Work on a standard (ITU-T Recommendation) that updates telecommunication management principles for NGN has been completed in Study Group 4.

Standards here are essential according to SG experts in order to ensure that management solutions support NGN, a network based on the separation of service and transport capabilities.

The work focusing on the interfaces between management systems was mostly led by service providers and is important in order for the dynamic provisioning of services in NGN. The document will also allow for easier planning, installation, maintenance, operation and administration experts say.

The Recommendation - M.3060 - was consented with input from other standards bodies including 3GPP, ATIS, ETSI and the Telemanagement Forum (TMF). It presents the telecommunication management principles, including requirements and four architectural views for managing NGN based on service-oriented architectural concepts.

AAP Announcement UPDATE NOTIFICATION

The following files relative to AAP have been updated since 2005-09-30

Group : aap
updated :          2005-09-30 16:36:31      
title :          [022] AAP Announcement No. 22, 1 October 2005 (SG 15, 16, 19)
url :          http://www.itu.int/itudoc/itu-t/aap/announce/05-08/022.html
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Note : This is an automatic message for ITU-T/TSB Alternative Approval Process

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For the first time passengers will be able to benefit from being able to use their mobile phones and PDAs’ GSM and GPRS functionality while inflight. The service will be available to all subscribers with roaming contracts.

The ITU-T E.164 number code is required in order to route subscribers’ calls and data to/from the passengers’ home networks. In addition ITU-T has assigned to OnAir a shared mobile country code (MCC), and network code (MNC). The MCC is part of the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number, which uniquely identifies a particular subscriber, and is stored on a user’s SIM card. These numbers are assigned according to ITU-T Recommendation E.212.

bmi and TAP Portugal will trial the service, an initiative by OnAir, a joint venture with Airbus and SITA.

Onboard equipment developed by Airbus, with its partners, for OnAir will use existing technology but will have to gain an airworthiness certificate and telecoms regulatory approval before its launch.

The service will be available on both long- or short-haul fleets and on both Airbus and Boeing aircraft. OnAir sources said that it is mainly business passengers that have led the demand for the service.

The system comprises of pico cells on board, connected via a satellite link to a ground GSM/GPRS roaming platform.

The latest meeting of Study Group 3 saw an agreement that may lead to lower international mobile telephony charges.

The move follows a successful initiative in the 1990’s to lower the – then – high cost of international fixed line telephone calls.

SG 3 research has found that in some cases mobile termination charges can be five to ten times more than fixed termination charge. Termination charges happen when calls are terminated in a network other than that from which they have originated.

And since as many as 75 per cent of all calls now involve the mobile network in some way SG 3 has decided to investigate how to lower these costs and make mobile telephony more affordable.

The Study Group will send a questionnaire to members and following analysis of the responses it will develop targets aimed at bringing down the cost of mobile call termination.

The same initiative for fixed-line telephony is thought to have significantly reduced costs to consumers. Although some lowering of call costs can be shown to have been due to competition and market conditions, call costs were also seen to drop in areas where there was no competition, indicating that the ITU initiative had worked.

In other news from SG 3’s last meeting it was announced that an alternative has been agreed to the 140 year old practice of allowing the calling party’s service provider to invoice the call terminator for call termination services. The practice has led to many disputes and there have been calls to review the situation.

SG 3’s meeting agreed to a new model that – it is felt – will be less problematic. Now the call terminator can bill directly for the minutes used by the service provider sending the calls.

Study Group 19 was among the three Study Groups meeting in Geneva September. The group that focuses on mobile telecommunications and fixed-mobile convergence reached the first stage of approval (known as consent) on a Recommendation that charts further detail in the migration from GSM (second generation mobile telephony) to UMTS (a member of the 3G family).

Also known as 3GPP Release 6, the Recommendation (Q.1741.4, IMT-2000 family member GSM evolved UMTS Core Networks) combines and associates relevant standards from a number of standards development organizations (SDOs) - ARIB, CCSA, ETSI, ATIS, TTA, TTC - into a globally applicable ITU-T Recommendation.

The SG19 meeting also saw some discussion on the core network architecture of next-generation mobile networks or 4G.

Study Group 4 meets this week in Geneva. The Study Group looks at the interfaces that sit between management systems and network elements, as well as interfaces between management systems.

Dave Sidor, Chairman of SG 4 said prior to the meeting, a key focus will be progressing NGN related specifications and also harmonization of standardization efforts across different standards making bodies. Sidor said that it’s important to identify the overlaps between these bodies in order to avoid duplication of work and ensure that industry’s best needs are served. In this way he said industry ends up with one rather than multiple solutions.

One area that will be discussed in terms of this harmonization is the charging and billing for services in next-generation networks (NGN). Another is in the area of specifications for management of Ethernet based networks.

For possible consent at the meeting is M.3060, a proposed ITU-T Recommendation covering the principles of NGN management.

Also at the meeting the NGN Management Focus Group will report on its activities in particular on the NGN management specification roadmap, a document which identifies the various existing, or work-in-progress specifications for NGN management. These specifications are not necessarily ITU-T Recommendations, but could come from any other standards making body.