2023 Q1 Town Hall Innovation Series (THIS)

Q1 Town Hall Innovation Series (THIS) 

We have a packed agenda at the Q1 meeting with two Town Hall Innovation Series (THIS) sessions:

Please find session details below.  We hope you can join us for these informative, inspiring sessions during the Q1 2023 Addison, Texas Meeting.

09:00 Local Time

Introduction from “THIS” Host: Mauro Tilocca (TIM), Broadband Forum: Board Member, Service Provider Action Council Chair and Broadband Innovation Group (BIG) Co-Leader

“CDNs and Video Distribution for Broadcast TV and Wholesale Services over Broadband Access Network“ — Fabrizio Guidotti, Outsys

L2 Broadband Access Network Wholesale is becoming more and more a common commodity.  Wholesale-Only Providers are now present in most countries, and most BSPs, due also to Regulators’ pressure, are now either/both L2 Wholesale Sellers and Buyers.  While L2 Wholesaling has several economic and infrastructural advantages, in many cases, it voids the benefits of Edge Networking.  This is caused by the fact that all the network traffic To-and-Fro the Subscriber and the Internet is tunneled in the L2 Wholesale Seller Network Infrastructure from its Access Network to the Exchange Point with the L2 Wholesale Buyer. Then such traffic is delivered to the L2 Wholesale Buyer’s BNG, and only then it’s sent to the Internet.  These passages negatively impact primarily the services that need low latency or that use a lot of bandwidth for cached data, such as video content.

The best solution for this kind of network traffic would be to reach the CDNs, Caching and Gaming Servers, etc., located within the L2 Wholesale Seller Network.  A feasible solution for this issue would provide a better customer experience for the Subscribers and simplify the Exchange Point infrastructure for both the L2 Wholesale Buyer and Seller while lowering the operation costs.  Some L2 Wholesale Operators and Network Equipment Vendors have been trying to find a solution to this issue for a while, but it will be a custom, proprietary, and closed one.

Since that’s an issue that affects most of the BSPs, the Broadband-Forum is the right place to work out the standards, interfaces, methods, and best practices needed.

Using the BBC’s statement about the dismissal of their broadcast infrastructure as an incipit for the topics, we now see that it unintentionally created a great misunderstanding. This trend is not just limited to the UK, its operators, and its regulator. In many countries, several other terrestrial and satellite TV operators are planning to dismiss their current infrastructures to move their services to fixed and mobile networks. Furthermore, the issue is already present today, where the OTTs deliver more and more live events using fixed and mobile networks only. Addressing the topic, starting with the UK, regulators, and discussing events that will occur several years from now would significantly limit the discussion’s scope and urgency.

“How the United States is Closing its Broadband Digital Divide”

Over the past few years, the US Congress has put the broadband infrastructure issue front and center. As a result, broadband services will have over $100 billion of subsidies at their fingertips. During this session, chief broadband leaders across the country will discuss the challenges they must address as they close their digital divide.

Moderated by: Greg Bathrick with presentations from Kevin Sievert, Office of the CTO, Program Director Broadband Deployment at State of North Dakota and Kevin Noll, Principal Access Architect in the Office of the CTO at Vecima

Check out the Detailed Agenda to see what will happen between the morning and evening sessions.