Executive summary of the SG13 meeting

Draft Recommendation reverted to the SG13 meeting, Y.3800 “Framework for Networks supporting Quantum Key Distribution"

TD190/PLEN explains the results of the draft new Recommendation Y.3800 “Framework for Networks supporting Quantum Key Distribution" treatment in the AAP Last Call and Additional Review (AR). In short, this Recommendation, having received comments of substance in the AAP Additional Review period, was sent back to SG decision. At the current meeting in addition to the AR comments by Orange, Y.3800 received inputs by Contributions 825, 775 and 835 from Huawei, Republic of Korea and KT respectively. Because of these inputs, Q16/13 was charged to address the issues brought in contributions and come back with the proposal ready for SG13 approval at the closing plenary. The SG13 chairman, seconded from the floor, emphasized that every attempt should be made to reach the agreement on Y.3800 text, counterparts can live with.

Q16/13 after many days of extensive discussions delivered the Y.3800 text as appears in TD206/PLEN. However, at the closing plenary more than one member state indicated its objections for the approval of Recommendation as in TD 206/PLEN. Then SG13 chairman made a proposal to the meeting that may be found inTD235/PLEN. This compromise solution suited all involved parties and new Recommendation ITU-T Y.3800 “Overview on networks supporting quantum key distribution" (note the change of title) was approved as found inTD235/PLEN.

Supplement agreed to (Recommendation A.13) 

Important decisions (apart of Recommendations)

Human assets 

- Confirmed the nomination of Mr Alojz Hudobivnik (Slovenia) as WP1/13 Vice-chairman;
- Nominated Ms Huang Zheng (ZTE) as a Rapporteur for Q18/13 to replace Mr Wand Dong (ZTE) who left SG13 business
- Nominated Mr Xiaowu He (China Telecom) as a Associate Rapporteur for Q17/13 to replace Mr Chen Nan (China Telecom) 

In addition to the above permanent nominations, some temporary roles performed at this meeting were as follows:

- Mr Leo Lehmann, SG13 Chairman, performed Acting WP2/13 chairman function for the opening plenary of the WP2/13 (14 October 2019)
- Ms Kiran Makhijani performed on request of SG13 chairman the Acting Associate Rapporteur functions for Q2/13 
- Mr Huan Deng (China Telecom) served as Acting Rapporteur for Q2/13 for the last two days of the meeting replacing the rapporteur for
  Q2/13 Ms Yuan (Sophie) Zhang who had to unexpectedly leave the meeting earlier

Revision to the Q20/13 text
The SG13 chairman initiated the revision of the Q20/13 text at this meeting, see TD422/WP1, in order to increase the visibility to the large portion of the actual work in this Question devoted to the machine learning and beginning of artificial intelligence as applied to networks. Also this Question is a main recipient of the work from the FG ML5G. The meeting agreed to the revision of Q20/13 text as found in TD231/PLEN. Supporting Members are: Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, ETRI, KT, Tunisia Telecom, Rostelecom. KAIST also expressed its support.

A liaison statement to TSAG was agreed to request endorsement to such Q20/13 revision, TD233/PLEN.

Focus Groups progress
At the opening plenary SG13 reviewed the progress to date of the FG NET2030 based on its progress report, TD196/PLEN. Addendum to this progress report was reviewed at the interim plenary. Per Appendix I of Recommendation ITU-T A.7, FG NET2030 forwarded to its parent group the draft output document “New Services and Capabilities for Network 2030: Description, Technical Gap and Performance Target Analysis" (TD379/GEN). In its progress report, TD196 Add1/PLEN, FG NET2030 suggests the SG13 consider developing it further as Supplement. There were no objections for establishing a new work item Y.Supplement network 2030 service under Q2/13 that consists of the first output from FG NET2030. However, since this deliverable speaks about addressing and services, the meeting felt appropriate to communicate the proposal for establishing the new work item to the lead SG on services (SG2) for its feedback. An LS to this end was drafted and agreed by the meeting.

Furthermore, SG13 gave favourable response to the request from the FG NET2030 (TD196/PLEN and C833) for the extension of its lifetime in order to give the group more time to finalize its current deliverables. Lifetime of FG NET2030 was therefore extended until 31 October 2020. 

Supporting Members are: Huawei, China Telecom, China Unicom, Verizon, Rostelecom, SK Telecom, KDDI, Vodafone (Egypt), CICT China and China Mobile.

In addition, FG NET2030 will have its meeting alongside the last TSAG meeting in the current study period (tentatively planned for September 2020, Geneva).  

SG13 noted the FG NET2030 progress report and its addendum. 

FG ML5G reported its progress since the last SG13 meeting in TD199-R1/PLEN. This progress report was noted by the meeting.

The closing plenary gave consent to the draft new Recommendations ITU-T Y.3173 “Framework for evaluating intelligence level in future networks including IMT-2020" and Y.3174 “Framework for data handling to enable machine learning in future networks including IMT-2020" (see table above) that are largely based on the outputs of the FG ML5G. On top of that the closing plenary approved for publication the new Supplement 55 to Y.3170-sereis “Machine learning in future networks including IMT-2020: use cases" (see in a table above) that is an evolution of the FG ML5G deliverable handed over to the SG13 back in June.

Coordination activities

Quantum communications related studies
Q16/13 agreed to join the Q4/17 rapporteur group meeting co-located with the first meeting of the  Focus Group on Quantum Information Technology for Networks (FG-QIT4N) in early December 2019 in Jinan, China. There it will further work out the modalities and details of the joint performance by the co-located groups (CG) of Questions 16/13 and 4/17 carrying out the work on quantum communications.

Correspondence group with SG2 on IMT-2020 network management studies
Per the instruction from the SG13 Chairman, Q21/13 reviewed the status of the correspondence group with the SG2 on IMT-2020 network management issues. From the Q21/13 perspective, the group should continue with fulfilment of its mandate as previewed (until August 2020).

IMT-2020
The JCA-IMT2020 held its regular meeting alongside the current SG13 meeting, on 17 October. That meeting agreed to ask SG13 to consider elaboration of a new Supplement on IMT-2020 standardization, TD205/PLEN. New Supplement, agreed by the meeting, is in essence a current snapshot of the online ongoing JCA-IMT2020 project on IMT-2020 standards roadmap. 

Artificial Intelligence
Q17/13 elaborated the next revision of its draft Supplement with the AI standardization roadmap.

Open Source community
Q19/13 took initial steps towards exploring the commonalities and potential close collaboration with the Open Network Automation Platform on cloud computing management and service orchestration, TD210/PLEN – Annex 10.

Ad-hoc activities

The Ad-hoc on next study period (NSP Ad-hoc) led by SG13 Vice-chairman, Mr Yoshinori Goto, had two sessions during the October SG13 meeting. Report may be found in TD381/GEN. A number of e-meetings is envisaged before the next SG13 activity in March 2020.

A short life correspondence group for elaboration of the reply to TSAG about Resolutions streamlining (request in TD200/PLEN) was authorised by the SG13 interim plenary, 21 October. Ms Rim Belhassine-Cherif volunteered to run this activity that resulted in drafting of Liaison Statement found in TD219/PLEN. The latter was approved for dispatching. At this point the correspondence group ceased its duties.

Bridging Standardization Gap
The first meeting of the SG13RG-EECAT was reported in TD198/PLEN. The meeting noted with satisfaction that the group agreed to pass over to the SG13 five contributions with the proposals to start a new Recommendation or technical report. SG13RG-EECAT May 2019 meeting report was approved.

Planning is underway for the next SG13RG-AFR in Abuja, Nigeria, 5 – 6 February 2020. As custom, it will follow the SG13 Regional Workshop on "Standardization of future networks towards Building a better connected Africa" of 3 – 4 February 2020 at the same venue. The SG13 chairman made a call for volunteers to run a technical tutorial at this RG meeting.

The questionnaires on Big Data Adoption in Developing Countriesand use of ITU-T Recommendations in developing countries (launched at summer 2018 SG13 meeting) gained 17 and 18 responses respectively. Those formed solid basis for the progression of the Q5/13 corresponding Supplements.​

New work
This meeting seen 31 proposals to initiate the new work items, out of which 24 were drafted in the form of a new Recommendation/Supplement. Those were agreed to be started with the exception of four, which for the opinion was expressed that a feedback from the companion groups (SG, FG) working in similar area should be solicited first. The work items on hold until replies are received are:

WP1/13 (2 Work Items): 

- Draft new Recommendation Y. IMT2020-CAN-req “Use cases and requirements of computing-aware networking for future networks
   including IMT-2020", Q20/13, relationship with FG NET2030
- Draft new Recommendation Y.SCid-fr “Requirements and converged framework of self-controlled identity based on blockchain", Q22/13,
  relationship with SGs 2 and 17 (TD212/PLEN)

WP3/13 (2 Work Items): 

- Supplement “New Services and Capabilities for Network 2030: Description, Technical Gap and Performance Target Analysis", Q2/13,
    checking with SG2 (TD 234/PLEN)
- Draft new Recommendation Y.CPN-arch on Framework and architecture of computing power network, Q2/13, looking for the FG NET2030
   experts word

For the following work items the clearance has been received during the SG13 meeting. So they were agreed for starting:
- Draft Recommendation ITU-T Y.ML-IMT2020-MP “Machine learning marketplace integration in future networks including IMT-2020",
   Q20/13, relationship with FG ML5G
- Draft Recommendation ITU-T Y. IMT2020-AIICDN-arch “AI integrated cross-domain network architecture for future networks including
   IMT-2020, Q20/13, relationship with FG ML5G

Note: Subsequent to the meeting, the SG13 chairman approached FG ML5G to double check the disposition of the work item Y. IMT2020-AIICDN-arch (concerning potential overlap of work).

B​est practices for SG13 operation
The SG13 chairman introduced a new best practice for preparation and progress of AAP, TD203/PLEN. It was reviewed, agreed and applied already for the consented at this meeting Recommendations, namely, to start the AAP Last Call not earlier than 3 weeks after the consent meeting.

A SG13 award for dedication and outstanding support over many years for the work of SG13 was offered to one SG13 member following the practice since July 2018 SG13 meeting.

Future plans
An important number of interim meetings was agreed to. Each Question of SG13 will be meeting during the co-located rapporteur group meetings in Geneva on 2 – 13 March 2020.

Next meetings 
A one day SG13 plenary meeting will be convened on 13 March 2020 in Geneva, Switzerland in order to give consent to the following draft Recommendations, approve the following draft Supplement and technical report, assessing the status and consider for approval draft Supplement on services in Network 2030, consider the new work items, outgoing liaison statements and future plans as well as continue preparations to the WTSA-20:

  WP1/13 “IMT-2020 Networks & Systems"

- Y.IMT-2020.qos-ml-arc, Architecture of machine learning based QoS assurance for IMT-2020 network, Q6/13
- Y.IMT2020-ESDP, Enhanced SDN Data Plane for IMT-2020, Q20/13
- Y.NetSoft-SSMO, Scalable service management and orchestration framework in IMT-2020, Q21/13
- Y.ICN-RF, Requirements and Capabilities of ICN Routing and Forwarding based on Control and User Plane Separation in IMT-2020, 
   Q22/13
- Y.FMC-SS, Service scheduling for supporting FMC in IMT-2020 network, Q23/13
- Y.NE-MPT, Network Equipment based Multipath Transmission, Q23/13
- Y.FMC-SM, Session management for fixed mobile convergence in IMT-2020 networks, Q23/13
- SupY.IMT2020std-rm "IMT-2020 standardization roadmap", Q21/13

WP2/13 “Cloud Computing & Big Data"

- Y.bDPI-Mec, Mechanism of deep packet inspection applied in network big data context, Q7/13
- Y.bDDN-req, Requirement of big data-driven networking, Q7/13

WP3/13 “Network Evolution & Trust" 

- Y.NGN-PLA-reqts, Scenarios and Capability Requirements of Programmable Log Analysis in Next Generation Networks, Q2/13
- Y.Supplement network 2030 service “Network 2030 Services: Capabilities, performance and design of new communications services for
   the Network 2030 applications", Q2/13
-​ Technical report “Network 2030", Q2/13