Executive summary of the SG13 meeting

As was announced in March 2025 meeting, the issue with the draft new Recommendation ITU-T Y.2086 “Framework and Requirements of Decentralized Trustworthy Network Infrastructure" will be closed at October 2025 SG13 meeting. With this understanding this Recommendation appeared on the agenda of SG13 meeting. Two contributions supported closure of the work, Cs 515, 612. The last version of the text is in TD191/WP3 (2022-2024 study period) posted in February 2023. No changes to the Recommendation text were offered since then.

SG13 assessed the situation with the Recommendation Y.2086 at its opening plenary on 28 October 2025. The abovementioned Recommendation was not approved and the work was stopped.

TSB circular 90 (dated 19 November 2025) announces the non-approval of this Recommendation.

Recommendation determined (Resolution 1 - TAP)

* On 3 November 2025 ETRI submitted the generic patent declaration for the draft new Recommendation ITU-T Y.3831 “Integration of quantum key distribution network and user network supporting end-to-end modern cryptography services – Functional architecture”. This information was duly registered in the ITU-T patents declaration database.

The AAP Last Call for the abovementioned 22 draft Recommendations and Corrigenda started on 15 November 2025.

Supplements agreed to  (Recommendation A.13)

Technical Reports agreed to (Recommendation A.13)

Technical Paper agreed to (Recommendation A.13)

Appointments

 - SG13 gave a favourable reply to the request from the SG13RG-EECAT and appointed Mr Ammar Muthanna (Russian Federation) as a
   new SG13RG-EECAT chair. Mr Muthanna replaced at that post Mr Alexey Borodin (Russian Federation), the SG13RG-EECAT chair
   since group’s creation (in 2019), who had to leave SG13 activities.
 - SG13 met the expectations of the FG-AINN and appointed Mr Riccardo Trivisonno (Huawei Technologies, Germany) as a new  
    FG-AINN chair as requested by the FG-AINN. Mr Trivisonno replaced Ms Buse Bilgin (Turkcell, Republic of Türkiye), who served the
    FG chair since creation of the group in 2024, but had to leave ITU-T activities. Her efforts and expertise in leading the FG were well
    much appreciated.
 - Mr Cao Jiguang (China) was appointed as an Acting WP4/13 chair for this meeting.
 - Ms TingTing Zhang (China Mobile, China) was appointed as the Q18/13 Rapporteur. She replaced Ms Huang Zheng (ZTE, China),
    who had taken her retirement in summer.
 - Ms Liya Yuan (ZTE, China) was appointed as the Q18/13 Associate Rapporteur.
 - Mr Antonio De Domenico (Huawei Technologies, Germany) was appointed as the new CG-datasets co-convener.
 - The meeting appointed Ms Tangqing Liu (China Mobile, China) as Acting Rapporteur for Q21/13 for this meeting.
 - Ms Ying Cheng (China Unicom), Ms Qihui Zhao (China Mobile) and Ms Xinhui Ding (CAICT, China) were appointed as convenors of the
   correspondence group on cloud computing coordination (CG-CC).

The efforts of all those, who accepted these important roles in SG13 were recognized and appreciated.

WTSA-24 decisions implementation and follow up

In line with WTSA-24 Resolution 92 (IMT) SG13 agreed for publication the revised Supplement 59 “IMT-2020 and Beyond standardization roadmap”. This is a snapshot of the online version of the IMT2020 and Beyond roadmap, maintained by the JCA-IMT2020/IMT2030.

Implementing Action 8 of WTSA-24 SG13 took part in the next activity of the Joint Correspondence Group on Trust (JCG-Trust), held on 30 October 2025 alongside this SG13 meeting.

Progress reports

Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence Native for Telecommunication Networks ​(FG-AINN) ​and continuation of its operation

FG-AINN reported its activities and results of the last four meetings in TD87/PLEN. The meeting noted the FG-AINN progress to date, workplan status, promotion activities and establishment of the communication channels with many SDOs.

Complementing the progress report, TD239/WP1 “Technical Report - Proof-of-Concept activities” brought to the attention of the meeting the first Deliverable, FG-AINN has been passing over to the SG13. In addition, TD238/WP1 “Technical Specification -Vocabulary for Artificial Intelligence Native for Telecommunication Networks” and three attachments to the progress report (TD87/PLEN) “Standardization Gap Analysis of the FG-AINN”, “Technical Specification - Use cases for AI native telecommunication networks” and “Technical Specification - Architecture Framework for Artificial Intelligence Native Telecommunication Networks” inform about the four other Deliverables under way in the FG.

Through its progress report the FG-AINN communicated to SG13 its request for extension of its lifetime for another year in order to give more time to finalize currently running deliverables and future plans. The entities, that supported this request at 23-25 September 2025 FG-AINN meeting, are China Mobile, China Telecom, Huawei Technologies Duesseldorf GmbH (Germany), India, IIT Bombay (India), Liverpool John Moores University (UK), Rakuten Mobile (Japan), Renmin University of China, State Grid Corporation of China, Turkcell (Türkiye), University of Glasgow (UK) and ZTE Corporation.

Furthermore, C580 (India) proposed and supported continuation of the FG-AINN operation for another year. In view of the above requests, the meeting considered the continuation of the FG-AINN operation and agreed to authorize the FG-AINN to continue its work for one more year (until November 2026). The Terms of Reference of the FG-AINN stay unchanged.

With agreed continuation of the group, participants were invited to join the weekly conference calls of the FG-AINN to advance its work.

​Another issue for the decision at this meeting, put forward by the FG-AINN through its progress report, was the appointment of the new FG chair as the former FG chair, Ms Buse Bilgin from Turkcell, Türkiye, stepped down in August 2025. FG candidate for the chair was Mr Riccardo Trivisonno, Huawei Technologies, Germany. SG13 meeting agreed to the request of the FG-AINN and appointed Mr Trivisonno as the new FG-AINN chair and wished him every success in this new role. Ms Bilgin’s efforts in setting up the FG and leading it from July 2024 to August 2025 were recognized and appreciated.

Also, the meeting considered establishment of the new work items, based on the FG Deliverables, as was asked by the FG in its progress report. Those are

- Technical Report - Proof-of-Concept activities, TD239/WP1, and
- Concepts, characteristics and definitions of artificial intelligence native telecommunication networks, C584 (India),

The decision of the meeting was to set up a draft new Technical Report ITU-T YSTR.Concepts-AINN "Study of concepts, characteristics and definitions of artificial intelligence native telecommunication networks", TD278/WP1, in the work programme of Q20/13.

Correspondence Group for datasets applicable for AI/ML in networks (CG-datasets) ​and continuation of its operation

Correspondence Group for datasets applicable for AI/ML in networks (CG-datasets) reported progress in the second phase of its operation in TD92/PLEN. Mr Marco Carugi, the CG-datasets co-convener (Huawei Technologies, China), introducing the progress of his group, highlighted, in particular:

- the outcomes of the the second edition of the datasets related workshop, held online, 12 (morning) and 29 (afternoon) September 2025
  (on AI/ML datasets for future networks, clause 9 of TD92/PLEN);
- opinion of the CG to request SG13 for extending the lifetime of this CG for one more year, proposed up-date to the ToR of the CG, crafted
   in TD93/PLEN;
- proposal to appoint Mr Antonio De Domenico (Huawei Technologies, Germany) as co-convener of the CG-datasets and
- accomplishment of the technical report “Datasets standardization approaches for datasets applicable for AI/ML in networks – Second
  edition”, TD94/PLEN, and “AI/ML datasets inventory - First edition”, TD95/PLEN, both elaborated in the second phase of CG operation.  

The SG13 meeting took a good note of the report in TD92/PLEN, agreed to extend the lifetime of the CG for one year (until October 2026) with the up-dated ToR as appears in TD93/PLEN in order to provide the CG more freedom to run the workshops; development of new CG-datasets deliverables, as well as the enhancements to the CG-datasets deliverables submitted to the SG13 are possible as well.

Furthermore, SG13 agreed the second edition of the technical report “Datasets standardization approaches for datasets applicable for AI/ML in networks” and first edition of the “AI/ML datasets inventory”.

Joint Coordination Activity on Artificial Intelligence, including Machine Learning​ (JCA-AI/ML) and its new name and Terms of Reference

The chair of the JCA-AI/ML, Mr Kangchan Lee (ETRI, Republic of Korea), reported the progress of his group by presenting TD90-R1/PLEN. This document captures the outcomes since the group’s first meeting in March 2023.

The meeting reviewed the progress report of the JCA-AI/ML along with the request from the group to revise its name and terms of reference (to reflect the change of the parent group from ITU-T SG13 to ITU-T TSAG along with some editorial updates) in TD91/PLEN) and proposed agreement for publication of the two new Supplements with Machine Learning Standardization Roadmap (ITU-T Y.sup.mlsr in TD113/WP2) and Glossary of Terms and Definitions for Machine Learning (ITU-T Y.sup.mlglossary in TD114/WP2).

SG13 agreed the JCA-AI/ML operation under the new name, JCA-AI, with TSAG as a parent group, and under the revised ToR as depicted in TD91/PLEN. To this end, it dispatched the Liaison Statement to TSAG (for action) and ITU-SGs informing about this decision, TD102-R1/PLEN.

Work on the ITU-T Y.sup.mlsr and Y.sup.mlglossary finalization was entrusted to Q17/13 pursue at this meeting (as part of its regular business).

The progress report by JCA-AI/ML (TD90-R1/PLEN) was well received and noted by the meeting.

Joint Coordination Activity on IMT-2020 and Beyond (JCA-IMT2020) and its new name and Terms of Reference

The JCA-IMT2020 chair, Ms Ying Cheng (China Unicom, China), walked the participants through TD144/PLEN, presenting the progress of JCA-IMT2020 to date. This document captures the outcomes since the group’s creation in February 2017.
In addition, the meeting considered the request from the group to change its name and to revise terms of reference, as appears in TD145/PLEN. The meeting supported both proposals, and agreed that JCA-IMT2020 will continue its operation under the updated ToR (TD145-R1/PLEN) and the new name JCA-IMT2020/IMT2030. The outgoing Liaison Statement in TD146/PLEN brings this meeting decision to the attention of TSAG (for action) and to all ITU-T SGs (for information).

The progress report by JCA-IMT2020 (TD144/PLEN) was well noted by the meeting.

Furthermore, SG13 took a good note of communication from TSAG (TD81/PLEN) about the new Appendix I of Recommendation ITU-T A.18 and duty to submit a progress report to the next TSAG meeting with assessment of JCA work per criterions of new Appendix.

Collaboration

Proposal for new Joint Rapporteur Group on Quantum Resistant Cryptography
Contribution C408 (Republic of Korea) brought to the meeting the proposal to transfer the studies of CQR (co-located quantum resistance group) into the Joint Rapporteur group between SGs 13 and 17. Contribution, along with the background, led to this proposal, was presented at opening plenary and didn’t receive any negative comment, nor questions for clarification. Gaining support, the opening plenary agreed the idea of transferring CQR into the JRG. Details of the transition and ToR of the new group were entrusted for further elaboration to the Q16/13 and CQR session at this SG13 meeting. Results of the discussion (see the CQR meeting report in TD337-R1/WP4 for more details):

 - Elaborated ToR for Joint Rapporteur Group on Quantum Resistant Cryptography as found in Annex A of TD150/PLEN
 - The form of the group, JRG or JCG, is still open and will be addressed at the next CQR meeting (December 2025, Geneva,
    alongside SG17 meeting)
 - Outgoing LS to SG17 for action as found in TD150/PLEN
 - List of initial work items as input to JRG, depicted in Appendix I to TD150/PLEN

SG13 closing plenary agreed to send out the Liaison Statement, TD150/PLEN. SG17 was invited via this LS to provide its view on the format of the new group, its ToR and parentship of the JRG (WP4/13 and WP1/17). TSAG will be informed for endorsement and administrative follow up, once the new group is set up.

Coordination activities 

Creation of the new Correspondence Group on cloud computing coordination (CG-CC)
WP2/13 in July 2025 agreed establishment of a new Correspondence Group on Cloud Computing Coordination (CG-CC-SG13&SG21) to address potential overlaps in cloud-related work, currently performed in Study Groups 13 and 21 (Terms of Reference in TD83/WP2 and liaison statement to ITU-T SG21 in TD84/WP2).

Since then SG13 received the communication from SG21 with the proposed revision to the ToR of the group, its name, form and main purpose (TD118/WP2).
After a short discussion, bearing in mind the existing collaboration mechanisms per Recommendation ITU-T A.1, the meeting agreed to launch a new Correspondence Group on cloud computing coordination (CG-CC) with Terms of Reference as shown in TD143/PLEN and conveners being Ms Ying Cheng (China Unicom), Ms Qihui Zhao (China Mobile) and Ms Xinhui Ding (CAICT, China) as representative of SG21.
Implementing the lead SG13 role on cloud computing, the group will contribute to shaping a common understanding on cloud computing related matters by analyzing the cloud computing related ongoing work items as well as published Recommendations, identifying scope boundaries and potential overlaps, identifying further the coordination needs for the work related with cloud computing topics (such as the work items related to artificial intelligence cloud platform which are developed or under development in SG21). CG is open to any organization participating in ITU-T Study Groups and is supposed to remain active until major coordination issues, related cloud computing standardization, are resolved.

A liaison statement, informing TSAG and SG21 about new CG creation and modalities of its operation to ensure continued coordination on cloud computing, was developed and agreed (see TD138/PLEN, Annex 4).

For more details refer to the WP2/13 report in TD137/PLEN

JCA-IMT2020
The regular JCA-IMT2020 meeting took place on 29 October 2025 alongside this SG13 meeting. It was chaired by the JCA-IMT2020 chair, Ms Ying Cheng (China Unicom, China) with the support of the JCA-IMT2020 vice-chair, Mr Nanxiang Shi (China Mobile, China).

As custom, the meeting agreed on a big number of new Recommendations, Supplements and technical specifications to be included into its ongoing project IMT-2020 and beyond roadmap.

The JCA-IMT2020 reviewed the proposal to change its name to IMT2020/IMT2030 and consequently the terms of reference to expand its coordination responsibility to IMT-2030 systems. These proposals were agreed and the parent SG was requested to approve the JCA new name and terms of reference (TD145/PLEN).

The next JCA-IMT2020 meeting will take place on 24 February 2026 in Geneva alongside the SG13 co-located rapporteur group meetings.

New work items coordination
Since March 2023 SG13 has been convening the new work items coordination sessions, the approach to assess the proposals for the new work in their entirety. In October 2025 SG13 had two sessions (29 and 30 October 2025) for exchanging the opinions on the new work proposed for starting at this meeting. The agenda was crafted by the SG13 chair, Mr Kazunori Tanikawa (NICT, Japan), who convened the meeting. The report may be found in TD169/GEN.

TSAG request on standards success stories
In reply to the request from TSAG “LS/i on the development of ITU-T Standards Success Stories” (TD91/GEN), SG13 management team developed the reply Liaiaon Statement in August 2025, TD125/GEN. Then at the reported SG meeting, having received an enhanced template for providing the success stories in LS from TSAG “LS/i on Proposed template for ITU-T Standards Success Stories”, TD86/PLEN, SG13 agreed the corresponding Liaison Statement back, TD101-R1/PLEN.

Ad-hoc and correspondence group activities

Correspondence Group on SG13 future direction (CG-SG13ftr) meeting, previewed at the reported SG meeting, was cancelled having received no contributions.

Joint Correspondence Group on Trust (JCG-Trust) met alongside this SG13 meeting on 30 October 2025 to pursue its mandate. The report may be retrieved from the group’s SharePoint area.

Quantum resistance related studies (CQR) meeting had its regular meeting on 3 November 2025. Report may be found in
TD337-R1/WP4.

Bridging Standardization Gap (BSG)
The SG13 Regional Group for Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Transcaucasia (SG13RG-EECAT) convened its second meeting on 9-11 June 2025 in St Petersburg, Russian Federation. Presenting the report of that meeting at the SG13 plenary, the representative of Russian Federation, Mr Evgeny Tonkikh, highlighted, in particular, the objectives for SG13RG-EECAT for the new study period, aligned with the WTSA-24 outcomes, updates to the group’s Terms of Reference to include the new particularities like network aspects of metaverse and fog computing and the request from the SG13RG-EECAT to SG13 to appoint the new SG13RG-EECAT chair, Mr Ammar Muthanna (Russian Federation). Mr Muthanna replaces Mr Alexey Borodin (Russian Federation), the SG13RG-EECAT chair, who had to leave SG13 activities.

The SG13 meeting participants approved the SG13RG-EECAT meeting report in TD83/PLEN, revised Terms of References for the SG13RG-EECAT in TD82/PLEN and appointed the new chair Mr Ammar Muthanna. The SG chair extended his appreciation to the former group leader, Alexey Borodin.

Next meeting of the SG13RG-EECAT is envisaged in 2026, date and place to be confirmed.

The SG13 Regional Group for Africa (SG13RG-AFR) hasn’t met since the last SG13 meeting.  

The SG13RG-ARG is exploring the ways to have a physical meeting in 2026. The meeting may be preceded by the workshop. Hosts are welcome to identify themselves in order to give an opportunity for the SG13RG-AFR to meet in person.

The Bridging the Standardization Gap (BSG) and newcomer training on Contributions virtual session was offered by TSB to the SG13 and SG15 delegates on 23 September 2025. Session was open to every SG13, SG15 participant and was followed by 48 delegates. Presented material may be found in TD129/GEN.

Outreach
Information sessions

A regular newcomer session presentation was delivered by the SG13 Mentor, Mr Alojz Hudobivnik, on 28 October 2025. This session attracted 7 live and 34 remote participants. Presented material is available from TD130/GEN.

Technical Tutorial on AI native for telecom networks was delivered by the experts of the FG-AINN to 37 delegates and 34 on-line attendees. Presented material may be found in TD168/GEN. Records are available for replay here.

Questionnaire
The Questionnaire on Use Cases of services universalization in developing countries using open networks and AI models (in support of the work in Q5/13) gathered 21 replies from 13 countries (by the extended deadline of 3 October 2025), that were analysed and presented in TD266/WP4.​

Roadmaps
SG13 agreed for publication

• Edition 5 of Supplement 59 to ITU-T Y.3100-series "IMT-2020 and beyond standardization roadmap, TD133/PLEN​
  
• Supplement 96 to ITU-T Y-series "Machine Learning Standardization Roadmap", TD115/PLEN​
  
  
  It continues its work on 

• Supplement Y.sup.cnc-roadmap "Roadmap of coordination of networking and computing in IMT-2020 networks and beyond", TD269/WP1, target for completion in 4Q/2026
  
• Supplement Y.supp.fmsc-roadmap "Fixed, mobile and satellite convergence - Standardization roadmap", TD284/WP1, target for 4Q/2026
  
• Supplement Y.supp.trust-roadmap "Standardization roadmap on trustworthy networking and services for study period 2025", TD317/WP4, target for October 2028 
  
• Supplement Y.supp.QENS-roadmap "Standardization roadmap on quantum enhanced networking and services for study period 2025", TD314/WP4 , target for December 2028

Work programme updates

Left-over from the previous meeting
Conditionally approved in July 2025 new work item of Q16 Y.trcm-fr “Framework for Trust based Consent Management” (TD204/WP4) received the reply Liaison Statement from SG17 (TD268/WP4), reshaped its scope and title based on the contributions to the meeting (Cs 423, 596) and meeting discussions and was agreed as Y.trcm-fr “Trust based Consent Management Framework for Network Provisioning”, TD319/WP4. Liaison statement back to SG17, informing about this meeting outcome and inviting collaboration, was agreed as appears in TD142/PLEN annex 13.

Changes to the form and approval process for the work items under way
The opening plenary agreed to change the form of the work item output for 

New Work
Contributions brought 58 proposals to initiate the new work, out of which 45 were drafted in the form of a new Recommendation (28), revised Recommendation (1), Supplement (9), technical report (7), one was kept in the living list of Q5/13, three were kept in the living list of Q17/13 and one – in the living list of Q19/13.

So, in total this meeting agreed to the initiation of 45 new work items (TD148/PLEN).

Innovation

Future plans
An important number of interim activities were agreed to (TD147/PLEN). This includes the joint session of Q20/13, Q21/13, Q22/13 on AI agent on 22 January 2026.

All SG13 Questions will meet as co-located rapporteur groups in Geneva on 23-27 February 2026.

13^th SG13RG-AFR meeting is exploring the possibility to have a physical meeting in Africa in spring 2026.

The 10th JCA-AI meeting will be convened after TSAG meeting (January 2026).

The 24th JCA-IMT2020/IMT2030 meeting will take place on 24 February 2026 in Geneva alongside the SG13 co-located rapporteur group meetings.

Correspondence groups will continue their activities to pursue their mandates.​

Next meetings

Working Parties 1, 2, 3, 4/13 meetings will be convened on 27 February 2026 in Geneva, Switzerland in order to give consent to the following draft Recommendations and agree on the Supplements, new work items and future plans:

​