The desire to support services within networks and supported by networks has resulted in a number of architectural solutions being worked on in numerous standardization bodies and forums. A standardized architectural model for a control signalling with regard to the voice and video over LTE based networks (VoLTE/ViLTE), network virtualization, cloud computing, ML/AI, Distributed Ledger Technology, QKDN and related technologies and other emerging telecommunication/ICT technologies which might be applied in IMT-2020, IMT-2020 network and beyond is needed.

A standard reference model for the control plane is required to identify a set of interfaces which provide interoperability between telecommunication networks, between equipment from different suppliers, between the cloud computing networks, between the virtualized and the physical networks and between networks evolve in different phases such as IMT-2020 network and beyond.

As ITU-T has developed the standards for existing public networks, including services and control protocols, this Question plans to develop the signalling and protocol architectures for telecommunication networks with emerging technologies including ML/AI, Distributed Ledger Technology, QKDN and related technologies and so on. Furthermore, this Question will study the enhancements to the signalling and control architecture to support the distributed ENUM signalling system.

Cooperation with the ITU-​​​T study groups and with other standards development organizations (SDOs) is required to gather any relevant information from these organizations and take an important role to coordinate them to achieve the global interoperability.

In addition, ongoing studies and results achieved by various international standardization bodies have led to the emergence of different solutions to address convergence and interoperability due to the evolution of protocols in packet-based networks. For this reason, ITU Member States, particularly those in developing countries, have expressed the needs for assistance in understanding network and service deployment strategies and scenarios by developing Guidelines on signalling protocols implementations for networks and services.

This Question will maintain the previous Technical Reports and Guidelines on implementation of signalling and protocols developed to support developing countries. In addition, it will maintain Recommendations in force for which the Question is responsible, e.g. ITU-T Q.3030, Q.3040, Q.3050, Q.3051 and Q.3052.​