ATIS TOPS Council Identifies New Technical Priorities for Telecom

AT&T’s Chris Rice to Chair Exploratory Group on Convergence

September 14, 2006, Washington – 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, 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, DC.

The ATIS Board of Directors is presently reviewing recommendations of the TOPS Council 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.

About the ATIS TOPS Council

Established by the ATIS Board of Directors, the Technology and Operations (TOPS) Council identifies the industry’s most pressing technical and operational priorities, and coordinates standardization efforts industry-wide to produce interoperable, implementable, end-to-end solutions. The TOPS Council is composed of ATIS Board members and includes the leading CTOs and technology execs from the industry’s leading service providers and equipment manufacturers. To support its efforts, the Council establishes written work plans identifying areas of concentration for priority standards activities. Additionally, the Council oversees the progress toward completion of the work plans, as ATIS and other standards organizations execute the necessary standards work.

About ATIS

ATIS is a technical planning and standards development organization that is committed to rapidly developing nd promoting technical and operations standards for the communications and related information technologies industry worldwide using a pragmatic, flexible and open approach. Participants from more than 350 communications companies are active in ATIS’ 24 industry committees and Incubator Solutions Program. www.atis.org

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