New E-Health standards will propel market for monitoring services
New ITU standard Recommendation ITU-T Y.2065 will push the evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for e-health towards lower cost, higher efficiency, enhanced quality of experience and diversified smart services for health professionals, health organizations and ordinary people.
The standard titled "Service and capability requirements for e-health monitoring services" – classifies e-health monitoring services (EHM) as EHM Healthcare, EHM Rehabilitation and EHM Treatment services, and describes service requirements according to different roles involved in the provisioning of these services (i.e. EHM customer, EHM device provider, network provider, platform provider and EHM application provider). It specifies the EHM capability requirements with respect to different layers of the IoT reference model specified in ITU-T Y.2060 "Overview of the Internet of Things".
In order to build a technical framework for the implementation of the EHM capability requirements specified by ITU-T Y.2065, making e-health technology deployment easier for technicians, ITU-T (SG13) is currently progressing another work item titled "Capability framework for e-health monitoring services".
New ITU-T work to guide regulatory intervention in mobile roaming rates
Standardization experts representing the Latin American and Caribbean region have initiated work on a new standard (ITU-T Recommendation) to outline methodological principles for the definition of mobile roaming charges. The standard will offer administrations the tools necessary to determine and mandate affordable roaming charges in cases calling for regulatory intervention.
The decision to develop a new international standard on mobile roaming was taken at a meeting of the SG3 Regional Group for Latin America and the Caribbean (SG3RG-LAC) held in San José, Costa Rica, 13-14 March, at the invitation of the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (SUTEL) of Costa Rica. The meeting followed the Regional Economic and Financial Forum of Telecommunications/ICTs for Latin America organized by ITU's Development Sector (ITU-D).
SG3RG-LAC represents the interests of the Latin American and Caribbean region in the standardization work of ITU-T Study Group 3 (Economic and policy issues). The group's agreement to prolong its study into mobile roaming rates mirrors the emphasis afforded to the subject by a recent meeting of the SG3 Regional Group for Africa (SG3RG-AFR) (read news on the February meeting of SG-AFR here).
Full text
ITU to work on standards for future flight data recorders
The Malaysian Minister for Communications and Multimedia called upon ITU to develop leading edge standards to facilitate the transmission of flight data in real time. He was speaking at the opening of the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference taking place in Dubai.
This follows the tragic disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 on 8 March while on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A number of countries have joined the search for the missing aircraft and its 239 passengers and crew, currently deploying search aircraft and vessels to scour vast tracts of the southern Indian Ocean.
Full Press Release
ITU guidelines on establishing a national standardization secretariat
ITU-T has launched a set of guidelines for developing countries to establish a 'national standardization secretariat' charged with marshaling ICT standardization domestically and representing a country's interests in the international standardization work of ITU-T.
The "Guidelines on the establishment of a National Standardization Secretariat (NSS) for ITU-T", which are currently undergoing translation into the six official languages of the Union, respond to the extended mandate given by the revised WTSA Resolution 44 – Bridging the standardization gap between developing and developed countries.
The Guidelines present a step-by-step roadmap to the establishment of a NSS, spanning from the determination of the legal basis of the entity responsible for its management to best practices in the analysis of resource requirements and the creation of national-level standardization expert groups. Guidance is also offered on the responsibilities, leadership, membership and working methods of each committee or expert group comprising an efficient NSS.
Full text
New ITU-T standard on desktop-as-a-service cloud computing
ITU members have achieved first-stage approval ('consent') of a new standard on Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solutions, the latest addition to ITU-T's growing series of cloud computing standards.
The new standard is the product of ITU-T Study Group 13 (Future networks including cloud computing, mobile and NGN).
Recommendation ITU-T Y.3503 "Requirements for Desktop as a Service" details the conceptual underpinnings of DaaS, specifies its general and functional requirements and capabilities, and also provides illustrations of these requirements and capabilities with relevant use cases. DaaS, recognized as one of cloud computing's core service categories, refers to services in which cloud service customers are provided with desktop functions remotely delivered by cloud service providers.
Enhanced security may be one of the most beneficial advantages of the capability to build, configure, manage, store, execute and deliver a user's desktop functions remotely from the cloud. Responsibility for the security of desktop applications run on a server in a DaaS environment lies with the cloud service provider, ensuring better maintenance of these applications' security than would be possible were they installed on each user's PC.
In addition, ITU members reached first-stage approval a revision to Recommendation ITU-T Y.1271 "Framework(s) on network requirements and capabilities to support emergency telecommunications over evolving circuit-switched and packet-switched networks", updating it to reflect new capabilities in leveraging cloud computing infrastructure to support emergency telecommunications services.
Members also determined Recommendation ITU-T Y.2771 "Framework for Deep Packet Inspection", the second ITU-T standard on deep packet inspection (DPI), following the November 2012 approval of Recommendation ITU-T Y.2770 "Requirements for Deep Packet Inspection in Next Generation Networks". DPI is of great value in optimal traffic shaping, widely acknowledged by industry players as an effective means to increase network capacity and tipped to become part of the fundamental technology composition of future networks.
More information on ITU-T Study Group 13 can be found here…
Montevideo forum closes with agreements on smart sustainable cities
The Smart Sustainable Cities Forum held in Montevideo, Uruguay has come to an end with participants agreeing that smart sustainable cities are the future for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Specifically highlighted was the importance of improving the efficiency of city operations, the quality of life for citizens, and growing local economies through policies and standards. ICTs, attendees agreed, are a key element of any smart sustainable city.
Participants also noted the need to improve water management resources; and the need to provide citizens greater information on the level of electromagnetic fields (EMF) in cities, taking account of the proliferation of mobile telephone masts.
Alicia Fernández, Coordinator, Academic Committee of Water, AUGM, Argentina neatly summed-up the conclusion of the week-long event with the following: "Only the commitment of the community guarantees sustainability".
Over 250 participants from the private and public sectors, international organizations and NGOs took part in the event held 11-14 March. They discussed issues related to urban and rural development, e-waste management, human exposure to EMF, smart water management and the role of the academia in fostering ICTs to protect the environment.
The topic of EMF saw some heated debate with Emilie van Deventer, from the World Health Organization, detailing results from available research and Sergio de Cola, Director of the Uruguayan National Department of Telecommunications and Media Audiovisual Services, highlighting the need for more coordination, information sharing and capacity building activities among all stakeholders.
A final session focused on the role of academic institutions in saving the planet through ICTs. While Leonardo Steinfeld, Department of Electronics, Faculty of Engineering, Universidad de la República, Uruguay focused on the role of ICTs in agriculture, others spoke of the importance of the adoption of 'Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)' which they said would promote the most efficient platforms for the creation and exchange of software and knowledge. The role of universities in supporting the integration of new sustainable technologies in traditional activities was also highlighted.
New ITU standard enables health data exchange
Following calls for increased global coordination of standards enabling e-health, ITU has offered first stage approval to an important specification enabling an exchange of multimedia health data between a health provider, a controlling function and patient.
The new standard will enable different e-health systems to smoothly exchange patient health data in both low- and high-resource settings, making it ideal for applications in both developed and developing countries.
Full Press Release
Standards to usher in autonomous networked driving
Willing to hand over your keys and entrust your car to drive your from A to B? Participants at ITU's Future Networked Car symposium at the Geneva Motor Show declared that within the next decade some of us will be doing just that.
Full Press Release
New ITU-UNESCO report on smart water management
A new report on 'smart' water management provides insight into the potential of ICTs to enhance the sustainability, accessibility and efficiency of our use of water resources.
The free-of-charge report, "Partnering for solutions: ICTs in Smart Water Management (SWM)", is the product of collaboration between ITU and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The report opens with an overview of the conceptual underpinnings of smart water management and its capabilities in tackling water-management challenges. An analysis of the field's primary stakeholders follows with details on their respective roles in the smart water ecosystem.
A centrepiece of the report is its presentation of case studies on smart water management projects underway in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America. The featured projects were selected based on their merit in highlighting ICT's role in improving water management and tackling water security, water accessibility, climate change and aging infrastructure.
Drawing on its discussion of the benefits of smart water management, the roles of the field's various stakeholders and the results of ongoing smart water initiatives, the report distills a list of opportunities and challenges pertinent to the future development of smart water management systems; concluding with emphasis on the importance of multistakeholder collaboration in the task of matching the right technologies with the right stakeholders.
The report is being launched at a four-day series of ITU-UNESCO events on 'Smart Sustainable Cities' in Montevideo, Uruguay, 11-14 March 2014. Read the newslog article announcing this series of events here…
More information on ITU-T's work on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change can be found here…
More information on ITU's work on Smart Water Management can be found on the homepage of the ITU-T Focus Group on Smart Water Management (FG-SWM) here…
African standardization experts take aim at mobile roaming
African standardization experts have agreed to develop a technical standard (ITU-T Recommendation) establishing a uniform costing model for mobile roaming in the African region.
The decision to target a reduction in African mobile roaming rates came of a meeting of the SG3 Regional Group for Africa (SG3RG-AFR) held in Brazzaville, 20-21 February 2014, at the invitation of the Regulatory Agency for Post and Electronic Communications (ARPCE) of the Republic of the Congo. The meeting followed the Regional Economic and Financial Forum of Telecommunications/ICTs for Africa organized by ITU's Development Sector (ITU-D).
SG3RG-AFR represents the interests of the African region in the standardization work of ITU-T Study Group 3 (Economic and policy issues). Alongside the commitment to tackle mobile roaming, the group's Brazzaville meeting also led to the agreement to revise Recommendation ITU-T D.600 R "Cost methodology for the regional tariff group for Africa applicable to the international automatic telephone service".
Full text
