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Name: Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS)

Web address: www.atis.org

Mailing address: 1200 G Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20005

Date of origin: 1984

Number of members: 310

Leader: Susan Miller, ATIS president & CEO

Primary focus: ATIS is a leading technical planning and standards development organization for the communications and information technologies industry. ATIS identifies technical and operations priorities and coordinates the development of end-to-end solutions — suites of standards that support new technologies, products and services in the marketplace.

Notable accomplishments: In 2004 ATIS published 109 standards, guidelines and technical reports. Its focus groups studied five industry priority areas and developed industry work plans for end-to-end solutions. These priority areas include VoIP, network security, data interchange, mobile wireless services, and wide-area Ethernet.

Work in progress: ATIS recently released a North American framework of requirements for next-gen networks (NGN) and is working with other global standards bodies to develop a global definition and set of standards for NGN. The ATIS framework defines a high-level architecture for NGN that meets the business and wide-scale deployment needs of the industry.

Contact info: Steve Kling, member services manager, (202) 434-8858, skling@atis.org

Next meeting: ATIS Annual Meeting of Committees, Oct. 23-27 (in conjunction with TELECOM 2005), Las Vegas

Name: American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

Web address: www.ansi.org

Mailing address: 1819 L Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20036

Operations: 25 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036

Date of origin: Oct. 18, 1918

Number of members: Approximately 900

Leader: Mark W. Hurwitz, president & CEO

Primary focus: ANSI is a private, non-profit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. The institute's mission is to enhance both the global competitiveness of U.S. businesses and the U.S. quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment systems, and safeguarding their integrity.

Notable accomplishments: The scope of ANSI's work is far-reaching and touches on a broad spectrum of industries, including the telecom industry. ANSI works with various standards-developing organizations in the telecom industry, including ATIS, TIA and the IEEE.

Work in progress: ANSI established the U.S. Standards Strategy Committee to review and revise the national standard strategy. After a public review period, the USSSC will publish a final version in 2005.

ANSI and the NATO Standardization Agency signed an agreement to support the mutual value of cooperating in all fields of standardization. The agency also signed agreements with ANSI members ASTM International and SAE International.

Internationally, ANSI is pursuing efforts to assist in easing concerns about the Chinese standardization policy. Also, ANSI is collaborating with European standards organizations, including the Committee for Standardization, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. Areas of discussion include security issues, standards-related government initiatives, global relevance, foreign technical assistance and environmental regulation and standards.

Contact info: Stacy Leistner, director of communications and public relations, sleistne@ansi.org, (212) 642-4931

Next meeting: For a meeting calendar and schedule of events, please visit www.ansi.org/events

Name: Broadband Services Forum (BSF)

Web address: www.broadband servicesforum.org

Mailing address: 39355 California Street, Suite 307 Fremont, CA

Date of origin: Jan. 1, 2005 (Originally the Broadband Content Delivery Forum, http://bcdforum.org, and the Service Creation Community, www.servicecreation.org)

Number of members: 25

Leader: Derek Kuhn, BSF Board chairman, director of business development NA & alliances ICE, Alcatel

Primary focus: The BSF is an international industry resource facilitating dialogue and development, along with the tools and information to address business and technology issues vital to the health of the broadband industry. It aims to foster collaboration across the broadband value chain including content service and technology providers.

Notable accomplishments: Prior to joining the BSF, the SCC published a formal Pilot Service process, setting the framework to take an idea to a pilot rollout, including reference model and business case. Two pilots have been set: An IP video pilot sponsored by Siemens and an IPTV pilot sponsored by net.com.

Prior to joining the BSF, the BCDF published many white papers on issues affecting the broadband industry, including papers focused on distributing rich media over broadband, and interactive gaming.

In September 2004, the BCDF launched a new, easy-to-use Flash-based modeling tool aimed at helping network service providers and content providers evaluate basic financials in deploying new broadband-based IP services. The tool provides estimates of key financial metrics including incremental revenue, costs, margin and cash flow.

Work in progress: The Technical Working Group: is defining Content Aware Network Services, an environment in which the systems that manage content can transact in a standard manner with the network, content servers and back office systems.

The IPTV Network & Interactive Service Business Working Group is evaluating and validating new service opportunities and business models applicable to broadband.

Contact info: Laura Nugent, interim executive director, lnugent@broadbandservicesforum.org; Alison Ward, coordinator award@broadbandservicesforum.org; (510) 744-4015, info@broadbandservicesforum.org

Next meeting: BSF Q3 Meeting. Sept. 14-15, Vienna, Austria; sponsored by Telekom Austria

Name: DSL Forum

Web address: www.dslforum.org

Mailing address: 39355 California Street suite 307 Fremont, CA 94538

Date of origin: 1994

Number of members: 200+

Leaders: Michael Brusca, DSL Forum chairman, Verizon Communications distinguished member of technical staff; Steve Kingdom, DSL Forum president, KTL vice president of global business

Primary focus: Interoperability for ADSL2plus and VDSL, IP-centric architecture evolution enabling advanced services, DSLHome automated flow-through provisioning and maintenance of the DSL networked home, and emerging market support, empowering all new entrants into the DSL market with a full suite of industry agreed upon recommendations for effective DSL network and operations standards.

Notable accomplishments: Working to streamline processes, develop technical specifications and share best practices, the DSL Forum's work sets the stage for effective deployments and explosive global DSL growth, which currently places DSL at more than 100 million users as the No. 1 broadband access method in the world.

Work in Progress: By evolving DSL technology to embrace new applications, the DSL Forum is tailoring DSL to meet the needs of next generation multimedia services and the online community. Recognized as the voice of the DSL industry, the forum has set a target of 500 million broadband DSL subscribers by 2010.

Contact info: info@dslforum.org, (510) 608-5905

Next meeting: DSL Forum Meeting Q3, Sept. 19-22, Philadelphia

Name: FTTH Council (North America)

Web address: www.ftthcouncil.org

Mailing address: 95 Prescott Street Worchester, MA 01605

Date of origin: 2001

Number of Members: 130+

Leader: Leonard Ray, president FTTH-C, vice president of business development, Atlantic Engineering Group

Primary focus: FTTH-C is market development organization whose mission is to educate, promote and accelerate fiber-to-the-home deployment and the resulting quality of life enhancements.

Notable accomplishments: The FTTH-C puts on a successful yearly conference devoted to topics and issues related to FTTH networks. In addition, the council and its members are active in writing informational white papers on FTTH technology. The council also is instrumental in educating groups such as the FCC about the value and maturity of the technology. The group's input influenced the FCC's decision to deregulate FTTH loops in the U.S., which helped open the door to Verizon's aggressive deployment.

Work in progress: The FTTH-C has gone from supporting a technology of which people used to be very skeptical to seeing mass market deployment by Verizon, rural LECs and municipalities. The FTTH-C is now at a transition phase where it is growing and addressing areas that it has not addressed before, such as applications and appliances. The group is currently examining restructuring of its leadership to better accommodate its exponential growth.

Contact info: Michael DiMauro, treasurer, FTTH Council, P.O. Box 21071 Spokane, WA 99201; (866) 320-6444, info@ftthcouncil.org

Next meeting: FTTH Conference & Expo “No Limits” Oct. 3-6, Las Vegas

Name: IEEE Communications Society

Web address: www.comsoc.org

Mailing address: 3 Park Avenue New York, NY 10016

Date of origin: 1952

Number of members: 46,000

Leader: Curtis Siller, president, IEEE Communications Society; consultant, Enginnovation

Primary focus: The IEEE fosters original work in all aspects of communications science, engineering, and technology, and encourages the development of applications that use signals to transfer voice, data, images, and/or video information between locations. It also advances developments toward meeting new market demands in systems, products, and technologies such as personal communications services, multimedia communications systems, enterprise networks, and optical communications systems.

Notable accomplishments: The society recognizes members' accomplishments through annual awards programs and publishes multiple publications, including IEEE Communications Magazine.

Work in progress: The society sponsors publications, conferences, educational programs, local activities, and technical committees.

Contact info: Jack Howell, executive director, (212) 705-8910, j.howell@comsoc.org

Next meeting: IEEE sponsors more than 40 technical conferences each year. See www.comsoc.org for dates and locations.

Name: International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (ITU-T)

Web address: www.itu.int/ITU-T/

Mailing address: Places des Nations, CH-1211; Geneva 20, Switzerland

Date of origin: May 17, 1865

Number of members: 189 member states, 620+ sector members, 100 associates

Leader: Houlin Zhao, director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU

Primary focus: The ITU-T develops internationally agreed-upon technical and operating standards and defines tariff and accounting principles for international telecommunications services. The work of ITU-T aims to foster seamless interconnection of the world's communications networks and systems.

Notable accomplishments: Many standards including V.90, SS7, E.164, H.323, H.264, ADSL.

Work in progress: Focus on next generation networks spans all 13 ITU-T study groups. NGN is a key area of study for ITU-T as operators around the world look to migrate to an IP-based infrastructure. The convergence between IP, public network, DSL, cable television, wireless local area network (WLAN) and mobile technologies is a task that many believe is impossible without the development of global standards.

Contact info: Paolo Rosa, head of communications, +41 22 730 5235, paolo.rosa@itu.int

Next meeting: For list of events go to itu.int/ITU-T/events/index.html

Name: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

Web address: www.ietf.org

Date of origin: 1986

Number of members: Any engineer may participate, and plenary meetings attract 1500+ people.

Leader: Brian Carpenter, chair, IETF; distinguished engineer, IBM

Primary focus: The Internet Engineering Task Force is an open, international community of network designers, operators, vendors and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. The actual technical work of the IETF is done in its working groups, which are organized by topic into several areas (such as routing, transport and security). Much of the work is handled via mailing lists. The IETF holds meetings three times per year.

The IETF working groups are grouped into areas, and managed by area directors. The area directors are members of the Internet Engineering Steering Group. The Internet Architecture Board provides oversight.

Notable accomplishments: The IETF originated both session initiation protocol (SIP) and multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) in recent years. It is also the standards organization responsible for IP, including IPv6, and for transmission control protocol and for domain name system standards among others.

Work in progress: The IETF currently has more 120 working groups covering applications, the Internet layer, routing, the transport layer, security, operations and management.

Contact info: See www.ietf.org

Next meeting: 63rd IETF, Paris, July 31 - Aug. 5; hosted by France Telecom

Name: MFA Forum

Web address: http://mfaforum.org

Location: 39355 California Street #307 Fremont, CA

Date of origin: The MFA Forum was created in spring of 2005 when the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance (the result of a prior merger between the MPLS Forum and the Frame Relay Forum) formally merged with the ATM Forum.

Number of members: 60

Leader: Andrew Malis, president and chair of the MFA Forum, chief technologist of advanced data products, Tellabs

Primary focus: The MFA Forum is an international, industry-wide, nonprofit association of telecommunications, networking, and other companies focused on advancing the deployment of multi-vendor, multiservice packet-based networks, associated applications, and interworking solutions.

Notable accomplishments: The MFA Forum is the combination of three respected organizations: the ATM Forum, Frame Relay Forum and MPLS Forum. As individual organizations, they were notable for many different multi-vendor standard and for driving interoperability within their respective technologies.

The merger of these three forums optimizes the strengths of the three separate technologies and the expertise of their members, leading the way for true network convergence.

Work in progress: MPLS technology continues to be at the center of the MFA Forum's focus and the group is addressing MPLS Intercarrier Interconnection, Multiservice Interworking and Signaling Interworking as it pertains to the service provider community.

Contact info: Alexa Morris, (510) 608-5914, amorris@mplsforum.org

Next meeting: MFA Forum Q3 Meeting July 18-21, 2005, Ottawa, Canada

Name: MultiService Forum (MSF)

Web address: www.msforum.org

Mailing address: 39355 California Street, Suite 307, Fremont, CA

Date of origin: 1998

Number of members: 41

Leader: Roger Ward, MSF president, Head Network Evolution Strategy, BT Group Chief Technology Office

Primary focus: The MSF is a global association of service providers and system suppliers committed to developing and promoting open-architecture, multiservice switching systems. The MSF is an open-membership organization, composed of the world's leading telecommunications companies, that exists to make sense of all the details surrounding next-generation networks. Its products fall into three areas: architectural framework, protocol implementation agreements and global interoperability events.

Notable accomplishments: 29 Implementation Agreements, Product Specifications, and Architecture Frameworks. Successfully hosted Global MSF Interoperability (GMI) Events in 2002 and 2004 during which massive amounts of technical work done by the MSF and its member companies were validated.

Work in progress: Preparation for GMI 2006 and broadening the scope of the organization to encompass network convergence of fixed and mobile networks. The goal is to help the implementation of multivendor, multiservice, next-generation networks.

Contact: Julianne Fitzpatrick, (510) 608-5924, jfitzpatrick@msforum.org

Next meeting: MSF Q3 Technical Committee Meeting, July 19-21, Ottawa, Canada

Name: Optical Internetworking Forum

Web address: www.oiforum.com

Mailing address: 39355 California Street, Suite 307, Fremont, CA

Date of origin: April 1998

Number of members: 141

Leader Joe Berthold, OIF president, Ciena; vice president, Network Architecture and Standards

Primary focus: The OIF's goal is to accelerate the deployment of interoperable, cost-effective and robust optical networks and their associated technologies. As the only industry group uniting representatives from data and optical networks, the OIF helps advance standards and test methods for optical networks.

Notable accomplishments: The OIF has published 27 Implementation Agreements addressing the practical details of developing, producing and deploying interoperable optical network solutions. The agreements include internal electrical interfaces, external optical interfaces, tunable lasers, and distributed optical interfaces.

This year's OIF Worldwide Interoperability Demonstration highlights solutions for support of Ethernet services over multi-domain Sonet/SDH networks in a multi-carrier, multi-vendor environment.

Work in progress: The OIF Technical Committee includes architecture, carrier, interoperability, OAM&P, physical layer user group and physical/link layer working groups. This enables OIF to assimilate operational issues from requirements to implementation to interoperability trials. The carrier working group and physical layer user group provide requirements that guide development of the agreements, which form the basis of multi-vendor internetworking tests executed by the Interoperability Working Group.

Contact info: Kimberly Chiu, (510) 608-5929; kchiu@oiforum.com

Next meeting: Q3 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting, July 11-15, Brussels, Belgium

Name: TeleManagement Forum

Web address: www.tmforum.org

Mailing address: 240 Headquarters Plaza, Morristown, N.J. 07960

Date of origin: 1988 as the Network Management Forum

Number of members: 400+

Leader: Jim Warner, president

Primary focus: To provide leadership, strategic guidance and practical solutions to improve the management and operation of information and communications services. Through its “Lean Operator” initiative and flagship New Generation Operations Systems and Software (NGOSS) program for developing, procuring and deploying operational and business support systems, the TM Forum creates collaboratively developed, industry-standard solutions. These solutions, delivered through a set of guidelines and specifications, define the direction and specific road map to achieve business efficiency and operational flexibility, the hallmarks of the Lean Operator.

Notable accomplishments: The TeleManagement Forum has a broad range of programs across the OSS/BSS space: The flagship NGOSS program is the industry's de facto standard for designing and engineering easy to integrate, flexible systems. The business process model in NGOSS is called the Enhanced Telecom Operations Map, or eTOM, and is widely used throughout the industry as the common language for business process definition.

The TM Forum'sMulti-Technology Network Management work for standardized interfaces between vendor-specific management systems and centralized network management systems consists of a set of standards that are in use by some of the world's largest service providers and by more than 30 hardware and software suppliers.

The TM Forum has the industry's only “living lab,” the Catalyst Program, for the creation of demonstrations of integrated end-to-end solutions for operations-oriented service provider challenges.

Work in progress: Technical teams are working on NGOSS, a framework for building OSS/BSS systems. NGOSS is a mature set of standards now and is under formal change control. The NGOSS framework is used to build OSS/BSS standards to meet specific business needs. Current work touches business areas such as business process management, billing, revenue assurance, service-level agreement management, and benchmarking. It also touches technical areas, a full list of which can be found at www.tmforum.org.

Contact info: Rebecca Sendel, rsendel@tmforum.org

Next meeting: Team Action Week, July 27-31, Montreal

Name: WiMAX Forum

Web address: www.wimax forum.org

Date of origin: June 2001

Number of members: 240+

Leader: Ron Resnick, WiMAX Forum president and chairman; director of marketing, Broadband Wireless Division, Intel Corporation

Primary focus: The WiMAX Forum promotes and certifies the compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless access equipment that conforms to the IEEE 802.16 and ETSI HiperMAN specifications. WiMAX is a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last-mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL service. WiMAX will provide fixed, nomadic, portable and, eventually, mobile wireless broadband connectivity without the need for direct line-of-sight with a base station. Because a standard alone is not enough to incite mass adoption of a technology, the WiMAX Forum was established to help remove barriers to wide-scale adoption of broadband wireless access technology.

Notable accomplishments: The WiMAX Forum has launched its certification program, will begin accepting vendor equipment for conformance and interoperability testing in July; it expects the world's first WiMAX Forum-certified products will be available by year's end. In addition, the WiMAX Forum also has received support from the Korean wireless community to promote WiMAX Forum-certified products, and the WiMAX Forum has formalized an agreement with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) |that ensures a single global standard for wireless Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) technology.

Work in progress: By June, the WiMAX Forum expects to have completed the necessary test cases and test scripts and preparation of test equipment. The lab will open and begin accepting vendor equipment for certification testing in July. The first WiMAX Forum-certified products — those that are certified as conforming to the standard and interoperable with other vendors' products — are expected in November or December.

Contact info: Angi White, angiwhite@wimaxforum.org, (503) 712-2206

Next meeting: Quarterly Members Meeting, July 11-15, Vancouver.

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