E2NA Activity Report 2013
Chairman: Luca Pesando, Telecom Italia
Responsible for the development and maintenance of a global end-to-end system view of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) networks with a focus on fixed access and networking services, including interconnection to other networks (both fixed and mobile) and related testing
Recognising that communication networks may need to implement a wide range of technologies and related standards to provide a complete end-to-end service to users, ETSI’s End-to-End Network Architectures Project is working to develop an end-to-end system view of ICT networks.
EP E2NA brings together all the relevant ETSI players involved in the development of end-to-end network architectures, including the Technical Committees for Access, Terminals, Transmission and Multiplexing (TC ATTM), Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (TC DECT™), IMS Network Testing (TC INT), Powerline Telecommunications (TC PLT) and Network Technologies (TC NTECH). In 2013, the Project also collaborated with the Industry Specification Group on Autonomic network engineering for the self-managing Future Internet (ISG AFI), until the ISG had completed its tasks and was closed. The continuation of AFI work was then assigned to TC NTECH, which established a Working Group on AFI. A number of new ETSI Specialist Task Forces (STFs) were proposed to support this work in TC NTECH, through which EP E2NA would be able to continue to contribute to a further development of autonomic network technology.
EP E2NA is focusing particularly on the fixed segment and interconnection to other networks and is adopting a phased approach to its work. Initial plans include the compilation of an inventory of use cases reflecting significant deployment scenarios, followed by the production of technical requirements based on the inventory. For each use case, an analysis of the required end-to-end architecture and standardised interfaces will be prepared, followed by a gap analysis from which EP E2NA will be able to identify the new standards which will need to be developed by the relevant standardisation groups.
In 2013, the Project began work on its first use case, developing an ETSI Technical Report (TR) which will provide a review of standardisation activities related to the location of transcoders for voice and video communications inside and across networks. The TR will identify issues that are not addressed in current standards and provide recommendations to fill these gaps. Publication was expected by the second half of 2014.
Work progressed well with an ETSI Standard (ES) on the functional architecture for emergency caller location determination and transport in Europe. This work supports the European Commission’s Mandate 493 on the Location Enhanced Emergency Call Service. The architecture is intended to cover a situation, for example, where a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider and one or several network operators – all independent enterprises serving the customer in the establishment of an emergency call – need to co-operate to determine the location of the caller. Issues to be resolved include the highly differentiated scenarios of present national deployments and needs. The functional architecture is expected to be published early in 2014. Planning began for stage 3 of the work in support of M/493, the majority of which would be undertaken in TC NTECH.
In 2013 EP E2NA brought together various ETSI committees including TC ATTM, TC NTECH, the Emergency Telecommunications Special Committee (SC EMTEL), the Mobile Standards Group (TC MSG) and the Integrated Broadband Cable Telecommunication Networks Technical Committee (TC CABLE). Other groups may contribute as work continues in 2014.
In 2013 EP E2NA took over outstanding work from ETSI’s Media Content Delivery committee (TC MCD), following its closure. EP E2NA is developing a TR which will analyse solutions for interoperable multimedia customer premises equipment (CPE) for Conditional Access (CA)/Digital Rights Management (DRM). This will be suitable for multimedia platforms (broadcast, broadband or hybrid) and for the content and services delivered over them. The work was scheduled for completion by mid-2014.