FAQ/Broadband Forum

Why did the DSL Forum decide to change its name to The Broadband Forum?

It was time for our name to reflect that our work addresses much more than just DSL.

Our work has matured over the years from addressing physical layer ADSL transport specifications, to advanced transport and management specifications for all forms of DSL. Today we are developing service based solutions that are access agnostic, and empower the digital home and office to achieve more with broadband. The DSL Forum name was no longer in line with the scope of our work. A survey of our members confirmed strong support for changing the name to The Broadband Forum.

What is the Broadband Forum mission?

The Broadband Forum mission is to develop the full potential of broadband. Focused on home-to-core network and management solutions, our standards empower providers to achieve more with their broadband deployment. Established in 1994 as the ADSL Forum and later as the DSL Forum, the Broadband Forum has seen its work over the past 14 years evolve from addressing physical layer ADSL transport specifications to advanced transport and management specifications for all forms of broadband. The Broadband Forum’s formal BroadbandSuite™ Release Program and all technical reports are publicly available at www.broadband-forum.org

What companies belong to The Broadband Forum?

The Broadband Forum is a global consortium of nearly 190 leading companies covering the telecommunications, equipment, computing, networking and service provider sectors. Associate members include academics and nonprofit organizations with an interest in broadband. Members are listed/linked on the Broadband Forum website at: http://broadband-forum.org/memberlist/members.php.

What is the role of the Broadband Forum?

We develop specifications, through consensus, captured in Technical Reports which cover interoperability tests, architecture, network and digital home remote management to empower effective deployment and operation of broadband from the network itself through to the home. We share information, experience and best practices inside the industry, and provide inputs to standards bodies through formal liaisons. Our members have the opportunity to frame and contribute to all of our work through our quarterly meetings, the continuing activities of our working groups, interoperability testing events and demonstrations of broadband as well as the formal voting processes that lead to the publication of our Technical Reports.

Does Broadband Forum develop industry standards?

The Forum contributes to global industry standards by developing Technical Reports and through formal liaisons with global standards bodies such as ANSI, ETSI, ATIS and ITU. A full list of our liaisons is at http://www.broadband-forum.org/about/liaisonprogram.php. Broadband Forum Technical Reports cover the technology itself, network operations and management, interoperability and integration of broadband technology into existing infrastructures. A schedule of those reports and their full text is available at: http://www.broadband-forum.org/technical/trlist.php.

How is the Broadband Forum involved in equipment interoperability?

The Broadband Forum has established a series of Technical Reports that define the core testing and interoperability criteria for network and customer premises equipment. These physical layer test suites continue to be developed to address the needs of newly defined and standardized versions of DSL such as ADSL2+ and VDSL2. Currently there is also ongoing testing in the area of remote management and auto-configuration based on the industry de-facto standard, TR-069.

Interoperability activities include multi-vendor ‘plugfests’ for equipment manufacturers and independent testing through a number of recognized testing laboratories (ITLs) around the world that undertake robust testing to the Broadband Forum’s test plan specifications. The primary focus of these tests is to check the ability of a product to co-exist in a multiple vendor environment and operate with other products so that network and service providers as well as end users are assured of the capability of equipment to deliver standards-based broadband services effectively.

Does Broadband Forum produce subscriber numbers or industry reports?

Industry analyst Point Topic produces global broadband and IPTV subscriber statistics for the Broadband Forum that are published via press releases and on the Forum’s website at: http://www.broadband-forum.org. We also identify new analyst reports of interest to our members, and secure member discounts whenever possible that we post in our Analyst Reports area of the website- at http://www.broadband-forum.org/dslnews/analystreports.shtml.

How would you describe the state of broadband right now?

Broadband is a dynamic market all around the world and is the fastest growing area of the telecommunications sector. DSL is the leading broadband technology in the world, holding approximately 66% of the broadband market share and available in every region of the world. Fiber deployments are increasing rapidly and are a key component of IPTV success of the future. See the latest deployment statistics in our Technical Charts and Graphs section at: http://www.broadband-forum.org/news/download/Charts&Graphs.pdf.

Why has broadband growth been faster in some countries than others?

Fixed line telephone service penetration, household and business densities, computer ownership, internet access take-up and regulatory framework can all affect the speed of broadband rollout. In some countries, decisions have been made primarily on a commercial basis as telephone network operators are listed companies. In other areas, where telephone networks remain in public ownership, decisions on when and where to deploy broadband are made by governments.

Different services and applications need different levels of Quality of Service. How is the Broadband Forum facilitating QoS and the associated Quality of customer Experience (QoE)?

Some of the TRs and work in process to enhance Quality of Experience:
• TR-126 provides a compendium of provisioning and management options for ensuring appropriate quality levels of different applications, such as the requirements for IPTV (both standard definition and high-definition)
  • This work was extensively liaised to standards bodies like ATIS and ITU who used it to inform much of their own work in this area.
• TR-101 provides Service providers with a roadmap for how to migrate off an ATM access aggregation network to IP Ethernet based:
  • Blueprint for how to build a multiservice/triple-play broadband network and includes the functional requirements of all the key network elements (Residential Gateway/DSL router, Access Node/DSLAM, aggregation network and Broadband Network Gateway (BNG).
  • Functional requirements to cover the capabilities needed to deliver IPTV with multicast and QoS (see also TR-92 for more background on BNG QoS requirements such as hierarchical scheduling).
• TR-101 architecture is currently being extended to encompass GPON access via WT-156

How is Fiber being addressed in the Forum?

FTTH or fiber close to the customer is envisioned by many as the preferred broadband option – but significant investment in that infrastructure has to be made. Providers are actively deploying fiber into Greenfield (new builds) and increasingly as overlay in areas where they rollout IPTV or see user demand warrants the investment. The Broadband Forum has launched new work focused on better integration of fiber into existing networks, and under a common management platform. The BroadbandSuite Release 3.0 brings fiber solutions into the mix to ensure effective management of hybrid networks and strong options for better IPTV support.

What are the main benefits of remote management and new standards in auto-configuration?

The BroadbandHome family of TRs provides many benefits to the customers and service providers. With TR-069, providers are able to detect a new device coming online, recognize what it is and what it requires via its Object Model, and provision it effectively and remotely- negating the need in most cases for a service call. As new updates come out, the provider doesn’t need to interact with the customer at all- they just set up a download to the devices to remotely update them without any customer trigger at all. For customers, this means less installation and maintenance effort as well, and more choice of products as common interface standards emerge.

Media Contacts: For information or comment please contact our media relations team:
Worldwide:
Louise Hatton
BCS Public Relations
88-90 North Sherwood Street
Nottingham NG1 4EE United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0) 115.948.6907
Fax: +44 (0) 115.948.4250
E-Mail:louise@bcspr.co.uk