Question 1/15 - Coordination of Access and Home Network Transport Standards
(Continuation of Question 1/15)
Motivation
Within the ITU-T, transport technology in the Access Network is under study in a number of different study groups, e.g. SGs 9, 12, 13, and 15, with several Recommendations published, others in development, and other supportive activities conducted, such as workshops. Moreover, ITU-R, IEEE and other standards bodies, forums and consortia are also active in this area.
Recognizing that without a strong coordination effort there is the danger of duplication of work as well as the development of incompatible and non-interoperable standards, the WTSC-96 designated Study Group 15 as Lead Study Group on Access Network Transport within ITU-T.
An Access Network Transport (ANT) Standards Overview and an ANT Work Plan have been published. The ANT Standards Overview describes various Access Network Transport "scenarios" currently being developed and implemented and a list of associated Recommendations and Standards relating to/defining those scenarios.
The ANT Work Plan lists a number of standardization bodies active in the ANT area with names and addresses for contact, communication and collaboration. It also lists possible "gaps", “overlaps" and conflicts of ongoing standardization activities. Both are published on the ITU-T Study Group 15 website.
As Home Networks become more sophisticated, and as their interactions with the Access Network become more complex, coordination between Access Network standards and Home Network standards becomes of increasing importance.
On the other hand, there is no mechanism similar to ANTS to coordinate the interactions of the Home Network and the Access Network. Question 1/15 proposes to assemble a database of standards which treat Home Network interaction with the Access Network using a process similar to the ANTS coordination: data will be solicited by LS from pertinent SDOs, organized and presented in a tabular database and available on the SG15 webpage.
Worldwide, technology is advancing rapidly in Access Networks. As many as 1.6 Billion subscribers worldwide use broadband connections to the Internet (including mobile). More than 370 million connect using Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology on telephone networks installed primarily by ITU-T member organizations. One hundred million use broadband services delivered to their neighbourhoods or directly to their residences by optical fibre connections. Many broadband subscribers receive service from new or non-traditional providers, via traditional telephone networks or by other networks such as coaxial cable in Community Access Television (CATV) networks, wireless providers or even via electric power distribution grids. Finally, there is enormous interest in developing nations for rapid broadband deployment in order to accelerate economic growth as well as to close the digital divide.
A broadband connection provides unprecedented communications resources to the network-user interface. This has created a new opportunity for advanced computational and communications capability among customer premise equipment and the desire to connect this equipment within a home network as well as to the outside world via the customer’s broadband service. The ability to serve these equipment and home networks provides a new challenge to network operators. Standardization will be imperative as much of this equipment is consumer products from suppliers without history in the telecommunications industry.
In summary, the Access Network is experiencing rapid technical change, historically high subscriber growth rates, a proliferation of new products and solutions, wide entry from new service providers and equipment suppliers who can be unfamiliar with general standards and governments eager for deployment of advanced technologies in the Access Network. Access Network standardization will see increased numbers of stakeholders who are not industry experts or even members. These same concerns apply to Home Networks as they are increasingly connected to the Access Network and the WAN. The need for coordinated standardization in these portions of the network has not been greater than it is today.
Question
How can ITU-T Study Group 15 best fulfil its mission as Lead Study Group on Access Network Transport within ITU-T?
How can ITU-T Study Group 15 ensure smooth coordination for Home Network interactions with the Access Network?
Study items to be considered include but are not limited to:
Maintain and update the ANT Standards Overview together with other study groups and in conjunction with ITU-R and other relevant organizations
Maintain and update the ANT Work Plan, report ANT related standards activities underway by recognized Standards Developing Organizations (SDO’s), identify "gaps, overlaps and conflicts" by observing on-going standardization activities
Develop, maintain and update a Home Networks – Access Network coordination database.
Maintain and update the ANT web presentation
Maintain coordination across the relevant ITU-T study groups to ensure all available expertise is utilized to best advantage and in the establishment of priorities
Serve as focal point to and provide coordination with other standards organizations, forums and consortia to ensure that the consolidation of work plans and priorities is based on a wide range of business, market and technological inputs
Contribute to ITU efforts to support developing countries by making pertinent information available such as ANT standards, documents and relevant information including indications of best practices on implementation of broadband
Contribute to ITU ANT standardization efforts that communicate, collaborate or otherwise work across industry and technical boundaries for technical standards of mutual benefit.
Investigation of Applications and higher level discussion in Focus Groups and Joint Coordination Activities in ITU-T for extraction of new requirements on transport technology in the access and home network.
Tasks
Tasks include, but are not limited to:
Update the ANT Standardization Overview (ongoing).
Update the ANT Standardization Work Plan (ongoing).
Develop, maintain and update a Home Networks – Access Network coordination database.
Create and maintain a living list of the certification and interoperability testing (CIT) activities in other organizations related to technologies based on ITU-T Recommendations from WP1/15.
Update the ANT web presentation corresponding to the revisions of the ANT Standardization Overview and Work Plans in order to maintain easy access to the actual information.
Respond to specific requests for information on ANT and HNT standards from other standards organizations and other interested entities.
Contribute to the success of pertinent ITU-T activities.
Communicate with other groups, inside and outside ITU-T as needed for coordination purposes.
Relationships
Recommendations:
G.9970: "Generic home network transport architecture"
G.9971: "Requirements of transport functions in IP home networks"
G.9973: “Protocol for identifying home network topology”
Questions:
Q2/15, Q4/15, Q18/15, Q15/15, Q5/15
Study Groups:
ITU-T SG9 on Cable TV
ITU-T SG12 on QoS/QoE
ITU-T SG13 on NGN
ITU-T SG16 on Modems and Multimedia
ITU-R WP 4B - Systems, air interfaces, performance and availability objectives for FSS, BSS and MSS, including IP-based applications and satellite news gathering
Working Party WP 5A - Land mobile service above 30 MHz (excluding IMT); wireless access in the fixed service; amateur and amateur-satellite services
Working Party WP 5C - Fixed wireless systems; HF and other systems below 30 MHz in the fixed and land mobile services
Working Party WP 5D - IMT Systems
Other ITU-T Committees
JCASG-HN
Standardization bodies, forums and consortia:
Broadband Forum on DSL Technology
Broadband Forum on Home Networking
IP/MPLS Forum on BPON and B-ISDN
ATIS Committee COAST and its subcommittee on Network Access Interfaces (NAI)
ATIS Committee COAST and its subcommittee on Optical Access Networks (OAN)
ATIS Committee STEP and its subcommittee on Telecom Energy Efficiency (TEE)
CENELEC TC205 on Home and Building Electronic Systems
CENELEC TC209 on Cable Networks
SCTE
IEEE 802.3, 802.11, 802.15 and 802.16
CENELEC TC215 on Electro-Technical aspects of telecommunications equipment
IETF on ADSLMIB
ETSI TM6 on xDSL
ISO/IEC on JTC1/SC25 on interconnection of Information Technology equipment
TIA FO4, TR-41, TR-42
CEPCA on power line communication
ETSI PLT on power line communication
HGI on residential gateway
HomePlug on power line communication
HomePNA on phone-line networking
IEEE on Ethernet and power line communication
UPA on power line communication
