Research and standards: Leading the evolution of telecom network architectures

Abstract

The emergence of new communication paradigms, such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, the mobile traffic explosion, and the expectation of ubiquitous connectivity, is driving what is perhaps the most significant transformation of the architecture of mobile and wireless network systems yet. Simply put, telecom network architectures need to evolve to support an exponentially more complex and diverse set of applications. Not surprisingly, this challenge has been attracting ever increasing attention from researchers in both academia and industry, including telecom standards experts. As enablers of global systems interoperability, standards are at the heart of success of the communications industry. Since standardization is inherently a social enterprise, it is the perfect environment for promoting technologies that underpin an increasingly social world. Moreover, telecommunications-oriented standards development organizations such as the IEEE, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), and others have a decades-long track record as drivers of real technological change across the industry.