Broadband Forum News - August 2024

The Headlines

CEO's note

We look forward to seeing you soon in sunny San Diego, California, for the Fall 2024 Member Meeting and to celebrate the Broadband Forum’s 30^th anniversary on 18^th-21st November!

Make sure you register for the Fall Meeting now to take part in the progression of open standards and open broadband with the industry’s leading contributors.

There is still time to submit your speaking requests for our Town Hall Innovation Series (THIS) at the event. Don’t miss the chance to share insights, expertise, or innovations that are shaping the evolving landscape of the Smart Home and IoT within the context of Multi-Service Broadband Networks by submitting your proposal now!

- Craig Thomas, CEO at Broadband Forum

Contribute to the future of broadband and work with the Broadband Forum!

Want to get your brand or latest initiatives in front of the world’s most influential service providers and key players in the global broadband industry? Learn more about how you can sponsor Broadband Forum’s upcoming Member Meetings here.

On September 24-26 in Atlanta, Georgia, The Broadband Forum will be holding two BASe panels at SCTE Tech Expo 24 on “From Residential to Multi-Service Fiber Access Networks” and “Building a Services-Platform Beyond Simple Connectivity.” You can learn more about the event from Kevin Noll, Systems & Network Architect at CableLabs in an interview here.
Broadband Forum USP/TR-369 Plugfest – Week of September 16^th - The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) will be hosting the User Services Platform (USP / TR-369) Plugfest during the week of September 16, 2024. The plugfest is open to vendors, implementers, and operators with development teams focused on solutions, such as USP controller(s), broadband CPE, CPE applications, and other connected devices, such as set-top boxes and smart home hubs. Learn more here.
PON Plugfest at CableLabs – Save the Date – October 28 ^th – November 1 ^st - In conjunction with the Broadband Forum, CableLabs is organizing a PON interoperability plugfest from October 28th to November 1st at CableLabs’ Colorado facility. Learn more here.

News and Updates

In the countdown to our Smart Home and IoT focussed Town Hall Innovation Series at the Fall Member Meeting in San Diego, Christele Bouchat, BBF Town Hall Innovation Series Co-Chair, reflected on our previous presentations on AI/ML at the Spring Member Meeting in Mainz here. Make sure you don’t miss your chance to hear from experts and speak on the latest developments in the Smart Home and IoT at Broadband Forum’s Fall Member Meeting. You can learn more and submit a proposal to speak at the meeting here.
The Broadband Forum participated in the Fiber Connect 2024 Proof of Concept Program last month, with demos of our Connected Home specifications, TR-247 and TR-369 (USP) on show. The PoC demonstrations highlighted the importance of ensuring that the equipment and devices used to connect the home can interoperate with the services and applications that are driving broadband beyond the connectivity point that fiber is delivering. You can read about the FBA PoC Showcase winners in ISE Magazine here.
With a “Summer of Sport” in full flow and streaming events like the Olympics competes with other applications in the home, Craig Thomas explored the importance of QoE performance measurements for tackling latency and more to ensure customers don’t suffer because of demands on the home network in this topical blog.
In a Wireless Watch Podcast, Connected Home Council Chair at Broadband Fourm Jason Walls discussed a range of topics, from the convergence of fixed wireless networks and the operator’s powerful monitoring and management tool that is becoming the home’s hub device. You can listen to the full podcast with ReThink Research’s Alex Davies here.
In May, the Broadband Forum published enhancements to 5G convergence standards. These Phase 18.1 specifications build on 3GPP’s Release 18 to extend the set of common capabilities. In an interview with Annie Turner, Editor at Mobile Europe, Craig explained how this approach brings operational, financial, commercial and strategic benefits to providers of fixed broadband infrastructure – and those who provide services on top. You can read the full article here.

Technology Spotlight

USP 1.4

USP helps broadband service providers deploy, implement, and manage all aspects of the smart home. The USP data model, architecture, and communications protocol enable devices from multiple vendors to connect to the Wi-Fi home gateway for the broadband service provider to manage.

The latest version of USP brings robust support for secured, dynamic, and interoperable applications running on application-enabled services gateways. This enhancement enables broadband and Wi-Fi Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) to be augmented with value-added applications, offering unprecedented flexibility and security for service providers and end-users. Read more about the latest version here.

Upcoming Events

Our latest certifications

BBF 369 USP Products (testing services provided by approved laboratory, University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory)

Nokia - Beacon 3.1

BFF 247 GPON ONU Products (testing services provided by approved laboratory, Lanpark)

Genexis Netherlands B.V. - GMC-TK01-XGS2110B and FiberBox-XGS2110
Arcadyan - Internet-Box 5 Pro and PRV36BE4447B-H1-LT
ZTE - F6600PV9.1 and ZXHN F6745Q

BBF 398 Carrier-Grade Wi-Fi Products (testing services provided by approved laboratories, University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory and Allion Labs). You can find out more about the latest issue of TR-398 here.

Calix - Calix U6T GS5229E
ZTE – NH8091

Welcome new BBF members

Mitsubishi Electric Corp and TraceSpan Communications!

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