Re: Darn good question !! New global standard for fully networked home - Industry applauds major breakthrough with revolutionary ITU technology

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Joel M Snyder <Joel.Snyder () Opus1 COM>
Date: December 12, 2008 3:27:38 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>, lsnewmanjr () yahoo com
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   Darn good question  !!   New global standard  
for fully networked home - Industry applauds major breakthrough with  
revolutionary ITU technology

People (not Stagg specifically, but LOTS of people) love to poke fun  
at ISO and ITU for their standards development, but the facts don't  
really support the PR.

The first, and most important thing, is that IETF has turned into just  
what folks like Rose, Chapin, Padlipsky, Clark, and others said the  
ITU (CCITT), ISO, IEEE, and ANSI were: overburdened, divorced from  
reality, slow to standardize, and inefficient.  Well, given what has  
come out of the IETF in recent years (my favorite pet peeve here is  
IPsec, but there are lots of other examples), it's clear that IETF has  
no monopoly on writing great standards or standards that people will  
adopt.  In fact, the good standards that we are getting nowadays are  
either originating in the private sector and moving towards  
standardization (Cisco seems to contribute a lot of good stuff, as an  
example) or originating in industry consortia, then moving towards  
standardization.  In neither case is the original research happening  
in the IETF.

Fundamentally, the "old days" of the IETF being where the smart people  
got together, hammered something out on the back of a napkin, and went  
home to implement it the next day, are all over.  IETF still has the  
pile of smart people in it, but the necessary burden of dealing with  
the massive commercial implications of everything they do has quashed  
the 'old way' of doing business.  It just came to the IETF later than  
ITU/ISO/IEEE.

The second thing is that the ITU, ISO, and IEEE standards are, in  
fact, widely implemented where they made sense.  Thus, things like ATM  
to the desktop (which was an IBM application of ATM, not an ITU push)  
are dead, but ATM itself is very, very much alive and likely keeping  
more than half the broadband lines in the US running.  And anyone who  
uses DSL or VoIP or uses a cellular phone is living pretty largely in  
the world of ITU and ISO.  Our SSL certificates are X.509 (hmmm.  that  
was part of the ITU effort on email, wasn't it?), and our LDAP  
directory structures bear a surprising likeness to a whole series of  
ITU Recommendations.

Yes, it's easy to point at standards that were stupid (X.400), but the  
record of no standards organization is any better than any other  
nowadays.  Look at the astonishingly fast adoption of IPv6 and you'll  
see just how relevant the IETF's work has been.  My copy of Bradner's  
IPng book has an October, 1995 stamp on it.

So, if you want to discuss these new standards as standards, from a  
technical or marketing point of view, feel free to do so.  But to  
somehow dismiss them because of their source is to show technical  
bigotry and a shallow, out-of-date point of view.  (Sorry, Stagg,  
that's insulting, but so it your note).

jms


David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
> *From: *Stagg Newman <lsnewmanjr () yahoo com <mailto:lsnewmanjr () yahoo com 
> >>
> *Date: *December 12, 2008 2:04:34 PM EST
> *To: *ip <ip () v2 listbox com <mailto:ip () v2 listbox com>>, dave () farber net 
>  <mailto:dave () farber net>
> *Subject: **Re: [IP] Darn good question  !!   New global standard  
> for fully networked home - Industry applauds major breakthrough with  
> revolutionary ITU technology*
> will this be like the OSI protocol stack, ITU efforts on email,
> ATM to the desk top
> and other ITU efforts to push standards beyond carriers networks  
> into the domain of LANS
> and/or up the protocol into the domain of applications
> net result is lots of paper and standards meetings and very little  
> product in the market
> --- On *Fri, 12/12/08, David Farber /<dave () farber net <mailto:dave () farber net 
> >>/* wrote:
>    From: David Farber <dave () farber net <mailto:dave () farber net>>
>    Subject: [IP] Darn good question !! New global standard for fully
>    networked home - Industry applauds major breakthrough with
>    revolutionary ITU technology
>    To: "ip" <ip () v2 listbox com <mailto:ip () v2 listbox com>>
>    Date: Friday, December 12, 2008, 11:47 AM
>    Begin forwarded message:
>    From: Dan Gillmor <dan () gillmor com <mailto:dan () gillmor com>>
>    Date: December 12, 2008 11:12:55 AM EST
>    To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net <mailto:dave () farber net>>
>    Subject: Fwd: New global standard for fully networked home -  
> Industry applauds
>    major breakthrough with revolutionary ITU technology
>    My question: Has anyone agreed to this apart from the ITU and the  
> group formed
>    to push this standard?
>    Begin forwarded message:
>    > From: "ITU Press Office" <pressinfo.mailb () itu int <mailto:pressinfo.mailb () itu int 
> >>
>    > Date: December 12, 1908 12:10:56 PM EDT
>    > To: "Mr Dan Gillmor" <dan () gillmor com <mailto:dan () gillmor com>>
>    > Subject: New global standard for fully networked home -  
> Industry applauds
>    major breakthrough with revolutionary ITU technology
>    >     > ORIGINAL: English
>    >     > New global standard for fully networked home
>    > Industry applauds major breakthrough with revolutionary ITU  
> technology
>    >     > Geneva, 12 December 2008 - The first global standard  
> offering an in-home,
>    high-speed network capable of delivering room-to-room HDTV has  
> been agreed by
>    ITU.
>    >     > The standard, published under the G.hn banner, promises  
> high quality
>    multimedia over power, coaxial, phone and other home network  
> wiring. It will
>    give up to 20 times the throughput of existing wireless  
> technologies and three
>    times that of existing wired technologies.
>    >     > The specifications will be used by chip manufacturers to  
> build
>    transceivers that can be incorporated into set-top boxes,  
> residential gateways,
>    home computers, home audio systems, DVD players, TVs or any other  
> device that
>    might be connected to a network now or in the future. Experts say  
> that silicon
>    companies will immediately start incorporating the specifications  
> into
>    transceivers, implying that G.hn-compliant products could be on  
> the market as
>    early as 2010.
>    >     > Joyce Putscher, Principal Analyst at market research firm  
> In-Stat, said,
>    "Service operators have been looking for an international  
> standard that
>    encompasses multiple existing-wire mediums for video  
> distribution. G.hn meets
>    that requirement and it seems clear that with significant  
> industry backing from
>    service providers, semiconductor and equipment vendors, and the  
> fast rate at
>    which the process is moving to achieve a standard, we will see  
> first equipment
>    by 2010."
>    >     > "There's a clear market need for a unified networking
>    approach," said Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU's  
> Telecommunication
>    Standardization Bureau. "With G.hn, every wire in every home  
> around the
>    world can become part of a home entertainment network. This will  
> enable seamless
>    communication between computers, HDTVs and telephones over  
> existing wires. I
>    expect that this exciting new technology will also foster  
> innovations such as
>    energy efficient smart appliances, home automation and telemedicine
>    devices."
>    >     > Work on G.hn was started at the instigation of service  
> providers looking
>    to extend broadband and video services in the home. As well as  
> its offer of
>    greater speed, it may be bundled as complementary to Wi-Fi where  
> G.hn offers
>    greater coverage, extending, for example, to areas of a house  
> where Wi-Fi does
>    not reach.
>    >     > The standard has achieved remarkable industry backing  
> even before its
>    publication. An industry group - the HomeGrid Forum (see
>    www.homegridforum.org/home) <http://www.homegridforum.org/home)>  
> - has been formed specifically to back G.hn. The
>    goal of HomeGrid Forum is to market G.hn worldwide and to create  
> a compliance
>    and interoperability programme to ensure that products based on  
> the standard
>    will operate in any home around the world.
>    >     > Other industry analysts backing the standard include  
> Michael Wolf,
>    Research Director at ABI Research. "If G.hn sees integration into  
> carrier
>    devices by 2010, we expect that some 42 million G.hn-compliant  
> nodes will ship
>    in 2013 in devices such as set-top boxes, residential gateways  
> and other service
>    provider CPE hardware," Wolf said.
>    >     > "A single, unified technology for multimedia networks  
> over power
>    lines, coaxial cable, and phone lines has the potential to enable  
> simple,
>    easy-to-use networking devices in the home," said Kurt Scherf,  
> analyst with
>    market analyst firm Parks Associates. "We believe ITU's work is an
>    important step towards eliminating fragmentation in the industry  
> and in
>    achieving the vision of a networked home."
>    >     > Recommendation ITU-T G.9960 focuses on the physical or  
> PHY layer, giving
>    the data bit rate and quality of service necessary for triple- 
> play residential
>    services as well as business-type services delivered over xDSL,  
> PON, or other
>    access technology. In step with ITU guidelines on new standards  
> development,
>    several power saving modes have been incorporated. Ongoing work  
> is focused on
>    the media access control (MAC) layer.
>    >     > For further information, please contact:
>    >     > Sanjay Acharya
>    > Chief, Media Relations and Public Information
>    > ITU
>    > Tel: +41 22 730 5046
>    > Mobile: +41 79 249 4861
>    > E-mail: pressinfo () itu int <mailto:pressinfo () itu int>
>    >     > Toby Johnson
>    > Communications Officer
>    > ITU-T
>    > Tel: +41 22 730 5877
>    > Mobile: +41 79 249 4868
>    > E-mail: toby.johnson () itu int <mailto:toby.johnson () itu int>
>    >     > About ITU
>    >     > ITU is the leading United Nations agency for information  
> and communication
>    technology issues, and the global focal point for governments and  
> the private
>    sector in developing networks and services. For more than 140  
> years, ITU has
>    coordinated the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promoted  
> international
>    cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, worked to improve  
> telecommunication
>    infrastructure in the developing world, and established the  
> worldwide standards
>    that foster seamless interconnection of a vast range of  
> communications systems.
>    >     > ITU also organizes worldwide and regional exhibitions and  
> forums bringing
>    together the most influential representatives of government and the
>    telecommunications industry to exchange ideas, knowledge and  
> technology for the
>    benefit of the global community, and in particular the developing  
> world.
>    >     > From broadband Internet to latest-generation wireless  
> technologies, from
>    aeronautical and maritime navigation to radio astronomy and  
> satellite-based
>    meteorology, from phone and fax services to TV broadcasting and  
> next-generation
>    networks, ITU is committed to connecting the world.
>    >     > Visit our Web site at http://www.itu.int/newsroom
>    >     > __________
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--
Joel M Snyder, 1404 East Lind Road, Tucson, AZ, 85719
Senior Partner, Opus One       Phone: +1 520 324 0494
jms () Opus1 COM                http://www.opus1.com/jms




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