The Broadband Forum ends year strong; looks forward to a milestone year ahead

USA: Gathering in Osaka for the final quarterly meeting of 2012, the Broadband Forum reflects on a dynamic year, celebrating the remarkable body of work that the Forum has again achieved.

Annual highlights include the creation of 31 technical reports, the launch of the BBF.069 CPE Certification program and recognition of the first BBF.069 certified products, the new G-PON Certification successes and the advancement of the Broadband Forum's end-to-end multi-service architecture specifications.

Key technology experts from the Broadband Forum's member organizations attended the quarterly meeting, representing many of the world's leading Telco and Cable service providers, equipment manufacturers, chip vendors and other key organizations.

"Each year I am amazed at the volume and quality of work we are able to deliver from each of our working groups," said Robin Mersh , CEO of the Broadband Forum. "Our members work extremely hard and their enthusiasm and commitment is exemplary – it is their contribution which is driving forward a whole host of initiatives that will make broadband even better and the adoption of new technologies even faster."

BBF.069 CPE certification takes off 
2012 will be remembered in the industry for the key advances in TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol, the Broadband Forum's globally adopted protocol and key enabler for the digital home.

An Ovum Connected Home report, published in June, identified over 147M TR-069 managed devices by the end of 2011, which is set to soar following the launch of Broadband Forum's BBF.069 CPE Certification Program and the announcement of the first devices to achieve Certification. The first companies with products to achieve certification are Broadcom, Cisco, D-Link, Huawei and Lantiq - all received certificates at a celebratory reception in Osaka, which was held in their honor, for this great achievement.

Furthermore, the ITU-T's recent approval of G.9980 and official recommendation of TR-069 cements TR-069 as THE remote management protocol in the global broadband industry's toolbox.

Malcolm Johnson, director Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU said: "ITU welcomes the Broadband Forum's initiative to contribute its TR-069 management protocol for inclusion within an international ITU-T Recommendation. I believe this will strongly promote the availability of the standard and help operators to manage the wide range of devices on their networks and help to shape today's broadband landscape."

Ending the year with great fanfare, the Broadband Forum was honored to be the first industry body to win the new Outstanding Contribution to Broadband Success award at the Broadband World Forum InfoVision Awards. This award was won in recognition of the global impact of the TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol.

New mobile backhaul and multi-service requirements drive development of host of new network specifications
Highlights of the year include the launch of the Forum's latest release - BroadbandSuite 6.0: 4G/LTE Ready Mobile Backhaul which addresses advanced mobile network requirements with specifications, test plans and best practice documentation. TR-223: "Requirements for MPLS over Aggregated Interfaces (MPLSoAI)" was approved and brings MPLS into the access aggregation space.

The end-to-end architecture work progressed towards the goal of establishing a single converged network capable of ensuring quality multiservice delivery as well as ensuring compatibility and interworking for the next generation FMC network. The latest publications include:

* TR-145: Multi-service Broadband Network Functional Modules and Architecture.
* TR-203: Interworking between Next Generation Fixed and 3GPP Wireless Networks.
* TR-242: IPv6 Transition Mechanisms for Broadband Networks.
* TR-254: Functionality Tests for Ethernet Based Access Nodes.
* TR-134:  Broadband Policy Control Framework (BPCF).

Chartered to drive medium to long term innovation in broadband, the Broadband Forum launched this year a new working group called SIMR – Service Innovation and Market Requirements. With a focus on the early identification and addressing of future business requirements, as well as potential enablers and disruptors, the Forum is committed to driving interoperability and expediting the next wave of innovation in the broadband industry. Work has already started on assessing the impact of Cloud, Virtualization and Software Defined Networks (SDN) on broadband deployments.

Serving as the unified voice of the broadband industry, the Broadband Forum developed further technical input to the European Union's code of conduct governing broadband energy efficiency targets.  The Forum also initiated new work in the area of energy efficient MPLS mobile backhaul.

The suite of DSL Quality Management (DQM) specifications are making quite an impact on measurement and provisioning practices worldwide.  And building on that ONM theme, a key piece of work that is getting growing attention from operators and regulators is the Access Service Performance Metrics (WT-304), which will specify a test architecture and framework to enable standards-based broadband performance measurements.

Forum honors its own
Without amazing leadership and industry expertise, none of the Broadband Forum work would be possible. In Osaka, three awards were given to outstanding individuals. First congratulations go out to Yves Hertoghs from Cisco Systems, who was inducted into the Circle of Excellence for his ongoing contributions to the architecture work of the Broadband Forum. In the past 7 years, Yves has been a key contributor to TR-101 and TR-144, and as an editor he has played a pivotal role in getting TR-145 finalized. His continued support helps to drive discussions on future multi-service network architectures.

Two long-serving members of the Broadband Forum, Andrew G. Malis of Verizon and AT&T's Tom Anschutz , were recognized with Distinguished Fellow Awards, the Forum's highest accolade. Andrew was recognized as one of the founding members and drivers, and later Chairman and President, of the IP/MPLS Forum (which is now part of the Broadband Forum) and for his contributions to the Frame Relay and ATM Forums. He serves today as a Vice President on the Broadband Forum Board. Tom is a distinguished network architect who has participated in the Forum from 2003 through 2012. Previously inducted into the Circle of Excellence for his work, he served as editor for TR-059 and TR-156, and has been a major contributor to TR-134, TR-101, WT-102, WT-081 and WT-178.

"With gratitude to our members for their continued support, we celebrate this year of accomplishments, and look forward with anticipation of the challenges that 2013 will bring.  From FTTdp to Network Enhanced Residential Gateways, Policy Convergence to Multi-service Architecture and Nodal Requirements - next year is already loaded with essential industry initiatives," adds Tom Starr , Chairman of the Broadband Forum.

With planning for the next wave of innovation in place, the Broadband Forum is continuing to provide early migration solutions and is committed to driving day-one interoperability of new technologies and services - proactively removing obstacles to new service provider offerings and deployments, while improving broadband customer experience.