Marco Carugi Senior Advisor – Nortel, Carrier Networks FORUM ON NEXT GENERATION STANDARDIZATION (Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7-10 April 2009) Interconnection and interoperability aspects of NGN Marco Carugi Senior Advisor – Nortel, Carrier Networks Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7-10 April 2009

Talks in agenda “The importance of interoperability” – G. Koleyni, ITU expert (Independent Telecom consultant) “Relevance of interconnection in NGN environment” – H.C. Soni, Vice President, ITU-APT Foundation of India “The need of interoperability within an NGN – an approach” – R. Dayal, Director, TEC, Department of Telecommunications, India “NGN interconnection” - S.K. Gupta, Advisor (Converged Network), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7-10 April 2009

Highlights from Presentation 1 “The importance of interoperability” Implementations based on global standards should be interoperable (but it may not be true) When procuring NGN or IPTV devices, care should be taken to assure interoperability i.e. products based on an open standard and backed up by certification ITU-T targets open and global standards Increases chance of interoperability May reduce implementation cost ITU-T considers support of interoperable devices a major objective of its activities Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7-10 April 2009

Highlights from Presentation 2 “Relevance of interconnection in NGN environment” Current interconnection approach has numerous issues, including suboptimal resource usage, complexity, and CAPEX and OPEX increase Shared NGN Interconnect Exchanges (ICE), upfront of some implementation issues, can provide benefits cost reduction, billing integration, service convergence and easy service provisioning in multi-operator scenarios, improved QoS, reduced down time and others NGN ICE implementation will require some light redefinition of Regulator and Licenser terms, and participation of all stakeholders In the future, we may have more differentiated roles among the various actors participating in NGN provisioning and operations different NGN entities maintained by different specialized people, conveniently and in the cheapest way Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7-10 April 2009

Interoperability is needed within NGN Highlights from Presentation 3 “The need of interoper ability within an NGN – an approach” Interoperability is needed within NGN More network modularity and competition, faster and smooth deployment Aim to have interoperability as natural outcome of conformance to standards Standards need to be categorized e.g. for ‘Protocol’, ‘Network’, ‘Equipment’, ‘Services’ To develop templates & checklists to address interoperability Need to work out mechanisms for: Testing of Standards - before final approval may be those required for interoperability, testing infrastructure Feedback from developers, implementers, users, testing etc. Synergy of related activities at ITU & SDOs. e.g. JCA-CIT, SG-17,SG-11, ITTC, Res. 44 Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7-10 April 2009

Highlights from Presentation 4 “NGN interconnection” Numerous issues of NGN interconnection, including Interoperability when multiple protocols Application-Network open interface Security and QoS at interconnect and end-to end Signaling protocols compatibility Many aspects not addressed in current interconnect offers Session Border Controllers address various aspects, incl. Signaling and media path management, scalability, security, regulatory provisions, SLAs with peers or customers Some challenging interconnection requirements for NGN Numbering/addressing, Charging on functional and application basis Way forward includes Regional coordination (what left for country specific needs/ future reqts) Development of local certifying agencies / test labs for interface approval Mandate use of only approved interfaces in NGN networks Coordination with vendors to overcome bottleneck and foster competition Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7-10 April 2009

Conclusions / Recommendations Open and global standards, and interoperability are crucial for NGN Numerous and challenging interconnect issues still to be worked out Shared Interconnect Exchanges and Session Border Controllers address a number of these issues Way forward at international level - standardisation To make interoperability as natural outcome of conformance to standards To adapt standards documentation, to test standards Proactive participation in standardisation, incl. from regulators Way forward at regional level Coordination (country specific flexibility, involvement of all actors) Local certifying agencies and test labs for interface approval Mandate usage of only approved interfaces Colombo, Sri Lanka, 7-10 April 2009