ITU readies new 1Gbit/s broadband standard
G.fast, a new ITU broadband standard, that promises up to 1 Gbit/s over existing copper telephone wires, is one step closer following a meeting of ITU-T Study Group 15. G.fast is designed to deliver superfast downloads up to a distance of 250 meters, thereby eliminating the expense of installing fibre between the distribution point and people’s homes.
The Geneva meeting saw first stage approval of ITU standard, Recommendation ITU-T G.9700, that specifies methods to minimize the risk of G.fast equipment interfering with broadcast services such as FM radio, paving the way for G.fast to be approved in early 2014.G.fast is expected to be deployed by service providers wanting to provide fibre to the home (FTTH) like services, which will enable flexible upstream and downstream speeds to support bandwidth-intensive applications such as streaming Ultra-HDTV movies, uploading high-resolution video and photo libraries to cloud-based storage, and communicating via HD video.
Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: “Since the early days of the World Wide Web, people around the world have accessed the vast resource that has become the Internet via ITU standards. I applaud our membership for continuing to show great leadership in the development of these specifications that bring broadband into our homes at ever increasing speeds and at ever greater efficiencies.”
Africa united in combatting spam and e-waste
ITU workshops in Durban, South Africa have underlined Africa’s commitment to countering spam and ensuring the eco-friendly management of e-waste, the subjects of new provisions of the revised International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs).
The workshops considered questions of particular relevance to African countries. Spam is said to account for 60-80 per cent of emails in Africa and the continent has become the world’s most prominent importer of used electronic goods.
The spam workshop opened with presentations on the nature and dimensions of the spam challenge, followed by interactive tracks on the roles of policy and standards in combating spam and the associated contributions of government and industry. Targeted sessions presented the outcomes of WTSA-12 and WCIT-12 as they related to spam, with another giving an overview of the standards developed by ITU-T Study Group 17 (Security) under its study of “Countering spam by technical means”.
The workshop’s outcomes, detailed here, propose that the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) partners with the African Union to develop a model law for spam (including SMS spam) and to craft a model programme for cooperation between governments and industry in combatting spam, with components such as mechanisms for inter-agency cooperation to detect and eliminate ‘botnets’. ATU was also invited to collaborate with the African Union, ITU and the Internet Society (ISOC) in creating a programme helping African ISPs to implement effective anti-spam tools and to educate end-users on the safe identification and handling of suspicious messages.
The e-waste workshop highlighted the complexity of the e-waste challenge, hearing the views of government, industry and consumer representatives in analyzing lessons learnt from Africa’s fast-growing volume of experience in managing e-waste. Presentations covered existing policy frameworks and standards relevant to eco-friendly e-waste management, spurring discussions on future e-waste actions in Africa with an emphasis on the establishment of requisite legal and regulatory environments.
The workshop’s outcomes, detailed here, set the tone for African countries to develop and implement e-waste policies, regulations and best practices, pursuant to Article 11 of the ITRs. ATU was encouraged to partner with the African Union, Regional Economic Committees, ITU and other relevant organizations to assist African countries in developing national e-waste regulation. It was in addition asked to work with the African Union to develop a model programme for cooperation between government and industry in managing e-waste through the implementation of international standards (ITU-T Recommendations). Outcomes also called for collaboration between ATU and ITU-T Study Group 5 (Environment and climate change) in exploring the possibility of an ITU project to assist in the establishment of processing and refining/recycling facilities in the region, and SG5 was invited to carry out a survey on the existing e-waste legislation of ITU Member States.
More information on ITU-T, the Environment and Climate Change is available here.
APT/ITU event on conformance and interoperability
An event jointly organized by ITU and Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) will feature a workshop to advance the ITU conformance and interoperability (C&I) Programme and its activities in the APT region. In addition the event will play host to C&I testing and showcasing in which the region’s ICT players will assess their relative conformance with international standards (ITU-T Recommendations) and the degree to which their products and services interoperate with those of other players.
The ITU/APT C&I event is open to all interested parties, with ITU and APT members invited to attend free of charge and non-members for a fee of USD250. Organizations involved in the C&I testing and showcasing will each be charged a participation fee of USD1,500 to recover the costs incurred by the hosts in providing facilities, Internet connectivity and technical support. The event will be hosted by APT in Bangkok, Thailand, in conjunction with the 22nd APT Standardization Program Forum (ASTAP-22), 11-14 September 2013.Spanning six days, joint ITU/APT activities will comprise the following:
An ITU workshop, 9-10 September 2013, will discuss the motivations behind the ITU C&I programme and promote its activities in the APT region. In addition, representatives of governments, regulatory bodies, private-sector entities and standards development organizations (SDOs) will identify persistent C&I concerns encountered by APT member countries with a view to providing feedback to ITU study groups.
A C&I testing event, 9-10 September 2013, will assess the interoperability of products and services developed in compliance with ITU-T Recommendations. Manufacturers and service providers will test the interoperability of their current and planned product offerings; sharing the results of interoperability tests on a confidential bilateral basis, using tools such as nondisclosure agreements (NDAs).
C&I showcasing, 9-14 September 2013, will provide demonstrations of manufacturers’ and research institutes’ ICT solutions, shedding light on advanced technologies on the market and under development. Insights gained through the C&I testing and showcasing will be fed into ITU-T’s standardization work in an array of fields, with tests and demos expected to feature innovations in.
ITU-T smart grid expert receives IEEE award
Stefano Galli, ITU-T’s lead expert on smart grid communications, is one of 2013’s recipients of the prestigious IEEE Donald G. Fink Award in recognition of his contribution to the field of power line communications (PLC) and the technology’s application in the development of smart grid.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) established the IEEE Donald G. Fink Award in 1979 to reward excellence in the authoring of surveys, reviews or tutorial papers published in the IEEE Transactions, Journals, Magazines, or in the Proceedings of the IEEE. The award is named in honour of Donald G. Fink: a distinguished editor and author, past President of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE), and the first General Manager and Executive Director of IEEE.
Galli earned the award for his role played in authoring a paper titled, “For the Grid and Through the Grid: The Role of Power Line Communications in the Smart Grid”, published in the Proceedings of the IEEE (vol. 99, no. 6, pp. 998–1027). IEEE notes that the paper “is considered the most complete review of power line communications (PLC) technology published to date,” and that it “has quickly become a key reference document for the application of PLC technology in smart grids.” The paper offers a detailed breakdown of the role played by communications technologies in smart grid, familiarizing readers with the history of PLC methods and the latest advances in work to leverage PLC in the smart-grid functions for which the technology is best suited.
ITU-UNECE event agrees Action Plan for safe, intelligent transport systems
Participants in a workshop jointly organized by ITU and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) have agreed an Action Plan to guide and strengthen the two organizations’ collaboration in leveraging intelligent transport systems (ITS) to enhance road safety in emerging markets.
Each year road accidents claim the lives of 1.2 million people and leave another 20-50 million injured. Developing countries are by far the hardest hit, and the global financial toll of these accidents is estimated at an annual half a trillion US Dollars. Technologies have long contributed to making roads safer through, for example, anti-lock braking systems and airbags. ITS and vehicle communications have the potential to springboard very significant leaps forward in vehicle safety.
The workshop opened with welcoming remarks from Malcolm Johnson, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, followed by a keynote presentation from Eva Molnar, Director of the UNECE Transport Division. Alongside experts from the ITS and ICT communities, the car industry was well represented by the likes of FIA, Volvo and BMW.
Workshops in Latin America on e-waste and electromagnetic fields
Quito, Ecuador will, in August, see two free of charge, open-to-all workshops bringing together the region’s ICT and environmental experts, from the policy, business and standardization spheres, to discuss the environmentally sound management of e-waste and the responsible consideration of human exposure to the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) that underpin wireless communications.
The ICT industry continues to grow and innovate at a pace matched by few, if any, other industry sectors. The speed of the industry’s expansion and the rate at which its products and services evolve gives rise to significant challenges in the management of e-waste as well as in communities’ resistance to the scaled-up construction of ICT installations in their surrounds.
e-Waste in particular is growing into a challenge of considerable weight. The United Nations University (UNU) estimates that 2013 has so far produced 53 million tons of e-waste, a figure best quantified through a comparison with UNU’s estimate that 67 million tons of new electrical and electronic goods have been introduced to the market in the same timeframe.
A workshop jointly organized by ITU and Telefónica on the “Environmentally Sound Management of e-Waste in Latin America”, 13 August 2013, will be followed by an ITU workshop on “Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields”, 14 August 2013, with both workshops kindly hosted by Telefónica in Quito, Ecuador.
The e-waste workshop will bring together key stakeholders in the region to identify means of improving the management of e-waste through regional cooperation, efficient regulatory frameworks, and public-private partnerships capable of leveraging the e-waste challenge to create new, sustainable job opportunities in the disposal and recycling of electrical and electronic goods.
These events are part of the ITU-T/Telefónica partnership programme to bridge the standardization gap and promote green ICT standards in Latin America.
More information on the workshops can be found here
More information on ITU-T activities on ICTs, Environment and Climate Change can be found here
More information on ITU-T activities on Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) can be found here
SDN work gains momentum in ITU-T
Standardization work on software-defined networking (SDN), a key priority for ITU-T in 2013, is progressing well in ITU-T’s Study Group 11 (SG11) with a number of important specifications nearing maturity following a meeting of two specialized groups in June.
SG11 is tasked with developing the signalling requirements and protocols on SDN. The work will align with the functional requirements and architectures developed by ITU-T’s Study Group 13. In addition a Joint Coordination Activity on SDN was recently established to coordinate the work.
Matt Lopez, NEC Corporation and Rapporteur on Question 4/11 Signalling requirements and protocols for Bearer and Resource control in emerging telecommunication environments: “ITU-T’s consensus-based standards process provides an opportunity for the industry to agree common objectives for the emerging SDN environment, and resulting standards will do much to unify industry players in their work to introduce SDN on a large scale.”
Draft Recommendations in progress include a document specifying the scenarios and signalling requirements using SDN technologies in Broadband Access Network (BAN). A software-defined BAN (SBAN) simplifies network configuration, making deployment of new services easier and improving broadband service provision. Working document is available here (members only).
Another document provides a gap analysis of SDN work going on across ITU and other standardization bodies as well as a framework, requirements and architecture for signalling in SDN. Working document is available here (members only).
In addition SG 11 experts are working on a Recommendation that describes the scenarios and signalling requirements for a unified intelligent programmable interface for IPv6 service deployment. This working document is available here.
The next physical meetings of the groups focusing on SDN will take place November 2013 in Uganda. For updated information see ITU-T Study Group 11 homepage.
See previous story published after ITU-T SG11 meeting in February 2013 here and a report of a workshop focusing on the topic here.
Marie-Thérèse Alajouanine (1950-2013)
ITU regrets to announce the death of Marie-Thérèse Alajouanine (1950-2013).
Marie-Thérèse was a valued and prolific contributor to the work of ITU and as such a familiar face, will be sadly missed by the many colleagues and delegates of the various ITU groups that she led with vision and energy.
Read the full text of the obituary here.
2013 World Standards Day poster competition: Winner announced
Frederica Scott Vollrath (Germany) has clinched first prize in the 2013 World Standards Day poster competition, receiving the lion’s share of the deciding vote with a poster depicting manufacturing blueprints as an illustration of 2013’s World Standards Day theme: International standards ensure positive change.
Frederica wins 1, 500 Swiss francs courtesy of IEC, ISO and ITU, the three international standards developing organizations (SDOs) comprising the World Standards Cooperation (WSC). Her poster will provide the visual identity to this year’s World Standards Day, 14 October, appearing worldwide in the promotion and celebration of this international day of observance.
Motivating the conceptual basis for her poster design, Frederica explains that as a “sustainable product designer,” she has been “trained to capture complex 3D design ideas as 2D technical drawings in the interest of providing simple plans for manufacturers to follow.” Conveying how standards simplify otherwise complex industrial processes, Frederica centred her poster around a designer’s working drawings of blueprints, which she notes can be “both intriguing and visually appealing; almost works of art in themselves.”
The poster competition in addition awarded cash prizes of 500 Swiss francs to each of the three runners-up: Seuwandi Yapa and Samith Roshan (Sri Lanka); Taylor Marquis (Canada); and Dimitri Monnois (France).
See the posters designed by the winner and three runners-up here
Other news:
Videos from our experts:
Russ Shields provides a definition of intelligent transport systems (ITS) and explains why the technology is equally as important in developing countries as it is in the developed world: http://youtube.com/watch?v=W176lZaPN1k
Stefano Ruffini on the importance of synchronization and how it was missed in the development of the Internet : http://youtu.be/DvHOxjBiOXo
ITU-T in the News:
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