ITU-T e-FLASH
Telecommunication Standardization Sector |
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| Issue No. 28 |
November 2006 |
PP '06 elects ITU Secretary-General, Deputy Secretary-General and bureau directors
| Secretary-General |
Mr. Hamadoun TOURÉ (Mali) |
| Deputy Secretary-General |
Mr. Houlin ZHAO (China) |
| Director of TSB |
Mr. Malcolm JOHNSON (United Kingdom) |
| Director of BR |
Mr. Valery TIMOFEEV (Russian Federation) |
| Director of BDT |
Mr. Sami AL-BASHEER (Saudi Arabia) |
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ITU-T/universities meeting
ITU-T will hold a
Consultation meeting on cooperation between ITU-T and
Universities, Geneva, 18 and 19 January 2007, to
explore ways to improve cooperation between the ITU
standardization sector and universities. Other
objectives include discussion of how ITU-T can become
better known to students and how to make it easier for
academia to participate directly in ITU-T work.
Given a belief that many new technologies find life in
the minds of the academic world, ITU is increasingly
looking to attract more involvement from the world’s
universities and other academic institutions. There are
already many examples of this policy bearing fruit. Some
standards that have emerged from ITU study groups have
been heavily influenced by academic involvement. However
often this is not recognized because academia has
frequently chosen to participate under the banner of an
organization other than its own. Exploration of how
these important contributions can be better recognized
will also be on the agenda.
Universities can benefit from participation in the
standards making process by becoming part of an
international ‘club’ of ICT experts. Among ITU’s key
attractions are its truly international scope and its
role as the architect behind many modern communication
systems. All major ICT companies are ITU Sector Members.
There can be no more enlightening a window on the world
of ICT development. The opportunity to be part of a team
that creates a worldwide standard provides an exciting
opportunity for any university. For these reasons and
others this consultation meeting will be an excellent
opportunity for university representatives to explore
ways to increase university involvement in ITU-T’s work.
ITU-T requests the input of universities on how best to
further the relationship between ITU-T and academia for
the benefit of both parties. See
webpage for documents submitted so far and for
details on how to contribute.
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Online event targets VDSL 2
John MacDonald, a member of the ITU team that created
the new VDSL 2 standard, will take part in an upcoming
Webinar on this topic, Tuesday, November 21. The
Webinar, the second on the topic that ITU has
contributed to, will outline what VDSL 2 is, which are
its competitive differentiators and benefits, and how it
allows service providers to compete with cable and
satellite operators - by enabling the delivery of
enhanced voice, video and data services over a standard
copper telephone cable.
ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is a product
of ITU-T, ITU’s standardization arm, and is the world's
most widely deployed broadband access technology. It has
enhanced users' experience of the Internet, provided
access to digitized content, and fuelled the delivery of
streaming video and the development of online gaming by
offering downstream data rates of up to 8 Mbit/s. Today,
service providers must ensure their DSL offerings can
compete against other market options from cable
operators. One way to do so, is by offering services
over VDSL 2 (ITU-T Recommendation G.993.2) - very
high-speed DSL - a new version of DSL, which gives
service providers the ability to deliver even higher
bandwidth and more enhanced services to consumer and
business customers.
Delivering up to 100 Mbit/s both up and downstream, a
tenfold increase over ADSL (Asymmetric DSL) VDSL 2
provides for so-called fiber-extension, bringing fiber-like
bandwidth to premises not directly connected to the
fiber optic segment of a telecom company’s network. By
deploying VDSL 2 operators expect to be able to offer
services such as high-definition TV (HDTV),
video-on-demand, videoconferencing, high-speed Internet
access, and advanced voice services. Importantly VDSL 2
offers carriers a solution that is interoperable with
the DSL equipment many already have in place. In
addition, VDSL 2 will work with both legacy ATM networks
and next generation IP-based networks.
Register to take part in this online event
here.
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New fibre standard
ITU-T's
Study Group 15 has fast tracked a standard that
significantly reduces costs for operators rolling out
fibre to the home (FTTH). The new Recommendation G.657
"Characteristics of a Bending Loss Insensitive Single
Mode Optical Fibres and Cables for the Access Network"
gives fiber optic cable similarly flexible
characteristics to copper meaning that it can be much
more easily deployed in the street, in the building and
in the home.
This increased flexibility in a fibre optic cable means
that operators can follow tighter corners in buildings,
can employ less-skilled labor in deploying the cable and
can worry less if cables / fibres are laid with a sharp
bend. This all makes installation work more engineer
friendly leading also to less re-work. Moreover the
closures for fibres can be half the size, important
where space is at a premium for example in an apartment
building.
The new standard, which allows optical fibres to flex
and bend more than the previous standardized types has
achieved consent nearly a year earlier than was
expected. This has been due to a push by operators
planning the introduction of FTTH. Operators are keen
that manufacturers around the world immediately start
producing fibres according to the specification with
clear advantages in terms of flexibility of deployment
and cost reduction.
Many telcos have plans to roll out FTTH. The number of
FTTH users in Japan exceeded 6 million as of mid 2006.
According to experts the impetus for the work came from
Japan, followed by the USA, but there is now much
interest from European operators.
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NGN standards tracking tool online
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.
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ITU will host broadband conference December
ITU-T
will host the annual
Broadband Europe conference 11-14 Dec 2006.
BBEurope is an annual event which was initiated by the
FP6-BREAD-project (broadband for all in Europe: a
multi-disciplinary approach), part of the "BroadBand for
All"-strategic objective of the European Commission.
Peter Van Daele, Project Leader BREAD: “The concept of
“Broadband For All” refers to a situation in which
broadband is not only available to every citizen, but is
actually used by all of them. In that respect it is a
more demanding concept than the traditional universal
service obligation in telephony, which merely stipulates
the availability, at certain conditions, of a given
service. The usage of information and communication
technologies via broadband infrastructures by all
citizens is a policy objective because it is considered
to be a key component of transforming Europe into a
knowledge-based society, thus enhancing economic growth
and increasing employment.”
The BREAD project has amongst its objectives to develop
a holistic vision encompassing technical, as well as
economical and regulatory aspects. Another important
aspect is of identifying roadblocks on European,
national/regional level and share visions and best
practices on national level to EU level.
BBEurope brings together on an international level all
the BroadBand players, researchers, service providers,
content providers, operators, manufacturers, policy
makers, standardisation bodies, professional
organisations.
A diverse agenda will cover topics including NGN, IPTV,
wireless access, powerline, security, QoS, and broadband
in rural areas. The event will conclude with a panel
discussion titled: Future Perspectives in Broadband. A
‘full preliminary’ programme is available from the
event’s
website, with the call for papers ending November 10
when a programme committee will make a final selection
of the papers.
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ITU-T and OASIS strengthen cooperation
An ITU-T
and OASIS workshop on public warning, October, attracted
80 participants and saw agreement on a number of ways
forward. The event signaled a further stepping-up of
cooperation between the two organizations.
The OASIS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), which was
successfully demonstrated at the event, has been
submitted to ITU for international standardization,
officials from both organizations confirmed. Publication
as an ITU-T Recommendation will help ensure that CAP is
deployed worldwide giving technical compatibility for
users across all countries. This action had strong
support from the workshop.
The goal of public warning is to reduce the damage and
loss of life caused by a natural or man-made hazard
event. CAP allows a warning message to be consistently
disseminated simultaneously over many warning systems to
many applications.
Attendees, from policy makers to manufacturers to
personnel involved in emergency management also agreed
among other things to: “Coordinate actions among all
relevant players to ensure that standards-based,
all-media, all-hazards public warning becomes an
essential infrastructure component through platforms
such as the Telecommunications for Disaster Relief and
Mitigation - Partnership Co-ordination Panel (PCP-TDR)”.
The workshop produced a number of other proposals, which
will shortly be available from the event’s
website.
In a separate announcement, OASIS said that it was happy
to welcome ITU as an event supporter for its upcoming
Adoption Forum, London, 27-29 November. ITU members
are invited to attend the conference, titled Managing
Secure Interactions in Sector Applications, at the
reduced rate of EUR100 per day.
The announcements follow the June 2006 approval as
internationally recognized ITU-T Recommendations of
OASIS’ SAML as ITU-T X.1141 (Security Assertion Markup
Language) and XACML as ITU-T X.1142 (Extensible Access
Control Markup Language). See previous
story.
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Telecom World: GPON interop demo
Telecom World,
December 4-8, Kong Kong will see ITU-T members, and
guests stage an interoperability showcase for fibre to
the premises (FTTP) related standards.
On show will be gigabit passive optical network (G-PON)
equipment built according to the ITU-T G.984
Recommendation. PON technology is used in the local loop
to connect residential and 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: AMCC,
Cambridge Industries Group, Ericsson, FlexLight
Networks, Fujitsu Network Communications, Hitachi, LS
Cable, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Terawave
Communications, and ZTE.
With PONs, signals are carried by lasers and sent to
their destination without the need for active
electronics. Carriers can realize significant savings
with fiber sharing in the distribution network,
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.
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IPTV standardization on track say industry experts
With the
second meeting of the
IPTV
Focus Group (FG IPTV) seeing a record number of
participants and contributions, experts have declared
satisfaction that work towards a set of standards for
IPTV is well on track.
A recent
report from industry analyst Gartner says that the
number of households around the world subscribing to
IPTV services offered by telecom carriers will reach
48.8 million in 2010. Buoyed by new service launches,
IPTV subscribers will more than double in 2007 from an
expected 6.4 million in 2006 to 13.3 million according
to Gartner.
Experts agree that it is imperative that standards needs
are met if these impressive figures are to be achieved.
A key achievement at the FG IPTV meeting in Korea was
progress towards an standardized IPTV architecture: The
group agreed that IPTV architecture shall allow for both
NGN and non-NGN approaches to IPTV, and within the NGN-approach,
include both IMS and non-IMS based approaches.
Ghassem Koleyni, chair of the group: “I am particularly
happy that we have achieved so much progress in Working
Group 1 (service requirements and architecture). The
level of participation in this group is growing and
progress is overall good. But requirements and
architecture are of such fundamental importance that
getting a fix on these points, at this stage, is very
satisfying. In order to gain momentum here we will
convene an electronic meeting looking specifically at
requirements and architecture, 18-21 December.”
The Korea meeting agreed on the following definition of
IPTV: “IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as
television/video/ audio/text/graphics/data delivered
over IP based networks managed to provide the required
level of QoS/QoE, security, interactivity and
reliability.”
The next face-to-face meeting of the FG IPTV is
scheduled for 22-26 January 2007 at the Microsoft
facilities , Mountain View, California, USA (Silicon
Valley) at the kind invitation of Alliance for
Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS).
The FG IPTV meeting was preceded by an ITU-T
workshop. The event attended by over 400 and held in
Seoul provided a view and examination of IPTV
standardization, political and regulatory aspects,
business models and various case studies as well as
technical developments and service provider’s
operational aspects. A roundtable discussion at the
event concluded that global standardisation and
interoperability are key for further development of IPTV
worldwide. Other issues that might be further discussed
at an international level, according to the roundtable’s
twenty participants, include digital rights management (DRM).
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ITU-T hosts digital ID event
ITU-T will hold a
Workshop on Digital Identity for NGN Geneva, 05 December 2006.
In the last few years, the need for digital identity has risen as a strong driving force behind network architecture design, service provisioning, and content handling, billing and charging. Digital identity is expected to be a powerful tool for users to access unlimited digital resources via a limited number of trusted relationships, and for providers to offer these resources across the different layers of communication systems, administrative domains and even legal boundaries. However, the lack of a common view on digital identity across these different layers has so far resulted in independently developed and therefore often inconsistent identity management frameworks as well as incompatible applications.
Key challenges towards the development of a more consistent approach are to tackle the conflicting requirements of privacy, identification and security. This workshop, a Joint ITU-T/EU IST Daidalos Project Workshop, intends to investigate different approaches, analyze gaps in today’s standards, identify future challenges and find common goals which will provide direction to the work currently being undertaken in the different projects and standards development organizations
(SDOs).
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Smart network element defined in ITU-T Recommendation
A major step towards dynamic and reconfigurable ‘smart’ networks has been made with the consent of a new standard.
Operators and manufacturers have pushed the development of the ITU-T Recommendation (G.667) that is the first for adaptive chromatic dispersion compensators.
Chromatic dispersion is a phenomenon that produces pulse broadening in optical fibers, and can limit the overall amount of data transported over them. In some applications, the chromatic dispersion of the optical path varies with time or optical network re-configuration to such an extent that, to avoid signal degradations at the receiver, an adaptive dispersion compensator is used to dynamically compensate the chromatic dispersion change of the optical link.
The automatic management of chromatic dispersion of the optical path, previously not standardized, means that for operators it will be much simpler to change the path of an optical channel in the optical network while maintaining the desired degree of chromatic dispersion. The standard allows for chromatic dispersion compensation to be controlled automatically in real time rather than operators having to manually change physical devices in the network.
The need for chromatic dispersion compensators is increasingly influenced by bit-rate as optical transmission systems are being upgraded from 10 to 40Gbit/s. Distance is also a factor as optical systems – ultra long-haul - now extend to thousands of kilometers. In such situations the accumulation of chromatic dispersion variation with time or temperature of the optical path can exceed tolerance and therefore adaptive compensation is necessary. Network operation costs and flexibility should be favorably impacted by the ability to have chromatic dispersion compensation achieved automatically within the network.
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INFORMATION LINKS
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