NOVEMBER 2007

IN THIS ISSUE

WHAT’S NEW

IPSF NEWS RELEASES

IPsphere Forum Convenes,
Lines Up Field Trial

Fremont, California - 7 Nov 2007

The IPsphere Forum today announced several key outcomes from its end of the year plenary meeting in Dinard, France, highlighted by commitment of its Service Provider Council to a worldwide, joint field trial of the IPsphere framework in 2008.

To Read Full News Release Click Here

IPsphere Forum Welcomes NTT

Fremont, California - 16 Oct 2007

The IPsphere Forum today announced that leading Japanese telecommunications provider Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) joined the Forum.

To Read Full News Release Click Here

WORKING GROUP UPDATES

SERVICE PROVIDER COUNCIL

The SPC agreed to actively contribute to the first instantiation of the IPSF architecture by means of a federated field trial. The forthcoming interim London meeting will be used to refine the testing environment, as well as the 3-staged testing campaign that has been defined so far:

1.) Dynamically publish service elements to 3rd party Web 2.0 players
2.) Dynamically process the corresponding orders that may be placed by Web 2.0 players
3.) Dynamically provision pan-provider resources accordingly.

RAWG

RAWG has made significant progress in moving the SSRM specification towards final ballot, as all comments made by the members on the document were addressed during the Dinard meeting. Additionally, the GLITTER activity group has evolved into the HAWKINGS activity group. HAWKINGS is chartered with harmonizing the IPSF specification effort with other relevant standardization initiatives and will publish an Alignment document to be used outside the IPSF community to position IPSF work in the standardization landscape.

RIWG

RIWG is progressing a number of projects - data model validation and element templates based upon industry standards and work towards a joint service provider field trial of the IPsphere framework.

MARKETING COMMITTEE

The Marketing Committee recently completed the new IPsphere website and is busy finalizing media plans for the rest of 2007. Look for more press releases from IPSF in the coming weeks…

RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION COMMITTEE

The IPSF Board of Directors formally named and chartered the Recruiting and Retention Committee (RRC). This new committee is responsible for overseeing membership recruitment and retention activities and to initiating programs to ensure member satisfaction and enable outreach to potential members. The RRC will be chaired by Todd Shimizu of Juniper Networks with regional vice chairs Kevin Dillon of TrueBaseline (APAC), Mat Ford of BT (EMEA), and Dave Olisar of Tellabs (Americas).

UPCOMING EVENTS

IPSF Q1 2008
MEMBER MEETING

Dates:  15-17 January 2008
Location:  Shenzhen, China
Host:  Huawei
Accommodation:
Ming Wah Int'l Convention Centre
No. 8 GuiShan Road
SheKou, Shenzhen 518000, P.R. China
Phone: +86 755 26689968

More Information

INTERIM MEETINGS

Q4 07 Interim Meeting
Dates:  27-30 November 2007
Location:  London, UK
Host:  BT

More Information

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The IPsphere Forum would like to thank France Telecom for its generous support of the Q3 07 Member Meeting held in Dinard, France. Additionally, the Forum would like to thank Cisco Systems for hosting a networking event during the meeting. Thank you for your support of the IPsphere Forum.

WHAT'S NEW | UPCOMING EVENTS | ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | IPSF TOP 10
CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE |Q3 07 MEMBER MEETING | MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Dear IPSF Members and Friends,

Q3 07 was another exciting and productive quarter for the IPsphere Forum. The Forum unveiled its new and improved website (www.ipsphereforum.org) and saw two important developments: the addition of NTT as a full member and our Service Provider Council’s (SPC) commitment to a field trial in 2008 -- the industry’s first ever global trial of openly constructed, premium content delivery across multiple operator networks.

The quarter was capped by our Q3 07 plenary meeting in Dinard, France (graciously hosted by France Telecom). Here, IPSF made progress on several key technical initiatives. The Reference Architecture Working Group (RAWG) made significant headway on the SSRM document, which is expected to go to final ballot by the end of the year. The clear highlight of the meeting, however, was the Service Provider Council’s commitment to a joint field trial of IPSF capabilities; stay tuned for more detail on this in the coming weeks and months. Also in Dinard, the Board of Directors formally chartered the Recruitment and Retention Committee (RRC) which will focus on retaining our valued members and attracting new ones to IPSF.

The Forum will convene next in London, UK from 27-30 November 2007 for an interim technical meeting focused on advancing the next specification. All full member companies are encouraged to attend our plenary meetings and interim workshops. In addition, we welcome companies contemplating IPsphere Forum membership to attend our meetings as observers.

We hope you find the newsletter entertaining and informative. If you have any comments or questions, please contact info@ipsphereforum.org. 

Regards,
Kevin Dillon
Chairman, IPsphere Forum

Top 10 Reasons to Participate in IPSF

#1. Your opinion counts.
Help influence the definition of a world where creators and users of online experiences are unencumbered by the difficulties they face with today’s network infrastructures.

#2. Invest in the future.
Network with top technologists from your customers, partners and competitors in a cooperative environment, enabling you to discuss ways of developing an open multi-stakeholder web-services framework for the rapid creation of new IP-based services.

#3. Be a winner.
Sharing your brilliant ideas at one or more of IPSF’s sub-committee meetings brings you one step closer to receiving IPSF’s most coveted award – the IPSF Circle of Excellence Award!  ….and yes you also receive an iPod.

#4. The perspectives you gain.
IPSF is a place where we tackle some of the industry’s hardest problems.  But it’s also a place where we get to know other very smart (and often very nice!) people in our field – people with innovative and interesting views on the Business of IP (and just about any other topic).

#5. You are a change agent.
Really.  IPSF is changing the way the industry views and addresses the future of IP services.  Being a member of IPSF makes you an agent of change too.  We’ve got your badge ready for you…

#6. Be a leader.
Like any organization, IPSF needs leaders.  Lots of them.  With a Board of Directors, three working groups, four committees and project activity groups (whew!), IPSF needs people who “get it” and want to be part of defining the Business of IP.  IPSF is a place where your energy, experience and expertise can shine – and make a difference.

#7. Go Green.
You’ve probably noticed we like the color green.  It’s in our logo.  It’s all over our website.  Why?  Well, at IPSF we like to think of ourselves as being just a little bit different than other standards organizations.  You have to be when you’re taking on a challenge like multi-stakeholder IP services.  If you’ve got a little green in you, we’d like to meet you.

#8. Think global.
At IPSF, we’ve covered the globe in driving the Business of IP.  We’ve brought meetings to Australia, England, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, and the United States in order to gather the industry’s best and brightest.  Next year we’ll bring the IPSF traveling show to China, Ireland, and Canada too.  When we say multi-stakeholder services, we mean global multi-stakeholder services.  Join IPSF and bring your regional expertise.  Your passport will thank you.

#9. Be revolutionary.
Delivery of high-value services across federated networks is the next big industry revolution waiting to happen. IPsphere Forum is where this revolution is being made real.

#10. Network with the industry's best.
The IPsphere Forum offers opportunities to meet and share your vision for the future networking landscape with like-minded industry experts from large global carriers, software and hardware vendors.

CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE

The State of the Industry: 2007

By Tom Nolle, CIMI Corporation

Part 2:  Taking the Four Steps

It’s nice to have some symmetry or consistency, especially in an industry as complicated as ours. So, to address our four truths CIMI Corp. proposes four steps.

The "truth of the consumer" demands the "path of cooperative investment". The rate in which emerging markets (such as consumer content or mobile services) are growing coupled with the ever-increasing technological elements needed to service those markets demands some level of cooperative investment from all industry participants. Cooperative investment along the technical spectrum will enable industry participants to offer better, more innovative services with greater efficiency than would occur if each player built every single technology element for a particular market.

Click Here to Download Part 2 in its Entirety

Q3 07 MEMBER MEETING

The IPsphere Forum met in Dinard, France 25-27 September 2007 for its Q3 2007 Member Meeting. More than 40 delegates attended, representing 22 of the industry’s leading companies. Significant progress was made at the meeting towards implementation of the IPSF framework. The Service Provider Council reiterated their support for the IPsphere Forum vision by agreeing to a joint field trial in the coming months. Members of the RAWG presented a number of contributions to drive the IPSF mission forward and discussed the SSRM document at length. Members of the working group hope to have the SSRM document ready for final ballot in Q4 07. The RIWG continued work on the Pre-Commercial Testbed (PCT). The Board of Directors recognized the importance of continued recruitment for the Forum by formally chartering the Recruitment and Retention Committee.

The next IPsphere Forum meeting will be held 15-17 January 2008 in Shenzhen, China.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

The IPsphere Forum is pleased to announce the Q3 07 recipient of the Circle of Excellence Award - presented to individual members who have made a significant contribution to the Forum.

At IPSF's Q3 07 meeting held in Dinard, France, the Forum honored Peter Busschbach of Alcatel-Lucent for his leadership in driving the Session Services and Resources Management (SSRM) Framework forward. Additionally Peter was recognized by his peers in the IPsphere Forum for his help in hosting a number of interim meetings at Alcatel-Lucent’s Whippany offices. Like previous recipients before him, Peter received an “official” IPsphere Forum iPod shuffle in IPsphere green and a letter of recognition from the IPSF Chairman to his manager describing the reason for his selection as this quarter’s winner.

The IPsphere Forum plans to recognize outstanding contributions by individual members at each of its member meetings.  Members are encouraged to nominate individuals who they believe have made significant contributions to the IPsphere Forum. For more information on the program, please contact Shonna Anderson, IPSF Project Manager, at sanderson@ipsphereforum.org.