guidelines and standards. We will look at the pros and cons of all possibilities; examine what is appropriate for ITU to do, and what members want.”

Currently, while there are procedures in some Recommendations, there is no systematic approach to testing implementations of ITU-T Recommendations for conformance or interoperability. And, so initial steps will probably be along the lines of producing guidelines for protocol writers and users of those protocols, and examining how ITU can produce a more complete set of testing standards to help the testing community and product suppliers deliver better standards-based products.

Existing ITU-T applicable specifications include the 7-part X.290-series Recommendations that covers generic aspects of conformance testing. In addition, SG 17 is standardizing a testing methodology and framework for interoperability testing. SG 17 will write the guidelines and generic testing methodology standards while SG 11 will write protocol-specific testing standards. Other study groups have also developed specific methodologies for particular Recommendations. For example, Study Group 16 has developed a conformance testing specification for the video compression codec H.264/AVC. 

Experts agreed that future work will benefit from the more systematic method that could result from this activity.

In conformance testing, the objective is to determine how completely and correctly the requirements of the standard have been met by the implementation. In interoperability testing, the objective is to determine if two or more implementations of the same standard interoperate with each other. In the telecommunication world, it is generally assumed that the implementations have been tested for conformance prior to interoperability testing.

 

Next meeting of Study Group 11 - Signalling requirements and protocols

Geneva, 23 - 27 January 2006

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 4/11 for more information.

Study Group 11 Home

At the recent meeting of Study Group 11 a number of documents relating to the international emergency preference scheme (IEPS) were consented.

IEPS aims to provide authorised emergency personnel a higher probability of successful communication under high network load conditions such as those that might occur in an emergency.

Among the topics dealt with at the meeting were signalling for support of IEPS to comply with ITU-T Recommendation E.106. E.106 provides guidelines for extending national emergency preference schemes across international boundaries.

Because Recommendations in this area have potential national and regulatory policy implications, it was agreed to consider the documents under the traditional approval process (TAP) rather than under the alternative approval process (AAP).

ITU maintains a webpage detailing its work in the area of Emergency Telecommunications.

 

September has got off to a flying start as far as next-generation networks (NGN) work in ITU is concerned. The important milestone of the Release 1 set of standards is on track for November and sufficient momentum has been achieved to ensure that the next stages of NGN work will be carried out with similar efficiency.

The continuation of the NGN study by ITU will be re-branded the NGN-Global Standards Initiative (NGN-GSI).

Houlin Zhao, Director of TSB, ITU-T’s secretariat said: “I am very pleased with the progress and the results achieved by the Focus Group on next-generation networks (FGNGN). These first results will provide the building blocks on which the world’s systems vendors and service providers can start to make this monumental shift to NGN. We have the momentum, the tools and the will to continue this significant and important work.”

Agreement on a future plan is clear and the Focus Group on next-generation networks (FGNGN) has been putting the finishing touches to Release 1 before formally submitting it into the Study Group system.

The FGNGN met in Geneva 24 August – 2 September alongside meetings of Study Groups 11, 13 and 19, themselves all having elements of NGN work. Each FGNGN meeting has seen increased participation and contributions according to management.

The group chaired by Chae-Sub Lee of Korea is expecting to see completion of its Release 1 set of standards, at its November 2005 meeting in London, UK. A one day briefing session following that meeting will serve as an overview of the work, as well as an opportunity to promote future direction and business drivers.

The first draft of an allocation table for the distribution of work following the November meeting was also agreed. This type of activity as well as the development of a prototype project management tool, is seen as important in order to keep NGN work, that cuts across the study groups, aligned, coherent and consistent.

According to FGNGN chairman Lee, an important focus of the work at this Geneva meeting are the quality of service (QoS) aspects that will allow – for example – services like IPTV to be offered with the same broadcast quality as traditional TV. The Focus Group expects that there will be more than ten deliverables on QoS that will be submitted into the Study Group system for approval as ITU-T products such as Recommendations. Additionally the topic of fixed-mobile convergence saw much discussion in the meeting according to Lee.

FGNGN also saw the document that describes the scope for NGN standards in ITU reaching near maturity, an important step, according to meeting insiders. The document that gives an overview of what Release 1 is expected to cover in terms of services, capabilities and high level objectives was described in the meeting’s report as ‘very stable’. Additionally much progress was made on another crucial document describing Release 1 requirements.

New specifications ratified by ITU-T Study Group 11 will transfer some of the call control elements of SS7 to the IP world. SS7 is the signalling system used by telecoms operators worldwide to allow the efficient routing of calls, and its worldwide implementation has paved the way for an efficiently operating international telecommunication network.

The new Recommendation - Q.1980.1- defines narrowband signalling syntax (NSS), a flexible text-based syntax that can be used to transfer narrowband signalling information in protocols that cannot inherently transfer such information (eg the session initiation protocol (SIP)).

This NSS solution aims at helping operators reflect the services that they provide in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) in next generation IP based networks. It provides a standardized set of PSTN/ISDN services signalling parameters that can be mapped into the many SS7 ISDN user part (ISUP*) variations, to be transmitted transparently through IP networks. NSS has been designed to enable seamless interworking between the PSTN and IP networks and transition from legacy TDM (time division multiplexing) circuit switched networks to packet-based transport technologies without service degradation or changes.

* ISUP determines the procedures for setting-up, coordinating and taking down calls on an SS7 network. It provides calling party number information, call status checking, and controls tone and announcement delivery.

The NGN Focus Group has delivered its first output for inclusion in the first set of specifications for next generation networks (NGN) - Release 1. The document (a supplement to ITU-T's Q series recommendations, approved at the last Study Group 11 meeting) relates to IP-QoS signalling.

QoS signalling provides a way for network elements to communicate with, or signal, other elements to request special handling of certain traffic. QoS signalling is useful for coordinating the traffic handling techniques provided by other QoS features. It plays a key role in configuring successful end-to-end QoS service across a network.

In this case the document - a technical report - identifies the requirements for signalling information regarding IP-based QoS at the interface between the user and the network (UNI) and across interfaces between different networks (NNI) including access networks.

Identifying these requirements and the signalling information elements will enable the development of signalling protocols which are essential for the development of services based on IP-QoS in NGN.