Next Generation Networks Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF)

1. Next Generation NetworksAustralian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) ITU-T NGN Workshop, July 2003 Peter Darling Manager, ACIF NGN Project

2. ACIF NGN Project • ACIF’s Strategic Plan in early 2001 identified need to work on “Next Generation Networks” • Meetings with the Australian regulators (ACA and ACCC) and the Industry Association SPAN confirmed they had a similar interest. • ACCC sponsored an initial consultancy in second half of 2001 “to raise issues” • ACIF held an NGN seminar in May 2002 to scope the issues • Attendees proposed a continuing industry “conversation” on NGN matters.

3. ACIF NGN Project • The ACIF Board agreed to support an ACIF NGN Project, working through the ACIF NGN Framework Options Group (“NGN FOG”). • The aim of the ACIF NGN Project is to help all involved discuss issues that cross current boundaries, including • Internet/telco divisions • Regulatory issues (ACA and ACCC) • Industry issues (including self-regulation requirements) • Policy issues • An early agreement was that user requirements must be the main driver of this work.

4. NGN FOG Work • The main task of the NGN FOG has been to assist understanding of the transition to next generation network equipment. The NGN FOG work involves consideration of issues including • Technical standards • End-user issues • End-to-end services • Interconnection across networks • Regulatory issues (both self-regulation and government regulation

5. How Will “NGNs” Develop • ACIF sees a number of options (not mutually exclusive) • From the existing public Internet • From the introduction of enhanced Internet Networks for corporate customers • From the introduction of new networks using packet technology • From the upgrading of existing networks using packet technology

7. The Internet View • Interconnected networks will mainly serve to provide end-to-end connectivity, carrying packets of data end-to-end between smart terminals, and establishing end-to-end sessions under terminal control as required. • Services will be provided by interaction between end-user equipment (e.g ICQ/MSN style voice +, web access) • Legacy carrier-based services will be in decline • The “Telco” View • Services will primarily be provided across interconnected networks operated by multimedia carriers, with a combination of “smart” and “dumb” terminal equipment working with a “smart” network which would control end-to-end services as needed based on user requirements signalled to the network • Current telephone networks will develop to support multimedia, forming the basis of the NGN • Much service development and provision will come from public network operators, supported by end-to-end higher-layer services developed over open interfaces

8. Outcomes from ACIF Work 1 • “Next Generation Networks”will be packet based • The predominant packet technology will be IP • the major role for ATM will be to support IP, not as the prime packet medium • Next generation networks will have to support a full range of services, including real-time interactive services • The base Internet Protocols are connectionless, and do not guarantee secure and timely delivery of each packet in a session (or call), especially during periods of congestion

9. Outcomes from ACIF Work 2 • Quality of service requirements may be met by ensuring congestion does not occur, by over-dimensioning all paths over which packets pass. • The business cases of current ISPs (the “Public Internet”) do not make this approach likely for end-to-end service, particularly over “thin routes” such as those for customer access. • The most likely path for the development of NGN is from current public telecommunications networks (telco networks)

10. Outcomes from ACIF Work 3 • There is a wide range of techniques to provide QoS connections, including • Over-dimensioning; • Providing underlying connections, either • Actual separated physical routes, or • Virtual circuits • Various QoS protocols, both IETF and proprietary solutions • These techniques cannot yet be reliably operated end-to-end, but can (and do) work in current networks

11. Outcomes from ACIF Work 4 • Within a network, “NGN” type infrastructure may be used • To an extend an existing network, based on operational savings expected from packet technologies. (NGN customer access may or may not be provided) • To provide a new network able to offer telephony, interactive multimedia and Internet services; • To provide managed data networks for corporate customers, supporting telephony and data • The economic advantages of individual corporate networks supporting telephony and data are most obvious The common factor is telephony, aka VoIP

12. Outcomes from ACIF Work 5 • Voice (telephony) is likely to be a major (if not the major) service on IP-based networks evolving from current telco networks; • In the medium term, these services are likely to have to meet most of the current national regulatory requirements for the telephone service, including • Number allocation; • Portability; • Division into local and long distance • Many new services may have a telephony component e.g. voice + video, which could start voice to voice and later add multimedia

13. The Importance of Quality of Service • The NGN should be able to support real-time interactive services, including voice and also multi-media services such as two-way video communication • The NGN will need to provide a continuous Quality of Service (QoS) level greater than the QoS currently provided from the Internet at times of congestion • Despite IETF work, there still seems to be no clear way of guaranteeing end-to-end Quality of Service across networks with current Internet implementations.

14. How to Provide Required QoS? • Provision of the required QoS level can be done in a number of ways:- • based on proprietary approaches developed by network equipment vendors • Based on agreed industry standards (primarily protocols developed in the IETF), • By ensuring that there is no link or router congestion at any point in the end-to-end packet paths in use during a call (or session), either for all links or by choice of selected routes.

15. Interconnection and Interoperation ACIF’s view of the current situation: • Implementation of almost all work in the IETF on techniques to provide assured QoS has been directed to a single network rather than across networks/autonomous systems • many different approaches based on IETF protocols and proprietary developments are now in service in different networks. End-to-end connectivity is not assured, and priority standards work is needed.

17. Standards needed urgently • For the duration of a session there is a need to establish, operate and maintain a “call” (session) across multiple networks, with required resources that may vary during the “call”

18. Policy and Regulatory Implications • Policy setting and regulation is not the job of standards bodies. However, policies must be set based on the technical reality of the services and underlying networks that can be supplied economically. For this reason the policy makers and regulators have had an active involvement in the ACIF NGN Project, with a special Policy and Regulatory Group. • Is any similar approach being carried out internationally? • How can the ITU help the policy setting process nationally, regionally and globally?

19. The General View • The techniques to support transport, control and management across different networks are still to be fully developed, and this work is needed urgently. • Techniques to support interconnection and inter-operation between the advanced packet networks now coming into service will not be available for some time. • This is an essential part of the “Broadband Future”

20. Network Evolution As you would expect. There were different views as to how networks would evolve. Two boundary views were considered, with the feeling that the actual evolution would rest between these two. (Many of the participants in the ACIF work believe the “Telco” approach will predominate, but this may be because of our background in the PSTN world!)

21. The “Internet” view • Interconnected networks will mainly serve to provide end-to-end connectivity, carrying packets of data end-to-end between smart terminals, and establishing end-to-end sessions under terminal control as required. • Services will be provided by interaction between end-user equipment (e.g ICQ/MSN style voice +, web access) in quasi-private mode. • Legacy carrier-based services will be in decline

22. The “Telco” view • Services will primarily be provided across interconnected networks operated by multimedia carriers, with a combination of “smart” and “dumb” terminal equipment working with a “smart” network which would control end-to-end services as needed based on user requirements signalled to the network. • Current telephone networks will develop to support multimedia, forming the basis of the NGN. • Much service development and provision will come from public network operators, supported by end-to-end higher-layer services developed over open interfaces.

23. Interworking, Inter-operability and Any-to-Any Connectivity • If the “Internet View” is the predominant approach, end-to-end connectivity will depend on the ability of the terminal equipment to work together. The IT world has shown this will not be assured, and it is likely that proprietary solutions will compete and any-to-any connectivity could be lost. Interworking to the PSTN should be relatively easy to achieve, but access from the PSTN to the new network is likely to be harder. • The ability of the ITU and its partners to set standards for future networks of this type will be limited.

24. Interworking, Inter-operability and Any-to-Any Connectivity • If the “Telco View” is the predominant approach, end-to-end connectivity will depend on the architecture(s) for the new networks, and the interworking arrangements set in place. • The role of the ITU and its partners in establishing this standards framework will be of major importance (and is the basis for much current work which will have been described in this Workshop).

25. Numbering, Naming and Addressing • Future networks are likely to be based on Internet Protocols. If the “Telco View” evolution path is followed, we see that considerable work is needed on numbering naming and addressing as part of interworking arrangements across networks for similar services.

26. A call from one telephony terminal to another on the NGN is also likely to be made by the user dialling the E.164 number of the wanted terminal. How is this to be routed?

27. Further Work Needed We believe work is needed at the international, regional and national level on interworking and associated numbering, naming and addressing, taking into account • The current E.164 numbering arrangements • Current requirements for services such as number portability, and the techniques used to implement them • The need to be able to route calls to provide maximum functionality (for example, for NGN to NGN calls to remain within the NGN) • Available tools such as the IETF ENUM protocol (already specified for use in the 3GPPs)

28. Policy and Regulatory Implications • Policy setting and regulation is not the job of standards bodies. However, policies must be set based on the technical reality of the services and underlying networks that can be supplied economically. For this reason the policy makers and regulators have had an active involvement in the ACIF NGN Project, with a special Policy and Regulatory Group. • Is any similar approach being carried out internationally? • How can the ITU help the policy setting process nationally, regionally and globally?