2019.08.16 – Open Broadband News

Home smart home! Broadband Forum’s USP standard gathers momentum

As consumers load up their home networks with eclectic combinations of multiple vendors’ devices that run on various operating systems, Wi-Fi remains the common theme running between each piece of gear.

When problems arise with these devices – regardless of the bandwidth load or conflicts between disparate products – subscribers often turn to their home-network provider for support. But without insight into what’s running on the network, operators rely on expensive truck rolls for customer service. Additionally, operators are looking for new opportunities – for example smart home services – but without insight into the network, this is expensive and comes with a risk to brand reputation.

When Broadband Forum released Open Broadband – User Services Platform (USP) Agent (OB-USP Agent) in May 2019, the organization designed the code to give vendors and operators a future-proof, open and interoperable basis they then can use to create and accelerate connected-home deployments. OB-USP-Agent is the latest development to Broadband Forum’s User Services Platform (USP) aka TR-369, the evolution of its popular TR-069 standard. Broadband Forum’s open source OB-USP-Agent accelerates the ability to remotely monitor, analyze, manage and control virtually any broadband-enabled home network device.

“We started with a set of building blocks for modeling IoT devices,” said John Blackford, co-director of the Broadband User Services (BUS) work area at Broadband Forum, OB-USP-Agent project leader and product management director at CommScope. “Now, we’re at the point of modeling the basic concepts, like sensors and controls. For example, on a ceiling fan, you’d have a fan ‘control’ that allows the user to set the speed to high, medium or low. We can use specific combinations of these controls and sensors to model most existing IoT devices.”

Reviewing the 5G network: it’s the best Verizon yet!

Self-driving cars. Robotic surgeries. Toothbrushes that detect when you’re sick.

This is the future 5G technology promises in less than a decade’s time; internet connections so fast they’ll support an entirely new way of life.

But for now, CNN Business is in downtown Chicago with a Samsung Galaxy 5G smartphone. In this article read one of the first reviews of the newly launched Verizon 5G network, which hit over 1 gigabit per second in speed tests.

Roll-up, roll-out! FCC approves $121 million funding for rural communities

The FCC has approved $121 million in funding to boost the rollout of rural broadband connectivity. In theory, this funding should bring serviceable internet speeds to roughly 36,579 homes and business across 16 US states.

According to the FCC, this is the “fourth wave” of funding that has been authorized on the back of the Connect America Fund Phase auction. It has already authorized over $924 million in funding for broadband connectivity.

In total, the organization plans to approve $1.488 billion, which could connect 700,000 unserved rural homes and small businesses.

UNH-IOL gets Wi-Five from Broadband Forum after test automation tool success

The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL), an independent provider of broad-based testing and standards conformance solutions for the networking industry, has released Test Sentinel 2.0, a test automation tool that supports the Broadband Forum’s G-fast Certification, DSL testing, and now Wi-Fi testing.

This latest release, expands the capabilities of Test Sentinel’s custom testing, allowing users to create and run their own test scripts, while utilizing all of Test Sentinel’s existing features, including the results database, equipment normalization, device control, and robust debugging.

The 2.0 release also marks the first inclusion of support for Wi-Fi testing, such as the Broadband Forum’s TR-398 Wi-Fi In-Premises Performance Test Plan. Test Sentinel 2.0 includes full support for octoScope’s Wireless Testbeds, controlling all the necessary test equipment required for automatic testing of an access point device. The UNH-IOL expects Wi-Fi testing support to continue to grow and expand with additional tests scripts to be included in future releases.

The Great British Rollout – England’s green and pleasant land gets set to get connected

Macquarie Capital is investing £10 million in rural broadband company Voneus, with the potential to invest up to £30 million in the future. Proceeds will be used to re-finance debt and support the roll out of further high-speed broadband to communities in rural parts of the UK.

Voneus will focus on the 900,000 homes across the UK countryside that don’t have access to Superfast broadband services. The company has, since its inception, installed superfast broadband in around 4,000 homes and businesses in 25 rural communities with a footprint that covers Lancashire and Yorkshire as well as the Cotswolds and Devon.

A Series of Fortunate Events – by Broadband Forum

Taking place August 30 in Mumbai, the 5G India Leadership Summit 2019 will soon be upon us, where Broadband Forum will discuss the acceleration of  networks and cloud evolution through development of an open framework called Open Broadband. Broadband Forum APAC Ambassador Nikhil B. Shah will speak on different initiatives to help make 5G a reality in India by 2020.

The Q3 2019 Broadband Forum meeting, sponsored by F-Secure, is also fast approaching – taking place September 2-5 in Milan, Italy. This is a meeting you won’t want to miss with activities ramping up across all work areas, and two special “Birds of a Feather” (BOF) session focused on some of the hottest topics in broadband today – Security and 5G. In addition, solutions innovator Outsys will be providing a proof of concept demonstration of the Broadband QED solution! Visit the Information Page for more details and to register today! Additionally, we are offering a limited number of guest passes to prospective members. Please contact info@broadband-forum.org for details.

Broadband World Forum 2019 will be a key event for Broadband Forum. We will host our Interop Pavilion at the event which will take place at the Amsterdam RAI from 15-17 October. Broadband World Forum annually welcomes in excess of 4,000 attendees from around the world and is the perfect opportunity to connect with the entire fixed network ecosystem with a large floorspace and three days of curated content.

As part of the Interop Pavilion, Broadband Forum will be showcasing two demonstrations of Connected Home and Open Broadband – Broadband Access Abstraction (OB-BAA). The Connected Home demonstrations are rapidly coming together, focused on USP and Broadband QED. If you would like to participate, and gain the marketing value of being a thought leader in this space, please reach out to BUS Work Area leader John Blackford at john.blackford@commscope.com. The SDN/NFV Work Area is also looking for vendor and operator participation in developing and executing the CloudCO Demo. This follows the success of the OB-BAA demo last year which gained very high industry visibility. This year, Broadband Forum will take a major leap forward by leveraging Application Note 446 (APPN-446) which has been enhanced for multi-vendor capabilities that will be provided by the OB-BAA reference implementation. More information can be found on the Wiki here.

Ahead of the event, Broadband Forum’s Chief Marketing Officer Geoff Burke will take part in a Broadband World Forum webinar, titled Here Today, PON Tomorrow. This webinar will ponder on the drivers for 10GPON and beyond, exploring what the use case is for consumer broadband, whether consumer data usage is increasing enough to justify operator investment in 10GPON and if operators need to invest to improve Wi-Fi rates and coverage or if GPON can still deliver.

Broadband Forum is a forum partner of SDN NFV World Congress 2019, taking place at World Forum, The Hague, Netherlands from 14-17 October. Broadband Forum will discuss key projects at the Multi-player Association Workshop, where there will also be extended informal Q&A sessions to allow the audience to engage with project leaders to better understand how initiatives and standards can help their specific business. Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh will also speak as part of the conference, exploring how operators can achieve seamless co-existence and cost-effective migration when implementing automated access networks.

Finally, Broadband Forum has confirmed the dates of two more of its highly popular BASe events. Two concurrent workshops on the Connected Home and 5G will kick-off Broadband World Forum 2019 on the morning of October 15. If you are planning to attend BBWF 2019, mark your calendars now and go here to see more detail on the Day 1 agenda! Additionally, Broadband Forum will host its annual BASe North America event prior to the stat of ConneXions 2019 in Las Vegas on October 26. Don’t miss this opportunity to catch up on the latest technology updates and best practices across 5G, Connected Home, Security, and Next Generation Access. Keep an eye out for more details soon at BASe home on the Broadband Forum website.