 ITU-T Newslog
ITU-T Newslog
10 February 2012 | 9:07 am
Meeting of Study Group 17, Geneva, Switzerland, 20 February - 02 March 2012
Meeting of Study Group 17, Geneva, Switzerland, 20 February - 02 March 2012
Registration Form
Collective
Letter
8 February 2012 | 3:20 pm
New work seeks to achieve cloud interoperability
Momentum towards greater interoperability between cloud services has been achieved
with the announcement of new work in ITU.
ITU-Ts Study Group 13 (SG 13) has created a new Working Party (WP) on cloud computing,
tasked with progressing the Technical Reports that were the output of a previous Focus
Group on Cloud Computing (FG Cloud) towards formalization as ITU-T Recommendations.
Cloud computing is an industry expected to grow at an annual growth rate of roughly
30 per cent, consequently more than quadrupling in size between 2010 and 2015 to become
an industry worth approximately $120 billion. However, concerns with the portability
freedom to transfer data between the clouds of different providers - and the interoperability
of cloud solutions has led to calls for standardization to fuel further industry growth
(see ITU-T Techwatch Report, Distributed
Computing: Utilities, Grids and Clouds).
Jamil Chawki of France Telecom Orange was appointed Chair of the WP, which will take
responsibility for existing SG 13 work on cloud computing as well as three new Questions:
Cloud computing ecosystem, inter-cloud and general requirements; Chaired
by Kangchan Lee (ETRI, Korea)
Cloud functional architecture, infrastructure and networking; Chaired
by Mingdong Li (ZTE, China)
Cloud computing resource management and virtualization; Chaired by Richard
C. Brackney (Microsoft, USA)
The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), ZTE Corporation
and Microsoft are all very active within both ITU and the cloud computing field, and
ITU is pleased to see these Questions placed in such capable hands.
In addition, SG 13 has appointed Monique Morrow of Cisco Systems as convener of the
recently-established Joint Coordination Activity (JCA) on Cloud Computing [see newslog].
The JCA will coordinate the multi-dimensional study of cloud computing within the
ITU, and will act as a point of contact for other organizations seeking to contribute
to this work.
ITUs cloud computing work has already attracted a great deal of interest resulting
in several new memberships.
8 February 2012 | 1:54 pm
ITU IPTV standards the basis for transcontinental IPTV experiment
An international experiment deploying ITU-standardized IPTV technologies has taken
place 6-8 February 2012. IPTV services were used to live-stream scenes from the Sapporo
Snow Festival in Japan and to provide supporting Video-on-Demand (VoD) segments.
ITU Headquarters in Geneva received the stream from the head-end server in Japan,
participating alongside organizations from Japan, Singapore and Thailand in what is
the first transcontinental broadcast of a live event using IPTV technology standardized
end-to-end by ITU. The connection uses native IPv6 from ITU Headquarters to Japan.
Proprietary IPTV services have hampered the growth of this exciting new market, and
such experiments - together with ITU IPTV Interoperability
events are important steps towards broadening the IPTV market through globally-interoperable
services. Standardized IPTV will lead to a whole new market for innovation, and ITU
standards will ensure this market remains open, competitive and accessible to all.
First approved in 2009, Recommendation
ITU-T H.762, a Lightweight Interactive Multimedia Environment (LIME) for IPTV
services, is the standard with which Sapporos live-stream IPTV application complies.
Hokkaido Television Broadcasting (HTB) developed this application, and is one of many
broadcasters, manufacturers and research institutes involved in the IPTV experiments.
The experiments have been organized by Japans National Institute of Information and
Communications (NICT) and are being conducted over its IPv6 research network, Japan
Gigabit Network-eXtreme (JGN-X).
Other ITU-T IPTV standards also formed part of the infrastructure: H.770 IPTV Service
discovery, H.721 IPTV terminal for VoD and Linear TV, H.701 IPTV Error correction,
H.750 IPTV Metadata and the Primetime Emmy Award winning H.264 Video compression codec.
The experiments also used Openflow, PCE/VNTM and sa46t.
For more on ITUs IPTV standardization work, please see ITUs IPTV Global Standards
Initiative here.
3 February 2012 | 8:03 am
TSAG establishes new Focus Group on Disaster Relief Systems, Network Resilience and Recovery
The January meeting of the Telecommunication
Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) has established a new Focus Group on Disaster
Relief Systems, Network Resilience and Recovery (FG-DR&NRR).
A spate of recent natural disasters has underlined the need for preemptive disaster-response
planning. ICT networks must be resilient enough to withstand disasters, but have also
proven to be pivotal in providing relief to the people affected by major climatic
fluctuations.
The Focus Group will coordinate ITU-Ts current work in this field, and will expand
this work into two important new areas: (1) disaster relief for individuals (to notify
relatives, friends or employers of a victims situation) and (2) disaster relief guidance
(to show victims the routes to evacuation shelters, home, etc.).
For these types of standardized emergency communications to exist, ICT network
resilience and recovery capabilities need to be such that networks can resume normal
service quickly after disaster strikes. TSAG has thus directed the Focus Group to
identify all the standardization requirements of network resilience and recovery;
a study which may extend beyond current ITU work in this field.
The Focus Groups scope is as follows:
-
identify requirements for disaster relief and network resilience and familiarize the
ITU-T and standardization communities with those requirements;
-
identify existing standards and existing work related to the requirements mentioned
above;
-
identify any additional standards that may need to be developed and identify future
work items for specific ITU-T Study groups and related actions;
-
encourage collaboration among ITU-T Study Groups, in particular SG2, SG5, SG13, SG15,
and SG17, ITU-R, ITU-D and relevant organizations and communities, including the PCP/TDR.
The Focus Group will collaborate with worldwide relevant communities (e.g., research
institutes, forums, academia) including other SDOs and consortia.
Comments invited by 10 February 2012
The groups Terms of Reference are subject to consultation. The Membership is therefore
invited to send comments to bruce.gracie@ic.gc.ca (TSAG
Chairman), with copy to tsbtsag@itu.int or to t09tsagall@lists.itu.int (TSAG
general mailing list), by no later than Friday, 10 February 2012.
2 February 2012 | 7:38 am
Call for new apps to address sustainable energy for all
ITU and Telefónica co-host 2012 app-development contests
Geneva, 1 February 2012 - ITU and Telefónica have announced two challenges to uncover
innovative ICT approaches to support the 2012 UN-declared International Year for
Sustainable Energy for All.
The Green ICT Hackathon will take place on 28-29 February during Mobile World Congress
in Barcelona, Spain, while the 2nd Green ICT Application Challenge is now open for
the submission of Concept Papers until 13 April, 2012.
Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: Sustainable energy for all is crucial
to the future of modern civilization. ITU is committed to stimulating the creation
of innovative ICT apps founded on new modes of thinking; ideas to effect the change
needed to achieve a sustainable future.
Alberto Andreu Pinillos, Chief Reputation and Sustainability Officer at Telefónica:
The Green ICT Hackathon is part of the joint activities of Telefónicas Global Energy
Efficiency and Climate Change Office, Movistar Spain and Bluevia, Telefónicas global
developer platform. These initiatives have a double objective first, to support
developers with great ideas, and second, to foster green ICT applications for energy
efficiency and sustainable development.
Full press
release
31 January 2012 | 10:39 am
IPTV-GSI, Geneva, Switzerland, 13 - 17 February 2012
IPTV-GSI, Geneva, Switzerland, 13 - 17 February 2012
TSB Circular 243
Registration
form
IPTV-GSI
30 January 2012 | 2:07 pm
ITU-T Technology Watch features in ITU News magazine
The two latest reports from ITU-Ts Policy and Technology
Watch Division on video games and digital signage - feature prominently in the January
issue of ITU News. Published in all six official ITU languages, the issue provides
a snapshot of todays ICT ecosystem and the global ITU activities and events which
aid in giving it shape.
Video games today entertain a broad cross-section of consumers and represent an extremely
profitable and still rapidly growing industry. September 2011s Technology Watch Report
on Trends
in Video Games and Gaming brings light to the major gaming terminals and platforms,
game forms and genres, and how the advent of social media and mobile gaming are augmenting
an already highly-networked gaming culture.
Digital signage is poised to become a very large industry, in a very short space of
time. Standardization is key to the development and accessibility of digital signage
technologies, and a December 2011 workshop
in Tokyo, organized by ITU and the Ministry
of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan, aimed to share ideas and insight
on advanced digital signage service features and requirements, current best practices
and existing standardization activities of key players. The event addressed digital
signage technologies and the related standardization work being undertaken in ITU-T
Study Group 16. For an in-depth view of digital signage and its market, see November
2011s Technology Watch Report, Digital
Signage: the right information in all the right places.
Experts from industry, research institutions and academia are invited to submit topic
proposals and abstracts for future reports in the Technology Watch series. Please
contact tsbtechwatch@itu.int for details and guidelines.
19 January 2012 | 3:08 pm
TSAG establishes new Focus Group to Bridge the Gap between Innovation and Standardization
The January meeting of the Telecommunication
Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) has established a new Focus Group on Bridging
the Gap: From Innovation to Standards (ItS). Standardization converts innovations
into internationally-accessible tools to aid the growth of new markets and bridge
the digital divide. The Focus Group will seek to reduce the lag between innovation
and standardization; an action to ensure key innovations spread as fast as possible
in the global ICT market.
Of particular importance to the group will be the identification of ICT innovation
in the developing world, and the task of ensuring such innovation achieves international
recognition through its inclusion in the standards produced by ITU-T.
The group will carry out the following specific actions:
-
In cooperation with ITU-D, document case studies of successful examples of ICT innovations,
including those that have emerged in developing countries, and identify relevant standardization
gaps. Particular focus should be on the socio-economic impact of ICT innovation
emerging in developing countries;
-
Analyze the innovations that may be standardized and identify best practices facilitating
the implementation of such innovations in other parts of the world;
-
Identify case studies which developing countries can adopt to enhance their ICT innovation
and standardization capabilities and associated socio-economic welfare;
-
Identify the difficulties faced by developing countries in bringing their ICT innovation
to ITU-T.
-
Suggest future ITU-T study items and related actions;
-
Examine how other Standards Development Organizations, forums and consortia address
ICT innovation and its integration into standardization activities;
-
Promote its activity at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA)
meeting in November 2012.
18 January 2012 | 3:11 pm
Study Group 13 Geneva, Switzerland, 6 February 2012
Study Group 13 Geneva, Switzerland, 6 February 2012
Registration
form
Collective Letter
18 January 2012 | 3:04 pm
Internet of Things Global Standards Initiative (IoT-GSI), Geneva, Switzerland, 6 - 13 February 2012
IoT-GSI, Geneva, Switzerland, 6 - 13 February 2012
Convening
letter (TSB Circular 244)
Online
registration
|
