Broadcast Standardization 1 EBU

EBU (European Broadcast Union) informs its activities and studies in Ref. [25]. EBU is active in international TV and radio broadcasting, like coordination of communications related to the Eurovision Song Contest. The contents of the Eurovision Song Contest are delivered via satellite and fiber network providing transmission services to broadcasters in a global scale. One task of EBU is thus to provide transmission services with wanted quality, from standard definition up to a variety of high definition audio and video in broadcast, file transport or streaming formats.

Eurovision offers four main transmission types called One Stop Shop, Special Events, Unilateral and Space Segment. One Stop Shop combines facilities with transmissions, meaning that the broadcaster needs to make a single call or order to Eurovision, EBU taking care of the rest of the technical arrangements. Unilateral services are point to point transmissions on satellite or fiber, while space segments are segments of satellite time.

The EBU Partnership Program (EPP) aims to strengthen the cause of public service media (PSM) in Europe through tailored interventions to selected Members who need strategic consultancy, lobbying, training and political intervention.

The EBU Partnership was launched in 2009 as the Special Assistance Project. In June 2012, prior to the final signature of a Partnership agreement between the EBU and the European Commission, the project was renamed.

2.2.12.2 Satellite Systems Standardization

The standardization of satellite technologies and solutions is performed in various standardization bodies. There are also highly closed and proprietary solutions, as in the areas of military and space exploration. ESA and NASA are the most widely known representatives of applied space technology and investigation, and produce both highly proprietary solutions as well as globally standardized definitions.

One of the telecommunications related satellite activities is the standardization of the satellite component of IMT-Advanced systems which will play an important role, especially in providing multimedia broadcasting and multicasting services due to its inherent characteristics. Recently, new satellite radio interfaces are being developed which have high commonality between terrestrial radio interfaces.

2.2.12.3 Other Standardization Organizations

In addition to the actual standardization bodies which have the most important impact on the development of solutions that are interoperable internationally, there is also a wide variety of supporting work groups that influence the standardization and/or the practical deployment of the standards. These groups are often called forums. The following sections identify some of the most relevant forums in the telecommunications area.

38 The Telecommunications Handbook

2.3

Industry Forums

2.3.1 GSM Association

GSMA (GSM Association) represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, consisting of nearly 800 full members (mobile operators) and more than 200 associate members (network and handset vendors, GRX carriers, roaming brokers etc.). The main difference between these membership categories is that only full members are allowed to vote. GSMA traces its history back to the original EU GSM declaration of 1982, but was formally created as the “GSM MoU Association” in 1995.

As a global industry trade association, the GSMA heavily consists of meetings and discussions between competitors. Therefore a strict antitrust policy is in place to prevent any kind of cartel behavior such as market sharing or price fixing, for example any type of discussion on pricing is prohibited in GSMA.

As is typical in the mobile industry, the requirements, architecture and technical details of roaming are handled in the “real standardization organizations” such as ETSI or 3GPP. Specifications coming out of those SDOs are then reused by groups such as GSMA to fill in items that are out of the scope of the purely technical standardization work, such as real-world practices, commercial models, common agreements, fraud issues, and so on. In the mobile area these and other items relevant for the commercial deployment of roaming are handled within GSMA. Though GSMA is not SDO, it has also been used as a vehicle to develop some completely new services. Recent examples include VoLTE, RCS and oneAPI which could have been standardized in 3GPP or perhaps in OMA.

Work performed in GSMA sometimes also includes profiling of 3GPP specifications – for example when, due to typical political standardization compromise, there are two (or more) options in the specification for handling some item, it is possible for GSMA to have another round of discussions and if possible agree on only one alternative which obviously makes it easier for feasible deployment in the typically rather challenging multioperator environment. That is the reason why it is advisable for operators also to take into account GSMA documentation, for example in the area of 3G or LTE roaming, in addition to the technical specifications originating from 3GPP.

The main work of GSMA is done in various projects and permanent working groups. For example IREG (Interworking & Roaming Expert Group) is responsible for the technical issues related to all inter- operator aspects, SG (Security Group) deals with security related matters of mobile world while BARG (Billing, Accounting and Roaming Group) has overall responsibility for supporting the interoperator busi- ness/wholesale charging framework. Working groups produce various PRDs (Permanent Reference Docu- ments), such as AA.60 which is the template agreement for setting up interconnection, SG.20 documents voicemail security guidelines and IR.90 gives guidance for RCS specific interconnection topics.

A major role for GSMA is the public policy front; in practice this means lobbying such as influencing the EU commission not to regulate the inter-European roaming tariffs too much. There’s also a specific development fund within GSMA, which means supporting the developing countries with activities such as mobile money, mLearning and green power. GSMA also produces major events such as the Mobile World Congress and Mobile Asia Expo.

Out of scope for GSMA are the non-3GPP technologies, so all the fixed networks and a number of mobile networks such as WiMAX or CDMA are not handled there. Exception to this rule are interoperator networks such as GRX and IPX which have been developed within GSMA to serve the purposes of mobile networks exchanging traffic between each other in roaming and interconnection scenarios.

The impact of GSMA has been clear, especially in the area of roaming, where the common guidelines of GSMA have been very beneficial in achieving true global interoperability on how to really implement roaming technically and commercially. Otherwise there’s a concrete danger that each and every one of those nearly 800 operators have their own slightly different way how to implement roaming, both in technical and commercial sense. For example the common roaming agreement templates provided by GSMA have

Standardization and Regulation 39 ensured that negotiations with a new roaming partner can be handled more or less the same way every time. The technical roaming database of GSMA called IR.21 allows easy way for the absolutely vital exchange of technical details, such as the IP address of MMSC required to implement MMS interworking, between the operators. These and a number of similar functions provided by GSMA have clearly proven the need for a forum such as GSMA helping the daily life of an operator.

Regardless of the name, GSM Association also is involved with other technologies in addition to GSM and its evolution like GPRS and EDGE. Further technologies are more specifically related to 3G/WCDMA, HSPA and LTE, and their evolution.

The main focus of GSMA is to represent the interests of mobile operators worldwide. GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators operating in about 200 countries. There is also a group of over 200 other companies in the complete mobile ecosystem of GSM Association, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organizations. One of the most known activities globally of GSM Association is to organize the Mobile World Congress (MWC) and Mobile Asia Expo.

The organization of GSM Association includes GSMA Board which provides a high-level direction and decision making. The board consists of chairman, Director General, and members of the board. Under the GSM Association, there are committees and groups of specialists. The members of GSMA steer and participate in the work of the GSMA through these specialist committees and groups.

The Strategy Committee, the Products and Services Management Committee and the Public Policy Com- mittee of GSMA initiate projects. These initiations are approved via a process called toll gating. Once approved, the projects are reviewed on a regular basis in order to assure they are kept in line with the strategic objectives of GSMA.

The Regional Interest Groups of GSMA facilitate forums that are meant for discussions of the mobile industry, and to address issues specific to certain regions. There are Regional Internet Groups in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Arab World, Africa and North America.

As for the European Union, GSMA is a representative of over 100 mobile network operators. The main focus of the secretariat of GSMA Europe is to coordinate the efforts of the GSMA to inform the EU-level policy and regulatory developments that impact the mobile industry. This work is done in practice via the Operator Expert Groups. It consists of public policy and technical experts with interests in Europe.

The Chief Regulatory Officers Group for Europe has an important role in the governance structure of GSMA, forming a link between the Operator Expert Groups and the Public Policy Committee of the GSMA Board [26].

In addition to the GSMA Europe, the roles of the other GSMA entities are the following:

r _{GSMA Latin America (GSMA LA) has four Operator Expert Working Groups for Billing and Roaming} (BARG), Regulatory (REGU), Technical and Terminals (TECT), and Security and Fraud (SEGF) issues in the region. The main task of GSMA LA is to host two key plenary sessions per ear. The Chief Regulatory Officers Group for Latin America (CROG Latin America) guides the GSMAs public policy activities in the region and inputs the interests of the Latin American operators into the agendas of the GSMA Board, the Public Policy Committee (PPC) and the Global Chief Regulatory Officers Group (CROG).

r _{GSMA North America is steered by CTO Advisory Group, which coordinates activities of various} technical working groups. These working groups include the Services Working Group, the Smart Card Group, the Terminal Working Group, the Fraud and Security group, the Interworking, Roaming Expert Group (IREG), the Billing, Accounting & Roaming Group (BARG) and the Standards & Wireless Alerts Task Force.

r _{GSMA Asia consists of several regional working groups aligned with the global GSMA working groups.} GSMA Asia also runs several successful conferences and events covering roaming and regulatory issues.

40 The Telecommunications Handbook

r _{GSMA Africa is focused on regulatory, environmental, and roaming issues. Its secretariat oversees research} on taxation, spectrum and other issues of particular relevance to the African mobile industry.

r _{GSMA Arab World promotes and facilitates the development of GSM-based services, seeks to enhance} investments in network infrastructure and aims to drives innovation, growth and expand consumer choice. GSMA Arab World runs a website.

2.3.2 UMTS Forum

UMTS Forum was established in 1996, with the original aim facilitating discussions related to UMTS systems. There are members from operators, equipment manufacturers and regulators. Also the European Commission has taken an active part in the activities of UMTS Forum. In general, the UMTS Forum helps all key participants of the field in a highly dynamic environment to understand and profit from the opportunities of 3G/UMTS networks and their Long Term Evolution (LTE) [27].

The UMTS Forum is a member of, for example, ITU and participates actively in the work of all three ITU Sector Groups. UMTS Forum also contributes to the works of EC and CEPT, and discusses actively with other governmental, administrative, industry and technical bodies.

The UMTS Forum also contributes to the standardization work of mobile broadband of ETSI (as an observer) and the Third Generation Partnership Project (as a Market Representation Partner). Furthermore, UMTS Forum has dialogue with regulators related to the licensing and deployment of mobile broadband.

The UMTS Forum executes studies, reports and other publications of the telecommunication field. The main interest areas include markets trends, mobile broadband services and applications, key growth markets, spectrum and regulation, as well as technology and implementation. UMTS Forum is active at conferences, seminars and workshops at a global level, and it also informs media and analysts about the telecommunications area, as presented in Figure 2.4.

Communication and

promotion Key focus areas Key growth marketsaction plan

Participation at conferences, exhibitions, seminars

and workshops

Relationships with international media and

financial community

Spectrum and regulation • Advice to industry and administrations on 3G and LTE licensing and regulation

• Global spectrum and its arrangements for UMTS/ IMT-2000 and IMT- Advanced

Global mobile broadband and LTE ecosystem • Roadmap and competitive benefits for HSPA, LTE and beyond

Contributions to international organizations like ITU, EC, CEPT / ECC, and

3GPP Partnerships with international bodies like

ETSI, NGMN, GSMA, ICU, COAI, APT, 3GA

Figure 2.4 The key areas of work of UMTS Forum as interpreted from source [27]. Data published by UMTS Forum.

Standardization and Regulation 41 UMTS Forum also keeps track of the statistics of the telecommunications, although the information presented in its web pages is for information only. As an example, UMTS Forum has presented that the global WCDMA subscriptions, which refers to the whole set of WCDMA and HSPA Subscribers was 1159 347 217 in 2012, from which the global HSPA Subscribers was 892 117 434. Furthermore, according to the information, the number of WCDMA Networks Launched was 384, HSPA Networks 417, HSPA+Networks 182, UMTS 900 Networks 51, and the number of LTE Networks Launched was 80.

2.3.3 WiMAX Forum

Information about the WiMAX Forum can be obtained from Ref. [28]. According to the presentation of WiMAX Forum, it is an industry-led, not-for-profit organization that certifies and promotes the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products based upon IEEE Standard 802.16.

The main goal of WiMAX Forum is to accelerate the adoption, deployment and expansion of WiMAX technologies globally, and to facilitate roaming agreements. The aim of the WiMAX Forum is to promote and accelerate the introduction of cost-effective broadband wireless access services into the telecommunications market. Via the concept of WiMAX Forum Certified products, the equipment is assured to be interoperable with the support of broadband fixed, nomadic, portable and mobile services. As an important way of work, the WiMAX Forum interfaces actively with service providers and regulators to ensure that WiMAX Forum Certified systems meet customer and government requirements.

Currently, the WiMAX Forum has hundreds of members. The members represent operators, component vendors and equipment vendors.

The organization of the WiMAX Forum consists of officers and Board of Directors that are responsible for leading the broadband wireless access (BWA) market adoption of IEEE 802.16-based BWA systems. Means to execute this task include promotional activity, certification and interoperability testing. In addition, the Board and its officers also take care of agency oversight, goal setting, policy review and fundraising.

For the execution of the actual work, there are various working groups within WiMAX Forum. They identify critical focus areas in order to facilitate the introduction of WiMAX Forum Certified products to the telecommunications markets. The working groups are organized under the Technical Steering Committee. The concrete aim of these activities is to develop technical specifications for the WiMAX Forum Certified products. The overlaying Technical Steering Committee (TSC) guides the non-Advisory Working Groups. It takes care of the high-level coordination of the development of WiMAX Forum technical specifications and certification procedures. Some of the more concrete tasks of TSC are to ensure the consistency of Working Group activities and results, to make sure that the technical planning, specification, and certification takes into account sufficient broadly the representatives of the Principal Membership, and to promote wide acceptance of roadmaps and decisions by the WiMAX Forum Membership.

2.3.4 BMCO Forum and Open IPTV Forum

OIPF (Open IPTV Forum) and bmcoforum (Broadcast Mobile Convergence Forum) have joined their forces and merged the previously separate activities of bmcoforum into the OIPF [29]. This arrangement is planned to form a stronger entity with broader representation and influence across the fixed and mobile broadband industries. The merged activities optimize the resources of these previously separate, leading organizations, and enhance the weight in the standardization of mass market services and devices.

This new setup and the resulting multiscreen approaches that include TVs, PCs, mobile devices and other screens is a logical step for TV and media consumption. One of the aims of this concept is to provide increasing level of interactivity and flexibility as the broadcast is moving towards all-IP era. Different types of content services will thus be delivered into multiscreen environments. Characteristic for this transition is

42 The Telecommunications Handbook

to provide flexibility both in the home and in the moving environment. It should be noted that mobile devices are not limited to the traditional TV contents delivery but also as service control points, allowing selection and control of personal content services. This extension of IPTV to mobile usage and hybrid networks facilitates the development of the broadcast markets towards multiscreen media consumption, and the joining of resources of OIPF and bmcoforum is a logical step.

The bmcoforum is an international nonprofit organization designed to foster the mass market for mobile media consumption. Therefore bmcoforum optimizes the technology mix and business models and brings together players from all parts of the media delivery value chain [30].

The OIPF, on the other hand, is open to diverse participants from the communications technology areas and entertainment industries. It thus brings together network operators, content providers, service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and home and network infrastructure providers. The members of the Open IPTV Forum are working together on the development of open specifications with the goal of combining the expertise of all involved in helping streamline and accelerate deployments of IPTV technologies. Their aim is to make the next generation of IPTV a mass market service and to maximize the benefits of IPTV for consumers as well as the industry [31].

The resulting Open IPTV Forum enables and accelerates creation of a mass market for IPTV by defining and publishing free-of-charge, standards-based specifications for end–end IPTV services of the future. End- to-end specifications are essential to an effective ecosystem delivering an easy “plug and play” interoperability experience for the end consumer. The Open IPTV Forum is an essential organization independent from the technology behind the industry. The forum is open to participation from the communications and entertainment industries. As a concrete result in the activity, device certification and Interoperability Testing program will trigger the OIPF logo appearing on numerous services and devices. This logo indicates the usability of the services across multiple mobile screens.