T.1-1 Resolutions, recommendations and opinions of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA)

WTSA-16 was held in Hammamet, Tunisia, from 25 October to 3 November 2016, and produced 16 new resolutions, 31 revised resolutions, and five new standards. WTSA-16 consolidated the progress achieved by ITU-T over the previous four years, and refined ITU-T's future strategic direction and structure.

ITU membership called for ITU's standardization arm to expand its study of the wireline networking innovations required to achieve the ambitious performance targets of smart 5G systems. ITU membership reaffirmed the importance of ITU's standardization work to drive the coordinated development of ultra-high-speed transport networks, the Internet of Things, future video technologies, and smart cities and communities.

ITU membership has also encouraged ITU-T to increase digital financial inclusion [19], promote affordable mobile roaming [20] tariffs, and strengthen consumer protection[21] and ICT service quality. There was also a call for ITU standardization to support the use of cloud computing to record event data [22] from aircraft, vehicles, and other connected machinery. The new WTSA resolutions are numbered 83 to 98. All WTSA resolutions can be found here. Progress in meeting the directives of WTSA is documented in the WTSA-12 and WTSA-16 Action Plan.

T.1-2 WTSA regional consultation sessions [23]

Twenty-one Regional WTSA-16 Preparatory Meetings were held from March 2015 to September 2016, organized by regional telecommunication organizations in coordination with ITU. Four meetings were held in Asia and the Pacific; two in the CIS region; four in the Arab States; four in the Americas; three in Africa; and five in the CEPT region. 

T.1-3 Advice and decisions of Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG)

TSAG has created six Rapporteur Groups on standardization strategy, work programme, working methods, strengthening cooperation, strategic and operational plan, and review of WTSA resolutions.

In June 2015, TSAG created the new ITU-T Study Group 20, working on "Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities and communities (SC&C)" [24]. The ITU-T Review Committee (RevCom),[25] active from 2013 to 2016, reviewed ITU-T's strategy, structure and working methods to assist related studies in TSAG. New or revised guidance from TSAG to ITU-T includes:

• Guidelines for the efficient transfer of focus group deliverables to its parent group (the new Appendix I to ITU-T A.7 is the result of a proposal made to WTSA-16 by TSAG).
• Generic procedures for including references to documents of other organizations in ITU-T Recommendations (revised Recommendation ITU-T A.5).
• Generic procedures for incorporating text between ITU-T and other organizations (new Recommendation ITU-T A.25).
• Guidelines for remote participation (Supplement 4 to the ITU-T A-series Recommendations).
• Guidelines for cooperation and exchange of information with other organizations (Supplement 5 to the ITU-T A-series Recommendations).

TSAG activity reports for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 can be found in R4, R7, R8, R1 and R2.

T.1-4 ITU-T recommendations and related results of ITU-T study groups

ITU-T approved about 1,000 new or revised ITU standards (ITU-T Recommendations) from 2015 to 2017.

ITU-T continues to provide leadership in the standardization of broadband access and home networks and infrastructures for ultra-high-speed transport, as well as future networks including 5G [26] and networking innovations in fields such as software-defined networking [27] and cloud computing.[28]

New ITU-T Sector Memberships taken up by companies in the automobile and insurance industries reflect the growing importance of ITU-T support for vertical markets such as health care, transport, energy and financial services.

The prestige of the collaborative video coding work of ITU, ISO and IEC was recognized with a Primetime Emmy Award in August 2017 for "High Efficiency Video Coding" (HEVC, published as ITU H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2), the video compression standard that has emerged as the primary coding format for Ultra-High-Definition TV. This is the second Primetime Emmy Award to recognize this video coding collaboration, following the 2008 award for HEVC's predecessor, ITU-T H.264 | MPEG-4 AVC.[29]

ITU standards supporting the Internet of Things[30] (IoT) are assisting developed and developing countries in transforming city infrastructure, benefiting from the efficiencies of intelligent buildings and transportation systems, smart energy and water networks, and innovation in the field of e-health.[31]

ITU standards providing interoperability design guidelines for personal health systems are supporting the development of medical-grade e-health devices (such as blood pressure cuffs, glucose monitors, weight scales and a wide range of activity trackers).[32]

ITU's work to build confidence and security in the use of ICTs aims to facilitate more secure network infrastructure, services and applications, and engage ITU membership in a new standardization effort to describe the fundamentals of a trusted ICT environment.[33]

An emerging standardization project will contribute to the environmental sustainability of 5G systems by building on ITU-T expertise in the measurement of energy efficiency, resistibility, electromagnetic compatibility and the responsible management of electromagnetic fields.[34]

ITU standards to assist in the responsible management of electromagnetic fields include measuring techniques, procedures and numerical models for evaluating the electromagnetic fields emanating from telecommunication systems and radio terminals.[35]

ITU has published several standards to tackle e-waste and achieve a circular economy, including a number of Recommendations: ITU-T L.1002 on "External universal power adapter solutions for portable information and communication technology devices"; ITU-T L.1020 on "Circular Economy: Guide for Operators and Suppliers on approaches to migrate towards circular ICT goods and networks"; and ITU-T L.1021 on "Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Guidelines for Sustainable E-waste Management". ITU-T SG5 has developed ITU-T L. Suppl. 27  on success stories on e-waste management, and ITU-T L Suppl. 28 on "Circular economy in information and communication technology; definition of approaches, concepts and metrics".

ITU standardization continues to tackle disaster relief, network resilience and recovery, recognizing that the 21st century is marked by an increasing prevalence of extreme weather events.[36]

The international community is looking to ITU-T for a neutral platform to strengthen the ties between technical innovation, business needs and economic and policy requirements.[37]

ITU standardization work on performance, quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) is highly relevant to operators in offering services of the quality necessary to attract and retain customers. Strong momentum is building in ITU's new work to provide technical guidance to regulators interested in promoting high QoS/QoE.[38]

A new ITU-T Focus Group on "Machine learning for future networks including 5G" is establishing a basis for ITU standardization to assist machine learning in bringing more automation and intelligence to ICT network design and management.

This Focus Group is active alongside three other ITU-T Focus Groups studying "Data processing and management to support IoT and smart cities and communities", "Application of distributed ledger technology", and "Digital currency including digital fiat currency", respectively.

T.1-5 ITU-T general assistance and cooperation

ITU continues to provide leadership in building cooperation among the many interests served by ICT standardization.

The World Standards Cooperation (WSC) is a partnership of ITU, ISO and IEC to promote international standards.[39]

ITU is a strong advocate of "Universal Design" and has developed standardization guidelines to produce solutions that are inherently accessible to persons with and without disabilities.[40]

ITU's Bridging the Standardization Gap (BSG) programme improves the capacity of developing countries to participate in the development and implementation of international ICT standards.[41]

ITU's conformity and interoperability (C&I) programme is of particular value to developing countries in their efforts to improve conformance with ITU standards.[42]

Chief Technology Officer meetings: CTO and CxO meetings bring together industry executives to highlight their business priorities and support standardization strategies. [43]

The AI for Good Global Summit identifies practical applications of AI with the potential to accelerate progress towards achieving the United Nations SDGs. The summit encourages inclusive global dialogue with a view to formulating strategies to ensure trusted, safe and inclusive development of AI technologies and equitable access to their benefits.

e-Health: ITU-T continues its long-standing collaboration with bodies active in the healthcare field, supporting the development of medical-grade e-health devices. Participating organizations include UN bodies, standards bodies, academic and research institutes, and industry associations.

Safe listening of music players: ITU-T collaboration with WHO continues on the development of technical standards for the safe listening of music players. An ITU workshop on the topic was organized in June 2016.

Aviation applications of cloud computing for flight-data monitoring: The participation of the aviation and avionics sectors was crucial to ITU-T's study of aviation applications of cloud computing for flight data monitoring.[44]

Intelligent transport systems (ITS): The Collaboration on ITS Communication Standards is a body responsible for the coordination of technical standardization work to encourage interoperable ITS products.[45]

Green Standards Week: The annual ITU Green Standards Week acts as a global platform for discussion and knowledge-sharing in order to raise awareness of the importance of and opportunities for using ICTs to protect the environment, unlock the potential of the circular economy and expedite the transition to smart sustainable cities. The GSW is co-organized with other UN organizations and regional organizations.

Smart Sustainable Cities: The United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative is being coordinated by ITU and UNECE and is supported by 14 UN bodies. It advocates for public policy to ensure that ICTs and ICT standards play a definitive role in the transition to smart sustainable cities.[46]

ITU/WMO/UNESCO-IOC Joint Task Force on SMART Cable Systems: The task force is leading an ambitious new project to equip submarine communications cables with climate and hazard-monitoring sensors.

Pilot project implementing the U4SSC Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities: The project includes over 50 cities such as Wuxi, Foshan, Manizales, Dubai, Singapore, Pully, Montevideo, Maldonado, Kairouan, and Rimini. ITU has published case studies evaluating the progress made by Dubai and Singapore in meeting their smart sustainable city objectives, using the U4SSC Key Performance Indicators.

ICT, environment and climate change: ITU-T maintains cooperation with bodies active in environmental sustainability, including UN bodies, standards bodies, regional organizations, academic and research institutes, and industry associations.[47]

Symposia on ICT, environment and climate change: The Symposia raise awareness of the potential of ICTs to address environmental challenges and encourage stakeholders to integrate existing and emerging ICT-based solutions into their activities for an overall "smarter" and more holistically "sustainable" future for mankind. 

T.1-6 Conformity database

The "ICT Product Conformity Database" enables industry to publicize the conformance of ICT products and services to ITU-T Recommendations, assisting users in their efforts to select standards-compliant products. Three categories of products and services have been submitted to the database:

e-Health solutions complying with the specifications of Recommendation ITU-T H.810 "Interoperability design guidelines for personal health systems", a transposition of the Continua Design Guidelines. The testing procedures are specified in the ITU-T H.820-H.850 sub-series of Recommendations.[48]

Mobile phones compatible with Bluetooth-enabled vehicle hands-free terminals. This compatibility is determined in accordance with the "Chapter 12 tests" ("Verification of the transmission performance of short-range wireless (SRW) transmission enabled phones") of ITU-T P.1100 and ITU-T P.1110.[49]

Ethernet products complying with ITU-T G.8011/Y.1307 "Ethernet Services Characteristics". This standard and the corresponding tests are based on the work of MEF (formerly called the Metro Ethernet Forum).[50]

IPTV system compatible with Recommendations ITU-T H.721 “IPTV terminal devices: Basic model” and ITU-T H.702 “Accessibility profiles for IPTV systems” tested at the ITU test event in May 2017. The testing procedures are specified in the ITU-T Technical papers HSTP-CONF-H721 and HSTP-CONF-H702 respectively

MNP system compatible with ITU-T Q.Supplement 4 “Number portability – Capability set 1 requirements for service provider portability (All call query and Onward routing)”. The testing procedures are specified in the Recommendation ITU-T Q.3905.
 

T.1-7 Interoperability test centres and events

An ITU series of IPTV testing events offers a continuous platform to test products based on both existing and developing ITU-T IPTV standards. Recent events have focused on new IPTV products and services built on ITU-T H.702 and ITU-T H.721. More information on IPTV testing events is available here.[51]

Compatibility of mobile phones with Bluetooth-enabled vehicle hands-free terminals is tested as part of dedicated ITU test events, in addition to a programme of on-demand testing. This compatibility is determined in accordance with the Chapter 12 tests ("Verification of the transmission performance of short-range wireless (SRW) transmission enabled phones") of ITU-T P.1100 and ITU-T P.1110. More information about mobile phone testing is available here.[52]

ITU-T CASC (Conformity Assessment Steering Committee) was established by ITU-T SG11 in 2015 to elaborate the recognition procedure of Testing Laboratories (TLs) which have competence for testing against ITU-T Recommendations. Two new ITU-T Guidelines “Testing Laboratories Recognition Procedure” and “ITU-T CASC procedure to appoint ITU-T technical experts” were approved in 2015 and 2017 respectively.

ITU-T CASC continues collaboration with existing Conformity Assessment Systems and Schemes such as IEC and ILAC. The Certification Management Committee (CMC) of IEC set up a IECEE Task Force “ITU requirements” which finalized draft Operational Document (OD) “ICT Laboratory Recognition Procedure on ITU-T Recommendations” which will become a dedicated testing laboratory recognition procedure, established by IECEE.

ITU-T CASC established a List of ITU-T Recommendations which may become subject of joint ITU/IEC certification schemes. According to the inputs received from ITU-T SGs and ITU members. Among them are Recommendations ITU-T P.1140, ITU-T P.1100, ITU-T P.1110 and ITU-T K.116.  

T.1-8 Development of test suites

e-Health: The ITU-T H.820-H.850 series presents a suite of conformance-testing specifications for ITU-T H.810 comprising over 1,000 test cases (ITU-T H.820-H.850 series).[53] ITU-T H.810 contains the Continua Design Guidelines, which provide "Interoperability design guidelines for personal health systems", supporting medical-grade personal e-health devices.

IMS benchmarking: A work plan to standardize the benchmarking of IMS platforms has been finalized. New ITU-T standards (ITU-T Q.3930; Q.3931.1/2/3/4; Q.3932.1/2/3/4; and Q.3933) detail the benchmark testing for PSTN/ISDN emulation, IMS/NGN/PES and VoLTE, as well as the reference benchmarking for VoIP and Fax over IP in fixed networks.[54]

SIP-IMS on fixed networks: Fixed network operators have initiated a Session Initiation Protocol – IMS (SIP-IMS) standardization plan in ITU-T (webpage). The plan is guiding ITU-T's development of a set of international standards and related test specifications to provide a unified international reference for the implementation of SIP-IMS on fixed networks (see the SIP-IMS standardization work plan).[55]

VoLTE/ViLTE interconnection: two new ITU-T Recommendations Q.3640 and ITU-T.3953 define framework of VoLTE/ViLTE interconnection and relevant test specifications. This work launched in 2016 seeks to broker the international agreement of a framework for the interconnection of Voice and Video over LTE (VoLTE/ViLTE)-based networks (see relevant press release). The span of ITU-T work on VoLTE/ViLTE includes the deployment of signalling protocols for VoLTE interconnection, relevant numbering issues, including signalling architecture of distributed ENUM networking for IMS, , and emergency calls via VoLTE-based networks.[56]

[19] WTSA Resolution 89

[20] WTSA Resolution 88

[21] WTSA Resolution84

[22] WTSA Resolution 94

[23 ] WTSA Res. 43; WSIS Action Lines C3, C11; SDG Targets 10.6, 17.6

[24] WTSA Resolution 98

[25] WTSA-12 Resolution 82

[26] WTSA Resolution 92, 93

[27] WTSA Resolution 77

[28] WTSA Resolution 2; WSIS Action Line C2; SDG Targets 8.2, 9.1, 9.C

[29] WTSA Resolution 2; WSIS Action Line C2; SDG Targets 9.1, 9.C

[30] WTSA Resolution 98

[31] WTSA Resolutions 2, 98; WSIS Action Lines C1, C2, C7 e-health; SDG Targets 3.4, 3.8, 6.4, 6.5, 7.b, 9.1, 9.4, 11.2

[32] WTSA Resolutions 2, 98; WSIS Action Line C7 e-health; SDG Targets 3.4, 3.7, 3.8

[33] WTSA Resolutions 2, 50; WSIS Action Line C5; SDG Targets 9.C, 16.10

[34] WTSA Resolutions 2, 73, 79; WSIS Action Line C7 e-environment; SDG Targets 12.4, 13.b

[35] WTSA Resolutions 2, 72; WSIS Action Line C7 e-environment; SDG Targets 12.4, 13.b

[36] WTSA Resolution 2; WSIS Action Line C7 e-environment; SDG Targets 11.5, 13.1

[37] WTSA Resolutions 2, 88; WSIS Action Line C2; SDG Target 9.C

[38] WTSA Resolutions 2, 95; WSIS Action Line C6; SDG Target 3.6

[39] WTSA Resolution 7; WSIS Action Line C3; SDG Targets 9.1, 9.4, 9.8

[40] WTSA Resolutions 2, 70; WSIS Action Line C3; SDG Target 10.2

[41] WTSA Resolution 44; WSIS Action Line C4; SDG Targets 9.5, 10.6, 17.6, 17.9

[42] WTSA Resolution 76; WSIS Action Line C2; SDG Targets 9.C, 17.6

[43] WTSA Resolution 68; WSIS Action Lines C1, C2, C11; SDG Targets 9.C, 17.6

[44] WTSA Resolution 94; WSIS Action Line C11; SDG Target 17.6

[45] WSIS Action Line C11; SDG Target 17.6

[46] WTSA Resolutions 2, 73, 98; WSIS Action Lines C7 e-environment, C11; SDG Targets: 6.3, 6.4, 7.b, 9.1, 9.a, 11.2 11.3, 11.6, 11.7, 11.b, 11.c, 12.4, 13.b, 17.7, 17.14, 17.15, 17.16, 17.19

[47] WTSA Resolutions 2, 73, 79; WSIS Action Lines C7 e-environment, C11; SDG Targets 1.5, 2.4, 6.4, 7.3, 7.a, 7.b, 9.4, 9.a, 9.c, 11b, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.b. 17.7, 17.14.

[48] WTSA Resolutions 2, 76, 78; WSIS Action Lines C7 e-health, C11; SDG Target 3.8

[49] WTSA Resolutions 2, 76; WSIS Action Lines C2, C6; SDG Targets 9.1, 9.C

[50] WTSA Resolutions 2, 76; WSIS Action Lines C2, C6; SDG Targets 9.1, 9.C

[51] WTSA Resolutions 2, 76; WSIS Action Lines C2, C6; SDG Targets 9.1

[52] WTSA Resolutions 2, 76; WSIS Action Lines C2, C6; SDG Targets 3.6, 9.1

[53] WTSA Resolutions 2, 76, 78; WSIS Action Line C7 e-health; SDG Target 3.8

[54] WTSA Resolutions 2, 76; WSIS Action Line C2; SDG Targets 9.1, 9.C

[55] WTSA Resolutions 2, 76; WSIS Action Line C2; SDG Targets 9.1, 9.C

[56 ] WTSA Resolutions 2, 76, 93; WSIS Action Line C2; SDG Target 9.1