ATIS TOPS Council Identifies New Technical Priorities for Telecom

The ATIS Technology and Operations (TOPS) Council has identified six technical issues that it believes are of critical importance to the communications industry and require priority consideration: wireless/wireline convergence, service capabilities interaction manager (SCIM), FTTx/access optical networking, broadband services, NGN identity management and intercarrier VoIP call routing.

At the TOPS Council’s recommendation, the ATIS board of directors recently established an exploratory group on convergence (EGC), which will define the requirements, architecture and signaling for wireless/wireline convergence. Chaired by Chris Rice, executive vice president of network planning and engineering for AT&T Inc., the group will address the following items: a definition of scope and meaning for convergence; an inventory of current standards and requirements activity; a gap analysis, to include identification of needed requirements, standards and implementation agreements; and identification of critical areas for closer coordination across relevant committees and forums, both internal and external to ATIS.

The EGC’s first meeting will take place September 18 at ATIS’ headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The ATIS board of directors is reviewing the TOPS Council’s recommendation with regard to addressing the remaining priority topics listed above. Options that are being considered include the creation of TOPS Council focus groups or similar venues where technical experts from ATIS board member companies would formulate industry requirements and define needed standardization activities.

ATIS announced a set of priorities identified by its TOPS Council in 2004, which has led to significant standards development and coordination among ATIS committees and with external standards development organizations. This work is particularly noticeable in the areas of network security and VoIP technologies, as well as the more recent TOPS initiatives for IPTV.

ATIS www.atis.org

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