Page 31 - Annual-Report-201704

Interoperability

Interconnecting in a Multi-polar World

Interoperability is driven by market demand. It is
crucial in a multi-vendor, multi-network and multi-
service environment and is one of the reasons why we
develop standards. It gives users much greater choice of
products, and allows manufacturers to benefit from the
economies of scale of a wider market. Interoperability
is therefore a crucial factor in the success of modern
technologies – especially in the introduction of new
technologies.

An Innovative Approach to Technical includes supporting PoC programmes and organising
Quality and Interoperability Plugtests™ interoperability events, the development of
Many years of experience has taught us that integrating test specifications and the application of ‘best practice’
specification approaches.
validation and testing activities into the standards
development process can contribute significantly to the In 2016 we continued to apply Open Source-like software
production of interoperable standards and, ultimately, development approaches to the production of test
to the release of interoperable products based on those specifications and platforms, encouraging feedback from a
standards. Mutual feedback between the standardisation broad base of users.
and the validation and testing processes helps to maximise
the quality of both the implementations and the standards.
With correct timing, especially in the early stages, validation
and testing can also reduce the overall development time of Implementation-Driven Standardisation
a standard, leading to the earlier placement of interoperable We are working with Open Source communities to
products on the market. encourage dialogue and the sharing of practices, with the
goal of ensuring that the mutual benefits of well-respected
Our technical committees apply best working practices to procedures and dynamic innovation can be combined in
ensure that our standards are well-specified and testable tomorrow’s technologies.
and thus provide a solid basis for the implementation
of robust and interoperable products. We also apply In 2016, we established a new project to develop an Open
comprehensive validation through Proofs of Concept (PoCs) Source Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) Management
and interoperability events and we develop conformance test and Orchestration (MANO) software stack. In its first year
specifications to accompany a significant proportion of our of operation, the ETSI Open Source MANO (OSM) project
standards. provided a regularly updated reference implementation
of NFV MANO and feedback to the standards work of our
Our Centre for Testing and Interoperability (CTI) is a Industry Specification Group (ISG) on NFV.
centre of excellence, providing hands-on expertise. This

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