Broadband Forum Charts Progress in 2010 -- Resurgence in Activity as Industry Looks to Hybrid Fiber/Copper

At its quarterly meeting last week in San Francisco, The Broadband Forum approved a record eleven new technical reports, released a new white paper on Unified MPLS, and appointed a new Technical Chairman. The meeting also drew the highest attendance of members and guests in recent years. The Forum noted an unprecedented level of contributions for technical reports, white papers and tutorials -- all indications of a resurgence in activity as the industry looks to next gen broadband access solutions.


The newly approved specifications ranged from IPv6 to TR-069 Software Module Management to DSL Quality Management.


New work items for the Forum include hybrid fiber-copper solutions for 4th Generation Broadband (4GBB).


The Forum has appointed Christophe Alter of France Telecom Orange to serve as its Technical Chairman, replacing Gavin Young of C&W, who has held the position since 1998. Christophe is responsible for France Telecom Orange Group' strategy regarding broadband networks standards. Since he first joined the Broadband Forum in December 2004, Christophe Alter has been a main contributor in the End to End Architecture Working Group and in the Fiber Access Network Working Group and has served as a member of the Board of Directors since 2008.


Among its accomplishments for 2010, the Broadband Forum noted its collaboration with the Full Service Access Network (FSAN) to expedite GPON deployments, enhance multi-vendor interoperability and enable better broadband network fiber integration globally. A joint initiative with the HomeGrid Forum was also announced, with the aim of delivering a global compliance and interoperability testing program for products using G.hn technology -- ITU-T's unified wired home networking standard. And another strategic relationship forged was with 3GPP focused on broadband convergence specifications and multi-service architecture developments.


"I am delighted to be taking over as Technical Chair at such a busy and positive time for the Broadband Forum," said Christophe Alter. "As a member I have watched the Forum grow in stature and authority but also increase enormously the number of technical reports, the range of topics in our scope and the intensity of our relationships with other organizations. It will be part of my role to manage this growth and to co-ordinate the groups so that they are able to deliver a comprehensive body of standards from over 1500 contributions we receive from members each year."http://www.broadband-forum.org