To view the final report from the Ancona meeting please go to the GIIF web site at www.giif.com or alternatively to receive a copy please contact Stellal@westernconnect.com.

WORKING MEETING - BERLIN, NOVEMBER 2000

The board of directors of the GIIF met in Berlin, Germany on the 22-23 November 2000 to discuss the following issues:

· Integration of ISDN & ADSL
· Promotion of GIIF
· Summit 2001

Important items for GIIF members and non-members to be aware of, include: -

The integrated box
This topic is based on discussions in Ancona on the possibility for a more cost-effective and user-friendly ISDN and DSL solution, Christian Wolff of Infineon Technologies presented some views of the benefits for integrating ISDN and DSL into the same line card. Based on a discussion the group stated strong support for promoting a GIIF position paper on the subject. Christian Wolff agreed to prepare a position paper. One of the aims for the position paper is to get members to put pressure on the market for such integrated components.

The "extended" integrated box
The meeting expressed a need to challenge multiple boxes (NT1, SPLITTER, ADSL MODEM, TA'S, ROUTERS, etc) at customer premises. After some discussion it was agreed that for the time being it is up to the industry itself to work on solutions. The challenge will be presented at the next GIIF business meeting.

GIIF Press Officer
As the promotion of GIIF is fundamentally important to the success and growth of the organisation, the GIIF board of directors will appoint a dedicated press officer in the very near future. Members will be advised as soon as the position has been confirmed.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Summit 2001 - Shanghai, China. 08-10 May 2001
The next GIIF summit will be held in Shanghai, China on 08-10 May 2001. The GIIF having already carried out summits and business meetings in the United Kingdom, USA, Germany and Italy is delighted to now have an opportunity to visit China for the first time. The programme will cover the following: -

· Mass Market Solutions
· Internet Solutions
· Speech Solutions
· ISDN & DSL (DSL over ISDN)
· Multimedia
· Standards
· Talking Data Machines
· Next Generation Networks
· Unified Messaging
· Pricing

In addition to the above workshops will be held on the afternoon of 08 May 2001. The workshops are as follows:-

· ISDN Promotional Activities
· ISDN & DSL Positioning
· AO/DI
· CPE Diagnostics/Operations & Maintenance
· New Projects

It is very important for anyone wishing to participate at this summit to plan travel arrangements early, as the majority of visitors to China require visas.

Further information and registration for the summit can be found on the GIIF website at http://www.giif.com

ELECTIONS TO THE GIIF BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Elections to the GIIF board of directors took place in Ancona, Italy at the 4th GIIF business meeting. The following table shows the current organizations voted to sit on the board and the term they will serve for: -

Always On/Dynamic ISDN (AODI) was created by VIA (Vendors ISDN Association) to bring together the benefits of a leased circuit (permanent connection to the Internet) with an ISDN dial circuit (bandwidth on demand). This always-on connection can then be deployed as a stepping-stone to higher speed DSL always-on services, and also has the benefits of reaching distances not obtainable by DSL services and across infrastructures not viable for DSL.

Service providers around the world are interested in deploying AODI as a service to bridge the gap between lower speed dial up connections and higher speed always on connections. Trials are currently underway in Belgium, Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

These trials vary in their implementation. Norway, for example, is simply using the spare capacity on the existing packet network for the transport of AODI traffic. Most of the others are deploying new generation technology to transport the AODI traffic across broadband ATM networks. This latter approach has benefits to the operators since it does not require them to increase capacity on their existing packet mode bearer services and also avoids any regulatory issues associated with tariffs and service transport that the packet networks may bring. An additional benefit in going down the ATM route is that the AODI traffic can pass through the same broadband access servers used for DSL deployment, thus providing a homogeneous network infrastructure.

Service providers in Australia, China and Iceland are scheduled to commence trials within the next few weeks with carriers in Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Ireland, Malaysia and Switzerland all seriously considering an AODI service.

This sort of activity doesn’t come without massive support from the vendors. At the Ancona GIIF meeting Dr Wolfgang Peters (Alcatel), Olof Ekstron (Ericsson) and Sander Poppenk (Lucent) all stressed their companies’ ongoing commitment to AODI and are all heavily involved in supporting the above trials.

Rob Harrison, chairman of the AODI workgroup for GIIF said “It is really heartening to experience so many operators seeing the value in AODI services. From the early days of technology specification at VIA, to the trials and early deployments, we have always felt that AODI had a part to play in the migration to always-on DSL services. DSL is certainly the long-term future for telecommunications on the local loop, but AODI will serve a purpose in creating a medium term solution that circumvents the current technical issues being experienced with DSL around the world.

Notable for their absence in any of the trials are any US service providers. Maybe this is no surprise due to their experiences with ISDN over the last few years, although some are in the middle of deploying IDSL as an interim technology. However, notwithstanding the lack of any US networks, AODI is certainly proceeding apace in Europe and Asia and looks to be the successful always-on service that many thought it would be.

Virtual Access (www.virtualaccess.com) is a pioneer in providing both infrastructure switching equipment and CPE for AO/DI services, the company’s Always On Server is being deployed around the world for broadband AODI networks.

BT PROGRESS ISDN STAR WIRING SOLUTION

BT are bringing to a conclusion their findings on an alternative to the 'Traditional ISDN 'S BUS' customer wiring. Following an intensive test program, an active hub solution incorporating CAT5 cabling has been developed. BT are pursuing the recommendations from the test program resulting in the launch of a product in the early part of 2001.

This is in response to customer requests for a product that gives a greater flexibility towards cabling in the Small office and Home. There are two versions planned, one installed by the customer and the other by a Cabling engineer. Both can be easily converted to encompass higher bandwidth technologies such as ADSL. A customer trial will take place in December 2000.

BT's test results were submitted to ETSI to support a Star Wiring Standard's proposal being worked on in CENELEC.There has been little progress on this and BT is now actively pursuing this with ETSI. We are anxious to incorporate any further recommendations by ETSI which may enhance the description of a Customer product.

Watch for more news on this in later articles.

PROFESSIONAL MULTIMEDIA NETWORK SERVICES - NT MICRO

As an ISDN standard network termination, an NT device is normally provided in a wall-mounted enclosure with a connecting cable to be plugged into a line socket and can be fed from the 220 VAC mains.

Our alternative we can offer is... ...
the world's smallest ISDN-NT!

The NT micro in brief

# A new circuit concept using state-of-the-art components as well as

# consistent adaptation of its design to standardised installation systems have facilitated

# the integration of this network termination into a line socket.

# The NT micro is the flush-mounted version of an ISDN standard network termination and, logically,

# the NT micro also has been prepared for S-bus line buried installation.

# The NT micro is easy and simple to install by the use of plug-in spring terminals, but even so,

# the function of the NT micro corresponds to a conventional standard network termination in every respect.

# Patent pending for the NT micro.

Particular benefits of the NT micro

Due to the integration of this network termination into a line socket, it is not necessary to install an additional unit - the external NT - at the subscriber's. This, at last, removes out of sight a unit that is often found disturbing in living areas, just because of its mere cabling and space demand. So far, this has also resulted in postponement of the decision to change over to ISDN. It largely goes without saying that installation efforts and costs will reduce.

The opinions expressed in this Newsletter are those of the authors of the articles and not necessarily those of GIIF. GIIF accepts no responsibility for any incorrect information that may be included in these articles.

	The Global ISDN Industry Forum Newsletter
	Newsletter 4