An improved user experience, including reduced latency, and a wider choice of in-home applications will be delivered to broadband consumers as the Broadband Forum launches three new projects.
The three new open broadband projects will provide open source software blueprints for application providers and Broadband Service Providers (BSPs) to follow. These will deliver a foundation for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for network automation, additional tools for network latency and performance measurements, and on-demand connectivity for different applications.
“These new projects will play a key role in improving network performance measurement and monitoring and the end-user experience,” said Broadband Forum Technical Chair Lincoln Lavoie. “Open source software is a crucial component in providing the blueprint for BSPs to follow and we invite interested companies to get involved.”
The new Open Broadband-CloudCO-Application Software Development Kit (OB-CAS), Open Broadband – Simple Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (OB-STAMP), and Open Broadband – Subscriber Session Steering (OB-STEER) projects will bring together software developers and standards experts from the forum.
The projects will deliver open source reference implementations, which are examples of how Broadband Forum specifications can be implemented. They act as a starting point for application developers to base their designs on. In turn, those applications are available on platforms for BSPs to select and offer to their customers, overall, shortening the path between the development of the specification to the first deployment of the technologies into the network.
“The development of open source software and open broadband standards are invaluable to the industry, laying the foundations for faster innovation through global collaboration,” said Broadband Forum CEO Craig Thomas. “The Broadband Forum places the end-user experience at the forefront of all of our projects and is playing a crucial role in overcoming network issues.”
OB-CAS aims to simplify network monitoring and maintenance for BSPs, while also offering a wider selection of applications from various software vendors. Alongside this, network operations will be simplified and automated through existing Broadband Forum cloud standards that use AI and ML to improve the end-user experience.
OB-STAMP will build an easy-to-deploy component that simplifies network performance measurement between customer premises equipment and IP Edge. The project will allow BSPs to proactively monitor their subscribers’ home networks to measure latency and ultimately, avoid network failures. Four vendors have already signed up to join the efforts to reduce the cost and time associated with deploying infrastructure for measuring network latency.
Building on Broadband Forum’s upcoming technical report WT-474, OB-STEER will create a reference implementation of the Subscriber Session Steering architecture to deliver flexible, on-demand connectivity and simplify network management. Interoperability of Subscriber Session Steering is of high importance as it will be implemented in the access network equipment and edge equipment from various vendors.
