Executive summary of the SG13 meeting

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Executive summary of the SG13 meeting,
13 – 24 March 2023, Geneva, Switzerland​

This SG13 meeting was called up by the Collective-letter 4/13 (of 13 January 2023) and its Addendum 1 (dated 6 February 2023) and Addendum 2 (dated 17 February 2023).

The opening remarks were delivered by the TSB Director, Mr Seizo Onoe, who mentioned in particular, that his priority as Director is to ensure that ITU-T attracts leading experts and promotes the adoption of new technologies, and relevant standards, in every region of the world. Director further said that the work of SG13 is key to this objective.

This SG13 meeting attracted 345 delegates (267 remote only and 78 present in person), considered 584 documents split as 224 contributions and 360 TDs. List of contributions may be found in TD76/PLEN.

TSB MyMeetings platform for remote participation was used to support each formal session at this Study Group meeting resulting in 238 sessions in total. 

​Main meeting results

                                                                                                  Recommendation approved (Resolution 1 - TAP)​

                            Recommendation approved (Recommendation A.8 – AAP)

SG13 approved the above-mentioned Recommendation at its opening plenary on 13 March 2023.

TSB circular 91 (dated 5 April 2023) announces the results of the approval.​

Recommendations consented for Last Call (Recommendation A.8 - AAP)

​* On 29 November 2022 ETRI submitted the patent declaration for Recommendation ITU-T Y.3140 “Service brokering network framework for Trusted Reality". It was duly registered in the ITU-T Patents declaration database https://www.itu.int/ipr.
** On 2 February 2023 Wuhan Rayton Network Technology submitted the patent declaration for the Recommendation ITU-T Y.3117 (09/2022) “Quality of service assurance-related requirements and framework for smart education supported by IMT-2020 and beyond ". This information was duly registered in the ITU-T Patents declaration database www.itu.int/ITU-T/ipr/.
*** On 27 February 2024 ETRI submitted the patent declaration for Recommendation ITU-T Y.3540 “Edge computing - Overview and high-level requirements”.  It was duly registered in the ITU-T Patents declaration database www.itu.int/ITU-T/ipr/.​
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The Last Call for the listed above Recommendations starts on 16 April 2023.

             Sup​plement agreedto (Recommendation A.13)

SG13 agreed the above-mentioned two Supplements at its interim plenary on 20 March 2023.

Recommendation reinitiated for Last Call (Recommendation A.8 – AAP)

See TSB circular 89 (dated 31 March 2023).

Important decisions (apart of Recommendations)

Human Assets 
Further to the request from the SG13RG-AFR (20 October 2022 virtual meeting), the SG13 meeting appointed as a new SG13RG-AFR Vice-Chairman Mr Elliot Kabalo (ZICTA, Zambia), who will reinforce Eastern African presence in this regional group management team. 

The meeting agreed to nominate​

• Ms Zhao Qiangying (China Telecom, China) as the Acting rapporteur for Q2/13 in absence of the Rapporteur in charge on the spot
• Mr Kangchan Lee (ETRI, Republic of Korea) as Acting WP2/13 chairman to substitute the WP2/13 chairman for this meeting
• Mr Gyu Myoung Lee (Q16/13 Rapporteur, Republic of Korea) as the SG13 July workshop steering committee head
  
• Mr Kangchan Lee (ETRI, Republic of Korea) as Liaison Rapporteur to FG-MV  

WTSA-24 preparations
The SG13 chairman briefly walked the participants though the results of the last TSAG meeting (TD74/PLEN) and emphasized that TSAG expects study groups to submit their proposed Question texts and material for Resolution 2 prior to the last TSAG meeting in 2024.

NSP ad-hoc continued its work during this SG13 meeting and had its session on 15 March 2023. Report may be found in TD143/GEN. In essence, the meeting agreed to the tentative Q23/13 title as “IMT-2030 networks: Fixed, mobile and satellite convergence" for the next study period.

Participants were encouraged to submit contributions with changes to the SG13 title, area of responsibility, lead study group roles and points of guidance for the next study period. Discussion will continue by the e-mail reflector and e-meetings, including further elaboration of the terms of reference for the potential new Question for coordination. 

Continuation of FG-AN work
FG-AN reported its activities and results of the last meetings in TD89/PLEN. The meeting noted the FG-AN progress to date and maintenance of the good communication and collaboration channel with SDOs and industry bodies active in the AN area. Together with the progress report the FG-AN submitted its ongoing Deliverable with technical report on Proof-of-Concept activities (TD133/GEN) for information of the meeting. Participants were invited to join the weekly conference calls of the FG-AN to advance its work.

Through its progress report the FG-AN communicated to SG13 the request for extension of its lifetime for another year in order to give more time to finalize currently running deliverables and future plans (clause 7 of TD89/PLEN). The deliverables currently under development in the FG-AN are the Gap Analysis, Definitions glossary and Proof of Concepts.

Cs 291 (University of Glasgow, UK) and 254 (Ministry of Communications, India) proposed and supported continuation of the FG-AN operation till the first SG13 meeting in 2024.

The meeting considered the continuation of the FG-AN operation and agreed to authorize the FG-AN to continue its work until the end of 2023. The Terms of Reference of the FG-AN stay unchanged.

Supporting Members (from contributions and FG-AN progress report): India, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Oki Electric, Rakuten Mobile, Huawei Technologies, ZTE and University of Glasgow (UK).

Furthermore, the SG13 agreed on up-grading the work item, based on the Deliverables of the FG-AN, to the Recommendation and to the establishment of it in the work programme of Q16/13 as draft new Recommendation Y.trust-an “Overview on Trust for Autonomous Networks", TD230/WP3.

Correspondence Group on datasets lifetime extension
ITU-T Correspondence Group for datasets applicable for AI/ML in networks (CG-datasets) reported progress to date in TD99/PLEN. Group had two conference calls to date and elaborated the framework for the report required per its terms of references (technical report on standardization approach for datasets). It also requested the extension of its operation for one more year in order to accomplish its deliverable. SG13 granted extension of the lifetime for the Correspondence Group on datasets for one year, i.e., until July 2024. ToR of the group stay unchanged.

Revision of the Terms of Reference for the JCA-IMT2020
TD88/PLEN from the JCA-IMT2020 chairman informs about the agreement reached at the JCA-IMT2020 meeting (21 November 2022, Geneva) on revision to the Terms of Reference of the JCA-IMT2020 group. Furthermore, TSAG at its first meeting in this study period (12-16 December 2022) authorised continuation of the JCA-IMT2020 with its revised Terms of Reference and proposed some updates to these ToRs as found in annex to TD84/PLEN. The combined updated Terms of Reference for JCA-IMT2020, taking into account the proposal from TSAG and JCA itself, were approved by SG13 as found in the attachment to TD88/PLEN. Corresponding Liaison Statement to TSAG was agreed, TD94/PLEN.

Innovations
A new approach to assess the proposals for the new work in their entirety was tried at this meeting. Namely, SG13 had three sessions (14, 15 and 16 March 2023) for exchanging the opinions on the new work proposed for starting at this meeting. Sessions were run by the SG13 Vice-Chairman, Mr Scott Mansfield (Ericsson Canada), report may be found in TD145/GEN. This practice will be continued. Comments on the new work item process and planning for future sessions are invited.

A leadership training was offered to the SG13 meeting participants for the first time. 

Coordination activities

New Question on Coordination
SG13 received the feedback from TSAG and directions concerning the setting up of a new Question on coordination in SG13, TD80/PLEN. In addition, the Rapporteurs of Q20/13 took infinitive to review in details the proposed new Question text and provided their up-dates as found in TD130/GEN. Having assess all these materials the SG13 chairman concluded that there is no need at this point for setting up a new Question in SG13. TD130/GEN was entrusted to NSP Ad-hoc for further consideration. This issue may be revised in the next study period. 

QKDN roadmap
TSAG meeting in December 2022 agreed to set up a new JCA-QKDN (TD86/TSAG). Contributions C365 and C366 (both from UK) requested to move the target agreement date for the SG13 Supplement with QKDN standardization roadmap (Y.supp.QKDN-roadmap) from December 2023 to March 2023 and to pass over the SG13 QKDN roadmap for maintenance to JCA-QKDN per the Terms of Reference of this new group.

SG13 agreed to move the target completion date of the Supplement on QKDN roadmap from December 2023 to March 2023, updated this SG13 work item (Y.supp.QKDN-roadmap) with the inputs received for the meeting, agreed for publication of the new Supplement 74 to Y.3800-series “Standardization roadmap on Quantum Key Distribution Networks" and agreed to entrusting the roadmap part of this Supplement to the JCA-QKDN for maintenance per their ToR. Corresponding Liaison Statement to JCA-QKDN may be found in TD108/PLEN.

ITU-T, ITU-R, ITU-D Questions mapping
TSAG asked to review the mapping tables of ITU-R, ITU-D and ITU-T Questions and to submit any updates to the ISCG. SG13 fulfilled this task and was of the opinion that no change is needed (TD111PLEN).

JCA-IMT2020
The regular JCA-IMT2020 meeting took place in Geneva on 14 March 2023 alongside this SG13 meeting. As custom, it agreed on a big number of new Recommendations and technical specifications to be included into its ongoing project IMT-2020 and beyond roadmap. This time the meeting received the presentation on the intent in autonomous networks work from TM Forum and a talk from the JCA-IMT2020 chairman about anticipated automatic population of the roadmap by scraping the SDOs public websites. 

JCA-ML
The JCA-ML was endorsed by TSAG to start its activities (TD82/PLEN) and had its inaugural meeting on 16 March 2023 in Geneva alongside the SG13 meeting. Two coordination projects were agreed for start:

• Machine learning standardization roadmap (Editor: Mr Sungpil Shin, ETRI, Republic of Korea) and
• Glossary of terms and definitions for machine learning (Editor: Mr Hongki Cha, ETRI)
  In addition, presentations of current standardization efforts in ITU-T Study Groups, other SDOs, and Forums were invited to the second JCA-ML meeting (19 July 2023, Geneva).
  

Coordination session of Questions 2/13, 6/13, 17/13, 20/13, 21/13, 22/13 and 23/13 on Computing and Network Convergence (CNC)
At this meeting the CNC coordination work has been continued at the session run on 15 March (TD97/PLEN).

Further meeting of Qs 20 and 21/13 on 16 March (TD291/WP1) agreed to degrading CNC to a common description (without a new definition of CNC).

SG13 Interim plenary on 20 March 2023 agreed (as elaborated in TD97/PLEN) to use the term CPN (computing power network) only in Q2/13 to replace the CNC.

Furthermore, Qs 6, 20, 21 and 23/13 had a joint session on 22 March 2023 to discuss the terminology issue on CNC. Report is available in TD373/WP1. In summary, meeting agreed to understand under the previous abbreviated name CNC “coordination of computing and networking in IMT-2020 and beyond" (as opposed to the former Computing and Network Convergence).

Consequently, the three proposals with the new work items (deferred from July 2022 meeting) in Q2 were kept in the Q2/13 living list, one proposal from Q20/13, TD318/WP1, and one from the Q23/13, TD312/WP1, (also both deferred from July 2022 meeting) were adjusted each to the new terminology and are planned for establishment in the SG13 work programme at the July 2023 WP1/13 meeting.

Communication with FG-MV
Further to the request on collaboration and feedback on the metaverse-related standardization work, received from the new FG-MV (TD147/GEN), SG13 prepared and agreed its input as found in TD127/PLEN. 

Bridging Standardization Gap (BSG)
SG13RG-AFR met on 20 October 2022 virtually. The report may be found in TD92/PLEN. It was approved by the meeting. In addition, per the decision of that meeting the unanimous meeting support for the candidacy of Mr Elliot Kabalo (ZICTA, Zambia), as a new Vice-chairman for the SG13 RG-AFR, was brought to the attention of the SG13 meeting participants.

A regular SG13 regional workshop for Africa is planned as 1,5 – 2 days event in Cote D'Ivoire, Abidjan, preceding the SG13RG-AFR two days meeting sometime in the second half of 2023.

The meeting plans for SG13RG-EECAT were suspended.

BSG hands-on training session was offered by TSB to the SG13 delegates from developing countries on 16 March 2023. 

New Work
There were 44 proposals to initiate the new work, out of which 31 were drafted in the form of a new Recommendation (27), Supplement (2), technical report (1), Corrigendum (1) and five kept in the living lists.
In addition, five proposals for the new Recommendations deferred from the July 2022 meeting were handled to the future meetings' decision.
As indicated above, in total this meeting agreed to the initiation of 31 new work items, TD110/PLEN, TD330/WP1  and C309. 

Outreach

Information sessions
A regular newcomer session presentation was delivered by the SG13 Mentor, Mr Alojz Hudobivnik (WP1/13 Vice-chairman), on 13 March 2023. It attracted 10 live and 35 remote participants. Presented material is available from TD136/GEN.

Leadership training session was offered to the SG13 meeting participants on 17 March 2023. It was convened by the TSAG RG-WM Associate Rapporteur, Mr Philip Rushton (UK), materials presented in session may be found in TD135/GEN. 11 delegates in the room and 27 from remote followed the training.

Information session on the ITU-R work toward IMT-2030 took place on 20 March 2023, courtesy of the ITU-R SG5 counsellor, Mr Uwe Loewenstein. The goal of the information session was to increase awareness and share the knowledge on the current status of works on vision and moving toward IMT-2030 in ITU-R. The presented material may be found in TD144/GEN.

Workshop
The SG13 meeting agreed to convene the workshop on 24 and 25 July 2023 in Geneva to cover four main areas of technical interest as IMT-2030, quantum networking, Web3 and deterministic communication services (TD107/PLEN). Mr Gyu Myoung Lee (Q16/13 Rapporteur, Republic of Korea) was nominated the workshop steering committee head. A call for volunteers to join the organization group was made at the plenary.

Roadmaps
SG13 set up

• ​the new work item with revised Supplement on IMT-2020 and beyond standardization roadmap, C309, targeted for October 2023 meeting agreement. First version was published as Supplement 59 to Y.3100-series in 2020, then revised in 2022.

 and continues its work on

• Revised Supplement on big data and data handling standardization roadmap, TD151/WP2. Anticipated approval is in November 2023. Original was published as Supplement 40 to Y.3600-series in 2015.
• Supplement with the standardization roadmap on trustworthy networking and services, TD41/WP3, target for 4Q 2024. 

Future plans
An important number of interim meetings was agreed to (TD109-R1/PLEN).

Draft Recommendations Y.2344 (Y.IBN-reqts) “Scenarios and requirements of Intent-Based Network for network evolution" and Y.3159 (Y.IMT-2020-NSL-fra) “Framework for classifying network slice level in future networks including IMT-2020" are still in the AAP Last Call comments resolution phase.​

The JCA-IMT2020 meeting will take place alongside the SG15 meeting on 18 April 2023 in Geneva.

The second JCA-ML meeting will take place alongside the SG16 meeting on 19 July 2023 in Geneva.

Web 3.0 Ad-hoc and correspondence group on datasets will continue their activities in between the SG/WP meetings.

Next SG13 activity will be convened in a form of WP1/13, WP2/13 and WP3/13 meetings on 26 July 2023 in Geneva. Tentative consent plan may be found in TD148-R1/GEN.

Next SG13 meeting is planned take place on 23 October – 3 November 2023 in Geneva.​​

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