Study Group 13 has consented a new Recommendation that will give support for a widely deployed network technology in IP-based NGNs.

The Recommendation Y.1453 addresses required functions for network interworking between time division multiplexing (TDM) and IP networks.

TDM is a way to transmit multiple subscribers’ calls along the same transmission medium at the same time. Given that is a very widely used technology in existing telecommunications networks its continued support in NGN is imperative.

Y.1453 addresses "user plane internetworking mechanisms, connection multiplexing and procedures (for interworking)".

COTS solutions are seen as an efficient way to reduce operating costs, but a lack of standards has kept costs high for licensing, adapting and integrating these components.

The title of the new Question will be Requirements and framework for enabling COTS components in an open environment. The aim is to outline the open interfaces and standards required to deploy COTS solutions in NGNs.

According to the text of the Question: “Guidance is required to ensure that COTS components will allow for creation of open and integrated communications platforms consistent with open (public and non-proprietary) standards  such that they will accelerate deployment of NGN infrastructure and services. It is necessary to define a common approach that helps to navigate through the appropriate interfaces and options to deliver an open and integrated communications platform using these standards.”

The Question was set up following a proposal from the Focus Group, The Open Communications Architecture Forum (OCAF). A Rapporteur, Johannes Prade, has been provisionally appointed to lead this work.

A review by the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) is necessary to complete the formal approval of the Question at the next Study Group 13 meeting in July 2006, but work in the area is ongoing and will continue as normal.

At the same meeting of SG 13, OCAF submitted two draft Recommendations, The carrier grade open environment reference model and Carrier Grade Open Environment Components. It is expected that these will be sent for consent at SG 13’s next meeting.

New JCA-HN document: Results of WSC workshop on 'Digital technologies in the home' (Geneva, 2-3 February, 2006)

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TIES account required to access the JCA-HN documents.

Next meeting of Study Group 16 - Multimedia terminals, systems and applications

Geneva, 3-13 April 2006

Registration Form

See TSB Collective-letter 3/16 for more information.

Study Group 16 Home

A new ITU-T standard (Recommendation) will allow operators offering Ethernet services to use operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) mechanisms to facilitate network operation and troubleshooting.

Given that performance management has been cited as a major concern of operators looking at Ethernet as an end-to-end solution, and that OAM features are not standard in Ethernet, it is seen as crucial to provide this facility. Standards-based OAM features that will allow for interoperability between different vendors are seen as a requirement for carriers adopting Ethernet on a wide scale. Experts say that operator deployments may start in 2007.

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. Equally this OAM functionality may be deployed in a local area network (LAN).

The ITU-T Recommendation, Y.1731 consented at the recent meeting of Study Group 13, identifies the OAM functions which are needed to allow fault management (fault localization, defect detection, etc.) and performance monitoring (error counts, delay measurement, etc.) in an Ethernet network. With regards to performance monitoring, the Recommendation only addresses point to point connectivity today, says Gilles Joncour, ITU-T Rapporteur for the Recommendation, (multi)point to multipoint will be the next step.

Joncour gives some more detail: ‘’Y.1731 also specifies the so called OAM PDUs (protocol data units) which constitute the payload of the Ethernet OAM frames. The content (fields) of the PDUs vary according to the function(s) they correspond to. Y.1731 does not specify the processes associated to the sending, reception and analysis (of the content) of the OAM frames/PDUs. This will be part of another Recommendation (G.8021), from Study Group 15. Y.1731 specifies methods for measuring sample values of parameters identified for monitoring the performance of Ethernet networks. It does not deal with the integration of those values over a period of time and the use of such results, when applicable for defect detection. This will also be done in G.8021.”

Recommendation Y.1713 gives user-plane OAM functionality in Ethernet networks. The architectural basis for this Recommendation is the Ethernet specification G.8010. A previous Recommendation Y.1730 served as a prelude to Y.1731 outlining the OAM requirements of operators. Joncour says that Y.1731 was developed in close collaboration with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) group 802.1. This group is also preparing a standard (802.1ag - Connectivity Fault Management) devoted to Ethernet OAM aspects. IEEE 802.1ag defines a subset of the functions/PDUs described in Y.1731. Regular communications between the two groups ensured alignment of the description of the common features.  

With the agreement of the TSAG meeting 14-18 March 2005, a Joint Coordination Activity on Home Networking (JCA-HN) was established. Mr. Andrew Nunn (BT, UK) was appointed as the Convenor of this activity.

The scope of the JCA-HN was decided following a meeting held immediately after the ITU-T workshop Opportunities and Challenges in Home Networking, 13 – 14 October 2005, Geneva and discussions at the TSAG meeting 7-11 November 2005. The name “Home Network Initiative” will be used to describe work in this field spanning ITU-T Study Groups.

JCA-HN will:

• Co-ordinate the Home Network Initiative activity across all the relevant ITU-T Study Groups (e.g. currently ITU-T SGs 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17) and liaise with relevant ITU-R SGs (currently, SGs 1 and 6).
• Seek cooperation from external bodies working in the field and disseminate information received from these bodies to the relevant ITU-T Study Groups.
• Identify what should be standardized by ITU-T
• Prepare a roadmap for this standardization activity

More on JCA-HN

The following files relative to AAP have been updated since 2006-01-31

Group : aap
updated :          2006-01-31 17:43:56      
title :          [029] AAP Announcement No. 29, 1 February 2006, (SG 12, 13)
url :          http://www.itu.int/itudoc/itu-t/aap/announce/05-08/029.html
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Note : This is an automatic message for ITU-T/TSB Alternative Approval Process

 - For further questions, please contact TSB EDH at tsbedh@itu.int
 - For documentation, go to http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/aap/index.html
 - Comments on Recommendations under AAP should be submitted by filling the appropriate forms in each Study Group AAP web page and sent to the relevant Study Group email address

More on AAP 

Gary Fishman, chairman of the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG), talks to the e-Flash about the alternative approval process (AAP), which has been described by some as the envy of the standards world. 

AAP is a name that has stuck, according to Fishman, despite the fact it is now the normal rather than an alternative process because such has been its impact that the name has achieved brand name status among standards makers. More.

November 2005 saw the approval of 34 Recommendations bringing the total number approved under the so-called Alternative Approval Process (AAP) to over 1000. 

AAP is a fast-track approval procedure that was developed to allow standards to be brought to market in the timeframe that industry now demands. 

Among the 34 Recommendations that were approved in November were three relating to QoS in Internet Protocol (IP) based networks, one relating to a new generation digital cinema technology called LSDI, and one on digital rights management in home networking systems.

With a majority of its membership from the private sector, ITU’s standardization arm - ITU-T - understands the crucial balance between rapid delivery, quality and stability in standards development. AAP is designed to make sure that draft standards reach approved Recommendation status as quickly as possible while maintaining the highest degree of transparency. With approved global standards in place, network operators will have the confidence to rollout new generation services quickly and efficiently.

Besides streamlining the underlying procedures involved in the approval process, an important contributory factor to the success of AAP is computerisation. With this process, once a meeting considers that a draft Recommendation is ready for approval, it is posted on the ITU- T website, the membership is informed that the approval process has begun and the rest of the process can be completed electronically in the vast majority of cases with no further physical meetings.

This dramatic overhaul of standards-making by streamlining approval procedures was implemented in 2001 and is estimated to have cut the time involved in this critical aspect of the standardization process by 80 to 90 per cent. This means that an average standard which took around four years to approve and publish until the mid nineties, and two years until 1997, can now be approved in an average of two months, or as little as five weeks. At present, more than 3100 ITU-T Recommendations are in force and around 210 new and updated Recommendations are produced each year, that's nearly one for every working day.

The introduction of AAP also formalizes public/private partnership in the approval process by providing equal opportunities for both Sector Members (members coming from industry) and Member States in the approval of technical standards.

More information on the AAP can be found here. 

If you are unable to attend the upcoming ITU-T workshop, Networked RFID: Systems and Services, you may be interested to know that a live audio webcast will be made available. The recording will also be available after the event in archive.

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.

At an early December meeting of ITU-T's Study Group 2 agreement on the allocation of a high-revenue international short message service (SMS) number to two international organisations for the purpose of fundraising was made. An official announcement in ITU-T's Operational Bulletin will be made following the decision of the Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau.

The number +979 0767 was granted following a request from the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). It will allow the two organizations to launch relief campaigns across national boundaries, and will encourage regular donations by introducing a recognisable and non-changing number. The 767 portion of the number spells out SOS.

Texting emerged as a popular way to contribute to relief efforts during fundraising for the earthquake in Bam, Iran, 2003 and the 2004 Asian tsunami.

ITU-T Study Group 2 has approved at its December 2005 meeting, a Recommendation outlining procedures for registration with the domain ".int". ITU-T Recommendation E.910 clarifies the principles and procedures for the registration of names under the Internet top-level domain ".int" and the process by which qualified international organizations can register for domain names under ".int". Importantly it outlines what criteria an international organization must meet in order to qualify for such a domain.