ICT Standards Research Articles

“To Antipolis, my sisters!”: ETSI as a forum of contestation, collaboration and orchestration

Over the years, ETSI, the prime European standard-setter for ICT standards, has experienced significant critique about its legitimacy, including more recently by the European Commission in the 2022 Standardization Strategy, which focused on the alleged deficiencies of its global participation model. Despite potential missteps in certain instances, ETSI has overall addressed such critique with remarkable success. In this article, we argue that this occurred thanks to various strategies that ETSI used to sustain its organizational resilience over the years. In regard to its interaction with its de facto controller, the European Commission, we argue that ETSI had recourse to three key resilience strategies: one where ETSI took a hard stance resisting to the Commission's desires (contestation), one where ETSI intentionally succumbed to the Commission's desires or preferences (orchestration), and one where ETSI opted for a reconciliatory approach to achieve commonly set objectives serving the mutual interest (collaboration). Interestingly, such strategies were not only resilience-enhancing, but also legitimacy-conducive. This article contributes to two different strings of academic literature relating to organizational resilience, on the one hand, and institutional legitimacy, on the other, by combining them in a manner that, to the best of our knowledge, had not been done before in the relevant literature. In the discussion section, we draw observations that are pertinent to discussions and developments since the 2022 European Union’s Standardization Strategy.

Standards made in Europe for global use

This commentary reflects on the contributions by Egan, Delimatsis and Verghese that provide historical accounts of ETSI’s origin and its dynamic evolution and attempt to explain its resilience. In this commentary, we place focus on ETSI’s unique attributes and their dynamic evolution to arrive at a better understanding of its resilience during critical moments and over time. We identify three such key attributes, namely ETSI’s institutional set-up and openness, its standard-setting activities and flexibility and the ETSI IPR policy. The article illuminates their importance, also in ETSI’s interactions with the European Commission and how these traits originated, were activated and evolved during critical moments. Taken together, these contributions suggest that the governance reforms proposed by the EU risk undermining the attractiveness of open European ICT standardization, a key ingredient of ETSI’s very success in ICT matters.

Role of Standard Setting Organizations in the Indian Ict Sector: an Intellectual Property Law Analysis

Introduction: Standard-setting organizations (SSOs) are critical policy-making bodies that have a decisive bearing on technical sectors that are not just global, but also in Indian society. They form rules that become the reference point for stepping up the development and deployment of the tech. This study is designed to open the curtains and delve into SSOs' standard-setting process in the Indian ICT sector and assess the challenges that emerge. Objectives: The worldwide efficient methods employed by the global SSOs and contrast them with the Indian ones to spot correlations. Moreover, Indian SSOs' IPRs hidden under Indian patent laws will be also looked at. In the end, apart from the recommendations for upgrading and aligning the policies regarding the standardization of ICT equipment in India, we will also provide some suggestions. Theoretical Framework: The sequel of this process will be the exploration of IP laws such as patents in India focused solely on patent licensing - the standardization practice carried out by patentees. Results and Discussion: Emphasize the standard-setting actions of Indian SSOs by highlighting the problems encountered. A comparative analysis of substantive cooperation between inter-planetary and Indian anti-space security organizations will be carried out. Lectures covering how Indian SSOs match the Indian Patent Act and Rules will accordingly be given. The implications of the high effect of ICT standardization in India will be suggested. Considerable facts will be culled from doctrinal law, and each of the methods used in the licensing of education institutions will be examined. Research Implications: Improving standard-setting processes by key Indian SSOs such as BIS(Bureau of Indian Standards), ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and ISIF (Indian Standards and Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities) Moreover, the Indian IP legal system and licensing structure will be proposed to ensure integration barriers are addressed and the standardization of the ICT is improved.

Navigating transatlantic power dynamics in ICT standardization – The case of ETSI

Standards are the foundation of global trade facilitating the compatibility and interoperability of goods and services through institutional coordination to reduce transaction costs, shape technological choices, and market access. Such private transnational rulemaking has faced increased competition in key technological sectors. In Europe, ETSI has been critical for the European telecommunications market in the aftermath of liberalization of national monopolies as Europe sought to enhance market power to attract European and non–European firms to develop key technological standards. With the standardization strategy in 2022, the European Union has requested the revision of internal governance and operating norms of ETSI to strengthen European economic interests and social values. This has generated concern in the United States over the increase in government–based membership at the expense of a more open model. As international leadership in standards continues to be challenged by China, the US and EU have highlighted the importance of values–based standards. This has generated efforts to promote cooperation with strategic partners. The reform of ETSI could be viewed as a defensive strategy at odds with its globally oriented model of standards development and may undermine its legitimacy as a leading open and inclusive standards body in the field.

Open Source Software reference implementations for standards issued by different standards setting organisations: availability, perceptions and practices

Software reference implementations of ICT standards have an important role for verifying that a standard is implementable, supporting interoperability testing among other implementations, and providing feedback to the standard development process. Providing reference implementations and widely used implementations of a standard as Open Source Software promotes wide deployment in software systems, interoperability, longevity of systems and associated digital assets, and avoidance of different lock-in effects. In this paper results are reported on the availability of, and perceptions and practices concerning, reference implementations and widely deployed implementations provided as Open Source Software for standards issued by different standards setting organisations. Specifically, findings draw from observations and analyses related to software implementations for identified standards and policy statements, issued by ETSI, IEC, IEEE, IETF, ISO, ITU-T, OASIS, and W3C.

EURAS Conference 2023: introduction to the special issue

This special issue presents peer-reviewed papers from the 2023 EURAS/SIIT conference on 'Responsible Standardisation for Smart Systems'. The event, held in Aachen, Germany, featured 18 papers across seven sessions, along with panels, keynotes, and workshops. The special issue includes a report of the conference and three peer-reviewed papers. Topics covered are the historical functions of standards, the relationship between certificates for minimum quality and patent applications at the country level, and the importance of reference implementations in ICT standards for open source software, among others. These papers offer insights into various aspects of standardisation, such as its history, its impact on innovation, and the importance of a flexible standardisation process.

Assessing BizDevOps maturity using international standards: Case studies and lessons learned

AbstractDevOps has emerged as a practical approach to the interaction between development and operations. This approach has been extended to the interaction with business functions, generating the term BizDevOps. Although many proposals and tools support BizDevOps from a technical viewpoint, there has been no significant improvement in management aspects, such as evaluating the practices and processes involved in the area. This paper presents two case studies on the assessment of BizDevOps practices using MMBDO (Maturity Model for BizDevOps), a maturity model for BizDevOps based on international ICT standards. The case studies were conducted in two organizations with different profiles: a large multinational ICT company with a unit specialized in providing DevOps to the rest of the company and a small software development company that implements DevOps practices as part of its development system. The evidence we obtained in the case studies supports the adequacy of MMBDO for assessing the maturity of BizDevOps in real companies. Also, the combination of the two case studies supports the adequacy of the model for being used in companies with different sizes and levels of maturity. MMBDO is an adequate proposal for assessing the maturity of BizDevOps in software organizations and a suitable tool for process improvement.

ICT Standards in Smart Grid Projects – Between a Standard’s Intended and Factual Role in Complex Technological Developments

Abstract Digital technologies such as smart grids are associated with new challenges for organizations as both technological and social heterogeneity increase. ICT standards play a crucial role in coping with this growing heterogeneity. However, we have little insight into precisely how ICT standards unfold in innovation projects. Compared to ‘ordinary’ standards, it would be expected that they are more pervasive and binding. However, ICT standards also need to be adopted into formal, corporate rules and be further interpreted and drawn upon in informal routines. This actual implementation, the dealing with inconsistencies and contradictions and if the ICT standard is being conceived as binding, is revealed in day-to-day practices. Conceptually, we differentiate between the formal and informal adoption of the standard and for both cases consider the dimensions decision programs, communication channels and personnel. We empirically investigate the adoption of one ICT standard, the Use Case Methodology (UCM), in a qualitative case study of a smart grid project. Our findings illustrate how the formal implementation of the UCM succeeds while the informal reliance upon this standard is far less pronounced. In this way, ICT standards differ less from ‘ordinary’ standards than might have been expected.

Luring European SMEs into ICT Standardization–Problems, Issues, and a Potential Way Forward

Luring European SMEs into ICT Standardization–Problems, Issues, and a Potential Way Forward

Importance of Digitalization and Standardization for Bridge and Tunnel Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance

AbstractThe Horizon 2020 IM‐SAFE project aims to provide input for a mandate for further CEN standardization towards the use of inspection, monitoring and testing for the safety assessment of bridges and tunnels and the implementation of predictive maintenance strategies. Although the focus of this project is on the engineering domain, the use of digitalization is a necessity for the effective and efficient implementation of the proposed work‐ and dataflows. This paper shows what topics related to digitalization are of particular interest, explains the state‐of‐the‐art in those areas and discusses the need and readiness for further ICT standardization. In particular, it focuses on the importance of data interoperability and emphasizes the challenge to consolidate, reuse and harmonize existing standards from BIM, GIS and IoT, rather than developing new standards.

Acceptance of Chinese latecomers' technological contributions in international ICT standardization — The role of origin, experience and collaboration

As technical standards are an important part of China's industrial transformation towards an innovation-driven economy, Chinese organizations have started to deploy substantial resources in recent years to take on a leading role in international ICT standardization. However, many Chinese organizations experience, similar to other latecomers to standardization, limited success when contributing to standardization processes, a phenomenon also referred to as the standardization gap. The literature on standardization to date has paid little attention to how Chinese latecomers enter and influence international standardization processes that have traditionally been shaped by organizations from industrialized countries. We therefore analyze the country-of-origin effect as well as factors such as experience and collaboration for successful contributions of Chinese organizations to standards. Using data from the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and binary logistic regression analysis, we are able to show that, in our sample, contributions from Chinese latecomers are significantly less likely to be accepted than those from more established actors from industrialized economies. Moreover, our findings indicate that experience is closely associated with success in international ICT standardization, but not moderated by national origin. Therefore, Chinese latecomers might not be able to catch up if they move at the same pace as established competitors. They need to find a way to leapfrog extensive development steps, narrow the standardization capability gap, and thus strengthen their participation and influence. One way to do so might be through strategic collaboration, as our results suggest that Chinese organizations benefit more from collaborating with organizations from more established regions than vice versa, on which we call for further research to establish the causal mechanisms.

On Engagement With ICT Standards and Their Implementations in Open Source Software Projects

This paper presents novel results concerning engagement with ICT standards and their implementations in open source software (OSS). Specifically, findings draw from observations and analysis related to standards and implementations in the multimedia field. The first part of the study reports on experiences and insights from engagement with standards in the multimedia field and from implementation of such standards in OSS projects. The second part of the study focuses on the case of the ITU-T H.264 standard and the two OSS projects OpenH264 and x264 that both implement the standard, and reports on a characterisation of organisations that engage with and control the H.264 standard, and organisations that engage with and control OSS projects implementing the H.264 standard. Further, projects for standardisation and implementation of H.264 are contrasted with respect to mix of contributing organisations, and findings are related to organisational strategies of contributing organisations and previous research.

Design of a Business Roadmap to improve the document management processes of the Turbo Antioquia district mobility secretary through Cloud Computing

The development context of the project is focused on making a Roadmap which establishes the ideal route to improve the document management processes of the Turbo Antioquia district mobility secretary, using Cloud Computing services.
 The entity's problems are mainly due to the failures presented in the document and files management processes since it does not accomplish with the parameters of the Archives Law issued by the Ministry of ICT.
 The methodology used in this study corresponds to descriptive applied research. To carry out the Roadmap, ten steps were taken into account, one of them was to know the current state of the document and file management processes (AS-IS), determine the desired or future states (TO-BE) through of activities aimed at closing the gaps, such as training administrative personnel or those in the area of document and archive management processes, taking into account the guidelines of the national government through the Ministry of ICT and international standards. Implement an information security system for the protection of information in the management of procedures.
 The result of this project is to carry out the design of the Roadmap, outlining the established guidelines to meet the indicators that allow closing the gaps with the aim of improving the processes of the document management of the Mobility Secretary of the Turbo Antioquia District.
 To achieve the results of this research, the business architecture approach was used through the design of a road map, whose in-depth analysis allows knowing the current state (AS-IS) of the entity's capabilities and processes, in the document management area. This linked to a set of strategies or particular activities in time for each problem presented with the objective of closing the gaps, as a method of solution to each problem presented. The proposed solution is known as the future state (TO-BE), where solutions are presented to the problems found in the document management processes. The main conclusion of the work was that the use of Cloud Computing in the document management process was found as a fundamental element of the new disruptive trends in IT management processes.

Information and Communication Technology Management Support and Service Delivery at the Department of Immigration, Kenya

Service delivery is a major function of the State Department of Immigration and there are some ICT factors which may influence the provision of quality services to citizens. We examined the relationship between the ICT Management support and service delivery at Department of Immigration passport control office in Nairobi Kenya using a descriptive survey design with sample size of 192 respondents with questionnaires for data collection. The data was analyzed using SPSS 22 software where descriptive statistics were calculated which comprised means and standard deviation while Chi square statistics were used to assess the association between variables. We found a significant association between ICT management support and service delivery = 0.740 (p = 0.786 > 0.05). Based on this finding it is recommended that the Government ensures sufficient ICT funding, innovate ICT policies and strategies to cater for new ICT trends that are necessary for improved service delivery. Further, there is need to regularly review ICT standards and regulations to reflect the dynamic nature of the technology used in service delivery.

Open Standards and Open Source: Characterisation and Typologies

Open standards and open source have become essential for ICT markets from an innovation, business, technical, and policy approach. Openness is one of the core values in standardisation settings. When it comes to the definition of ‘open’, some views have pointed to a ‘clear-cut’ division between open and close standards. Rather than a pure binary approach this paper holds that the openness of a standard is a matter of degree, and moreover, that openness should be referred to three different dimensions: innovation; standardisation and intellectual property exploitation. This paper sets a taxonomy of the different existing typologies of ICT standards and aims to evaluate their degree of openness in each of these dimensions. The main objective is to propose a framework for assessing the openness of ICT standards - which might be useful to understand and analyse the competitive and innovative dynamics of each type of open standards.

A Landscape Analysis of Standardisation in the Field of Artificial Intelligence

While projects, developments and applications addressing and using artificial intelligence (AI) are rather multifaceted and their number is constantly increasing, the standardisation activities in the field of artificial intelligence are limited, their number is significantly lower and does not increase at the same pace.
 The European funded project StandICT.eu aims at supporting European experts’ presence in and contributions to international standardisation activities in ICT. The focus of the project is on the 5 priority domains identified by the European Commission (Cloud Computing, IoT, Big Data, Cyber Security, 5G) and on Artificial Intelligence while being open for other relevant topics defined in the annual European Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation. The project has two main outcomes: (i) increased contribution of European experts in international standardisation through support by providing grants for planned contributions of successful applications of experts, and (ii) an online observatory of published standards and ongoing standardisation activities in the areas mentioned before. This observatory (called Standards Watch) is accessible through the project’s web site and open for contributions and comments from registered users. As part of the effort for the Standards Watch the projects has prepared a comprehensive analysis of the international standardisation landscape in the AI field, that comprises a description of the ICT standards and ongoing work at international level in the field of AI across the standardisation organisations already active in the field.
 In this article we will present results of our work where we have analysed the work of the 5 international and European Standards Development Organisations (SDOs) IEEE,1 ISO/IEC,2 ITU-T,3 ETSI4 and CEN-CENELEC5 developing standards in the field of AI. The first 4 bodies have already been active several years in AI standardisation at the time of writing this article. CEN-CENELEC has launched a focus group in 2019 which aims at producing a roadmap for AI standardisation. For these 4 SDOs information on their active groups, details of their work and the respective state/outcome is provided in the main part of this article. Followed by the same exercise for the two identified Standards Settings Organisations (SSOs): W3C6 and IRTF,7 their active groups and the respective state/outcome.
 With this information an initial analysis of the AI standardisation landscape as Q3 2019 is performed with the main outcomes that (i) the number of working groups chaired by Europeans is significant and (ii) that there is room for European experts contributing to ongoing and future standardisation work.
 The article is concluded by considerations on future priorities.

Demonstrations of future TSO–DSO data exchanges with ECCo SP in the EU-project ‘TDX-ASSIST’

Communication tools and techniques between transmission grid operator (TSO) and distribution grid operator (DSO) must be able to deal with increasingly larger volumes of information and these tools should be based on existing smart grid ICT standards. In the EU-project TDX-ASSIST, an international consortium of grid operators and researchers is working on the design and development of new ICT tools which meet these future challenges. This paper describes findings from two of the project's demonstration sites. Some demonstrations employ a communication and connectivity service platform (ECCo SP) which enables the use of flexibility platforms. Others employ co-simulations to emulate data exchanges between TSO, DSO and the grid. In the further course of TDX-ASSIST, the demonstration results will be used to establish feedback to standardisation bodies such as IEC, CEN/CENELEC/ETSI CG-SEG and working groups focused on TSO–DSO information exchange.

Governance of ICT Standardization: Due Process in Technocratic Decision-Making

In the world of continuous globalization, technical standards and industry norms play a crucial role in transnational economic development. For the past few decades, increased digitalization and emergence of new technologies gave due prominence to ICT standards: our future is closely linked to the Internet of Things and 5G technologies that are expected to penetrate an enormous range of economic sectors and by this means affect our quotidian life. At the same time, the introduction of these new technologies is accompanied by concerns such as privacy and security. Especially the latter has been recently subjected to a wider political debate, which was largely fueled by national security concerns voiced by Western governments regarding the involvement of China-based companies, Huawei and ZTE, in standardization of 5G technologies. In this context, the paper discusses whether the current regulatory landscape can address the variety of concerns raised in relation to the development of ICT standards through the well-established procedural principles for standard-setting, such as openness, transparency and consensus, and whether these principles ensure that ICT standardization, while delivering cutting-edge technological solutions, remains balanced and inclusive.

The launch of the European Institute for innovation through health data

The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD) has been formed as one of the sustainable entities arising from the Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research (EHR4CR) and SemanticHealthNet projects, in collaboration with other European Commission projects and initiatives. The vision of i~HD is to become the European organisation of reference for guiding and catalysing the best, most efficient and trustworthy uses of health data and interoperability, for optimizing health and knowledge discovery. i~HD has been established in recognition that there is a need to tackle areas of challenge in the successful scaling up of innovations that rely on high-quality and interoperable health data, to sustain and propagate the results of eHealth research, and to address current-day obstacles to using health data. i~HD was launched at an inaugural conference in Paris, in March 2016. This was attended by over 200 European clinicians, healthcare providers and researchers, representatives of the pharma industry, patient associations, health professional associations, the health ICT industry and standards bodies. The event showcased issues and approaches, that are presented in this paper to highlight the activities that i~HD intends to pursue as enablers of the better uses of health data, for care and research.

ETSI: A Case Study in Standard Setting and Capture

This thesis analyses the problem of patent holdup in the European ICT standardisation process with regard to wireless telecommunications standards. The European standardisation system is based on a co-regulatory model involving collaboration between the European Commission and ETSI with the goal to promote innovation, competition, and consumer welfare via the promulgation of interoperability, harmonised, standards. Often however proprietors of standard essential patents (SEPs) opportunistically holdup users/implementers of SEPs. The thesis maintains that, despite existing soft-law mechanisms and antitrust measures, patent holdup is an issue that can readily recur, and attributes this to the capture of the co-regulatory regime. It shows that the soft-law mechanisms, including the ETSI IPR Policy, FRAND terms, European Commission’s Guidelines and its policy initiatives and strategies for achieving the European Digital Single Market, are insufficient to mitigate patent holdup. This thesis set out to determine whether patent holdup is a form of regulatory capture undermining the public interest rationale of standard setting. To do so, first, it frames patent holdup in theory and practice. Second, it scrutinises the dynamics of co-regulation in standard setting and how patent holdup is factored into the regulatory capture paradigm. Third, it analyses how theories of regulation, particularly agency theory, inform this assessment and therefore diagnose regulatory capture in EU ICT standard setting. Finally, the thesis investigates the possibility for ex ante regulatory and ex post competition law tools to enable policy recommendations. This analysis ultimately contributes to the scholarship with regard to the regulation of strategic and opportunistic behaviour of SEP holders. This study should, therefore, be of value to identifying effective measures to restore balance in standard setting consistent with the public interest. This becomes even more important as wireless telecommunications standards have been an intrinsic component to the formation of the European Digital Single Market.