Industries converge with the arrival of the Smart Home and rapid progression of device management solution TR-069

This week’s quarterly Broadband Forum meeting in Dublin, sponsored by Axiros, highlighted how industries are starting to converge on the Smart Home and the Internet of Things (IoT). The Forum welcomed Lyse Smart to deliver the keynote presentation. Jan Holm, CEO of the Norwegian energy, fiber and triple-play provider, emphasized that localizing Smart Home energy and broadband via device automation and management solutions can be a win-win situation for both providers and end-users, with services such as lighting, heating, healthcare and security.

Mr Holm said: “Lyse Smart is the aspiration of Lyse Energyʼs strategy on Smart Home automation and welfare technology. In 2009 we decided to develop and be able to install open smart gateways into Norwegian homes following the Government’s plans to install automatic meters – in one operation. We believe the customer should own and control their own personal data and through the simultaneous rollout of the gateway, we have developed, and built, an infrastructure that enables the end user to securely manage their own home services at any level.”

The Forum’s TR-069 device management solution is a key component of Lyse’s vision and its capabilities are rapidly developing to encompass the Smart Home of the future, including the M2M (Machine-to-Machine) environment and virtualized functions in the network. Now in its tenth year, TR-069 manages a projected 300 million devices worldwide, and has established itself as the premier network management protocol for both home and business broadband deployments.

“Having a utility company present at our meeting was significant as it affirms that it’s no longer just about the broadband industry, but instead about many industries coming together to propel the user-experience,” said Kevin Foster, Chairman of the Broadband Forum.

“Having a utility company present at our meeting was significant as it affirms that it’s no longer just about the broadband industry, but instead about many industries coming together to create new possibilities through broadband that will improve customers’ lives,” said Kevin Foster, Chairman of the Broadband Forum.
The meeting gave the Forum the opportunity to induct Timothy Carey from Alcatel-Lucent, into the Circle of Excellence, which recognizes individuals who have changed the face of broadband and the Broadband Forum. Timothy has been integral in moving TR-069 forward, enhancing the CWMP data models with new interfaces, while providing valuable insight and updates on the work of other organizations such as oneM2M, ZigBee Alliance and more.

“Timothy has stood out as a thought leader for the Broadband Forum, in both the BroadbandHome Working Group, and others, with his thorough understanding of the complex issues around M2M and virtualization,” commented Foster.

The Forum also announced the publication of several key specifications:
• TR-178 Multi-service broadband network architecture and nodal requirements
• TR-224 Technical specifications for MPLS in carrier Ethernet networks
• TR-293 Energy efficient mobile backhaul
• TR-300 Policy convergence for next generation fixed and 3GPP wireless networks

The Broadband Forum is currently working on a framework for measuring one or more network segments in a manner that enables the comparison of measurement results. The segments may be contained in a single or multi network provider domain or span multiple network provider domains. The results are generated under substantially the same environment allowing consistent analysis of the end to end performance.

During the meeting a dedicated workshop, held jointly with the IETF – LMAP (Internet Engineering Task Force – Large scale Measurement of Access network Performance), explored broadband access service attributes and performance with the objective of providing a common language that can be used in defining measurements and measurement results.

“Service Providers currently operate a data collection infrastructure for their own purposes such as obtaining network performance data or supporting customers however there is currently no agreed, widely used test methodology or terminology. Quantifying the actual performance of broadband by defining a standard set of broadband access performance attributes is important to the industry and its customers,” said Robin Mersh, CEO of the Broadband Forum.