Telecommunication Standardization Sector Research Articles

Modelling and numerical analysis of combined dual impact of SRS and FWM on the performance of upstream and downstream channels of a novel UDWDM/DWDM-PON

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is an important method in modern optical communication systems for both long-haul and access networks. Particularly, after being standardized by Telecommunication Standardization Sector of International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T), WDM passive optical network (WDM-PON) becomes a considerable choice for fronthaul implementations of 5G networks. Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and four-wave mixing (FWM) are crucial nonlinear impacts that significantly limit the performance of WDM-based optical fiber communication systems. In this paper, an ultra-dense/dense WDM-PON (UDWDM/DWDM-PON) architecture has been proposed and combined dual impact of SRS and FWM on performances of upstream channels (USCs) and downstream channels (DSCs) of the proposed UDWDM/DWDM-PON has been numerically analyzed. USCs have been assumed to operate in 1310 nm region while operating wavelength region of DSCs has been taken as 1550 nm. Simulations have been performed on both UDWDM-PON architectures with 3.125 GHz and 6.25 GHz channel spacings and DWDM-PON architectures with channel spacings between 12.5 GHz and 100 GHz. 2x15-channel and 2x63-channel system structures have been considered in simulations. Signal-to-crosstalk ratio (SXR) has been chosen as performance parameter and its variation with channel input powers, channel spacings and channel lengths have been simulated for both USCs and DSCs of 2x15- and 2x63-channel UDWDM/DWDM-PONs. Results show that the proposed UDWDM/DWDM-PONs using single G.652 fiber can exhibit a reliable communication with minimum 23 dB SXR performance under combined dual impact of SRS and FWM unless some highlights about input powers and channel lengths mentioned in the paper are neglected.

A Comprehensive Review on Smart Grid Ecosystem

A smart grid is an intervention technology for the massive energy demand of the world today. It combines cyber-physical technologies, information communication technology, and electrical power networks from the generating company stations to the end-users while ensuring bidirectional communication among the actors. The smart grid is a complex growing technology that is yet to reach its maturity state. This paper seeks to examine the literature on the state of the art of smart grid technology both from the industry perspective and from academia. To this end, a literature review with a qualitative deductive approach built on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guideline and the simplified International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) five-domain model were used as a guide to this research. Furthermore, the paper reviewed Smart Grid data centre topologies and identified prospects in spine-leaf architecture as a promising architecture that can be adapted in a smart grid ecosystem data centre design. The literature was searched from the databases: IEEE Xplore Digital Library, Springer Link Digital Library, and Google Scholar, IET Digital Library, Frontiers Library, ACM Digital Library repositories resulting in 151 papers after several exclusions. The work reviewed relevant literatures published from 2002 to 2021 and grouped the reviewed papers according to the key domains of the NIST/ITU-T model. Based on the evaluated literature, the need for more built-in predictive learning curves in smart grid systems and robust Smart grid architecture with enhanced data centre design for Smart grid systems is observed and recommended Keywords: Smart Grid, Smart Metre, Data Centre Computing, Distributed Energy, Protocols

Performance Evaluation of UDSM Network to Deliver Multimedia eLearning Contents: Case of CoICT

The use of technology in education in Sub-Saharan Africa has been reported to be hindered by many factors including inadequate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, low internet speed, and lack of skills to use educational technologies. This paper aim at evaluating how the available ICT infrastructure at the College of Information and Communication Technologies (CoICT) can support, with acceptable Quality of Service (QoS), the delivery of multimedia applications for eLearning services. The evaluation was performed over a network testbed implemented in a computer laboratory for wired and wireless connections. The testbed consisted of five personal computers (PCs) connected via a switch and a router to the internet for the wired connection. The wireless connection consisted of three PCs and a laptop connected through a switch and a router to the internet via a wireless access point. Four different multimedia applications were run through the PCs, and traffic data was mirrored and captured at one of the PC using Wireshark network analyzer. The traffic included streamed and conversational video and audio using YouTube and Zoom applications, respectively; interactive web browsing using web browsers; bulk file transfer, and a mixture of all applications running on the computers. Traffic data captured during the running of these applications were packet loss, delay, jitter, and throughput. The QoS performance parameters obtained were within the acceptable threshold values as per International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) values. Results revealed that ICT infrastructure at CoICT can support delivery of multimedia content for eLearning purposes for both wired and wireless connections. Having the infrastructure capable of supporting multimedia applications with the acceptable QoS implies that instructors are equipped with a conducive environment that supports multimedia application. Hence, they are expected to use and continue using educational technologies to facilitate teaching and learning processes.

Weakly Coupled Multicore Fiber Technology, Deployment, and Systems

Space-division multiplexing (SDM) technology is a promising candidate to achieve massive parallelism in optical fiber cables and overcome the capacity limitation of the conventional single-mode fiber (SMF). Among the several kinds of SDM fiber, a weakly coupled multicore fiber (MCF) is advantageous in that it can be easily upgraded for use in existing equipment and requires no complex signal processing for optical multi-input multi-output (MIMO). In this article, we discuss the progress and standardization activity of MCF technologies from the viewpoint of accelerating the practical application of SDM technology. We first describe the possible application areas of SDM fibers and then show the recent progress of the essential technologies to construct the MCF link: the MCF itself, its splicing and connectorization, and the input/output techniques. We also discuss the availability and deployability of MCF as a large-capacity transmission medium and detail the progress on establishing a new international standard for SDM technology, which includes both historical progress and more recent endeavors on the standardization of optical fiber cables and SDM technology in International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). We close with a summary of MCF technology and its standardization activity with an eye to next-generation transmission systems and the long-term development of ultralarge capacity SDM transmission technology.

Guest Editorial Introduction to the Special Section on the VVC Standard

In this Special Section of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, it is our honor to introduce the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) standard, the latest of the historic partnership collaborations between the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in the field of video coding standardization.

AI-Empowered Software-Defined WLANs

The complexity of wireless and mobile networks is growing at an unprecedented pace. This trend is proving current network control and management techniques based on analytical models and simulations to be impractical, especially if combined with the data deluge expected from future applications such as augmented reality. This is particularly true for software-defined wireless local area networks (SO-WLANs). It is our belief that to battle this growing complexity, future SO-WLANs must follow an artificial intelligence (AI) -native approach. In this article, we introduce aiOS, which is an AI-based platform that builds toward the autonomous management of SD-WLANs. Our proposal is aligned with the most recent trends in in-network AI promoted by the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) and with the architecture for disaggregated radio access networks promoted by the Open Radio Access Network Alliance. We validate aiOS in a practical use case, namely frame size optimization in SD-WLANs, and we consider the long-term evolution, challenges, and scenarios for AI-assisted network automation in the wireless and mobile networking domain.

PROTOCOL STRUCTURE ANALYSIS AND STANDARDIZATION

Internet protocol (IP) then optical networking applied sciences are frequently based of Generalized Multiprotocol slip Switching (GMPLS), Path Computation Element (PCE), then layer-1 virtual private network (L1VPN) enable unified control and management of future backbone network layers that will be able to cope with unexpected situations such as drastic changes in demand and multiple failures effectively and quickly according to an operator's policy and that will let us create new network services. This article describes the latest standardization of IP and optical networking technologies in IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Standardization Sector).

Fish Intake May Affect Brain Structure and Improve Cognitive Ability in Healthy People.

As the population ages worldwide, the prevalence of cognitive disorders including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is increasing. MCI appears in 10–20% of adults aged 65 years and older and is generally referred to as an intermediate stage between normal cognitive aging and dementia. To develop timely prevention and early treatment strategies by identifying biological factors, we investigated the relationship between dietary consumption of fish, brain structure, and MCI in cognitively normal subjects. The brain structure was assessed using neuroimaging-derived measures including the “gray-matter brain healthcare quotient (GM-BHQ)” and “fractional-anisotropy brain healthcare quotient (FA-BHQ),” which are approved as the international standard (H.861.1) by the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector. Dietary consumption of fish was calculated using the brief self-administered diet history questionnaire (BDHQ), and MCI was assessed using the Memory Performance Index (MPI) of MCI screening method (MCI Screen). This study showed that fish intake was positively associated with both FA-BHQ and MPI, and FA-BHQ was more strongly associated with MPI than fish intake. Our findings are in line with those in previous studies, but our study further indicates that the condition of the whole brain integrity measured by the FA-BHQ may mediate the relationship between fish intake and MCI prevention in healthy people. In other words, FA-BHQ may be used to identify people at high risk of MCI to provide the appropriate intervention.

Performance Enhancement and Capacity Enlargement for a DWDM-PON System Utilizing an Optimized Cross Seeding Rayleigh Backscattering Design

In this work, a record of 16 channels, with future channel spacing in the telecommunication standardization sector of the International Telecommunications Union G.694.1 (ITU-T G.694.1) for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) (i.e., 12.5 GHz), is simulated and tested. This work is done to realize a proposed high capacity DWDM-Passive Optical Network (DWDM-PON) system. These specifications are associated with enhancing the upstream (US) capacity to 2.5 Gb/s over a 25 km Single-Mode Fiber (SMF) transmission and producing a noteworthy average Bit Error Rate (BER) of 10−12 during the system’s evaluation process. These performance indicators are achieved through design optimization of the cross-seeding Rayleigh Backscattering (RB) elimination technique. This optimization has successfully reduced (compared to the cross-seeding related literature) the simulated DWDM-PON components and maintained an effective Rayleigh Backscattering elimination with the aforementioned system’s performance enhancement and capacity enlargement.

Signaling Packet Aggregation and Compression in SIP Network: Modeling and Performance Evaluation

Recent development in communications have increased the demand of internet protocol (IP)-based multimedia conferencing services. Session initiation protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for providing group communication in IP-based next generation network. The conferencing frameworks proposed by Internet Engineering Task Force working groups has limited scalability due to the centralized management of conference control by a single server. In order to overcome this limitation, we propose multiple SIP packet aggregation and compression of common header part of each aggregated packet process. This mechanism increases the bandwidth utilization and processing capability of conference server. A queueing model is developed to describe the process of packet aggregation (PA) and compression at the edge proxy. Using the proposed queueing model, the steady-state probability distribution of the queue length is derived and the average packet transmission delay is obtained. We show the trade-off between the overhead gain and delay. Based on the analytical results, the maximum frame size is optimized for which the average delay of a packet transmission is minimum. A discrete event simulation is performed using network simulator 2 to implement PA and compression mechanism in a SIP network. Further, performance measures are numerically obtained from the simulation results. The simulation results discussed upon the key performance metrics for signaling protocols defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T E.721).

Development of Movable and Deployable ICT Resource Unit (MDRU) and its Overseas Activities

Based on the lessons learned from the East Japan Great Earthquake of March 11, 2011, the authors have been engaged in the research and development of movable and deployable information and communication technology (ICT) resource units (MDRUs), which provide immediate and minimally required ICT service in areas struck by disaster. The MDRU is a transportable unit that contains equipment necessary for ICT service provisions and is designed to be quickly transported to and set up in affected areas after a natural disaster has struck. The unit is used to quickly construct a wireless local network in the area, and thus provide immediate and minimally required ICT service to the people in the area. In this paper, we describe MDRU technology and other technologies that lead to improved performance and/or service when connected or linked up with the unit. Along with this development, we have conducted various activities aimed at its international deployment. Specifically, we conducted trials with resident participation in the Philippines and Nepal to verify the validity of these technologies overseas, where we were able to confirm its validity under various conditions. Furthermore, we have undertaken activities for its standardization, and have succeeded in the standardization of MDRU at International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T).

Information-Centric Networking: Research and Standardization Status

Information-centric networking (ICN) is a new approach to networking contents rather than devices that hold the contents. It has recently attracted much attention of network research and standardization communities. National and multi-national funded research projects have progressed worldwide. International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) started ICN standardization activities in 2012. In parallel, the standards-oriented research cooperation is progressing in the Information-Centric Networking Research Group (ICNRG) of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF). All these global efforts have been collectively advancing the novel network architecture of ICN. However, there are very few surveys and discussions on the detailed ICN standardization status. To update the reader with information about the ICN research and standardization related activities, this paper starts with the history of global activities on ICN from 2010, giving references to various projects. It then describes the recent progress in the standardization of ICN component technologies in ITU-T and various documents produced by ICNRG. Lastly, it discusses the future directions for progressing ICN.

Ultralow chirp photonic crystal fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer.

A photonic crystal fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer design was optimized to obtain high performance and ultralow chirp. Two long-period gratings were used to excite the cladding modes, and the rich structure of the cladding was tailored to obtain a slightly chirped free spectral range, as required by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) Norm G.694.1. Finally, a fabrication tolerance analysis was performed. The advantages of the proposed device are an ultralow chirp, high bandwidth, and fabrication robustness tolerance.

Access and home networking technology standards

This IEEE Communication Standards Series addresses industry standards and the technologies used for the portion of the communications network nearest to the customer. This includes home networking technology used by a multitude of networked devices within the home or business to communicate with each other (local area networking) and to communicate with the public network (wide area networking). This Series also addresses the access technologies providing communications between the customer premises and the nearest traffic aggregation node of the public network, such as a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) or optical line terminal (OLT). This Series focuses on the industry standards for access and home networking including standards development organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), IEEE, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), industry organizations such as the Broadband Forum, Cable- Labs, Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), TeleManagement Forum (TMF), and open source entities such as Open Compute Project (OCP) and Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV). Article submissions related to the work of these and other relevant industry standards bodies are invited for future issues of IEEE Communications Standards. The article in this issue is written by experts working on fixed broadband access technologies and participating in several SDOs as well as cooperative projects. From a customer point of view, not only is downstream data rate important but also upstream.

H.264 Encoder Parameter Optimization for Encoded Wireless Multimedia Transmissions

Wireless multimedia sensor network has been renewed to the distributed model by incorporating the single board computer (i.e., camera nodes and mobile beacons). The redesigned camera nodes, such as unmanned aerial vehicle and mobile beacon nodes are limited in terms of memory, computation power, bandwidth, and node power while the real-time processing requires the multimedia contents transmission over the wireless interface in the presence of all these constraints. To tackle this problem, advanced video compression schemes have been adopted by which bit rate overhead over the network is greatly improved. H.264/moving picture experts group (MPEG)-4 is a state-of-the-art video compression standard developed jointly by International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector video coding experts group and ISO/Joint Technical Committee of International Electrotechnical Commission MPEG. The H.264 provides a number of tunable parameters (e.g., quantization parameter (QP) and number of reference frames (NoRF)) for tailoring the encoding process as per requirements. In this paper, we propose a framework consisting of a joint parameter cost function to find the best trade-off between QP and NoRF with the policy of controlling the bit-rate (BR) while maintaining reasonably good video quality without compromising on processing delay (PD) and nodal power consumption (NPC). The framework has been proposed by transforming the multi-objective problem into a convex optimization problem. It is shown that an optimal trade-off between these conflicting objectives can be achieved by choosing appropriate values for QP and NoRF. Results for optimal values of QP and NoRF with corresponding trade-off between BR, quality of multimedia contents, low PD and low NPC are presented.

Access and home networking technology standards

This IEEE Communication Standards Series addresses industry standards and the technologies used for the portion of the communications network nearest to the customer. This includes home networking technology used by a multitude of networked devices within the home or business to communicate with each other (local area networking) and to communicate with the public network (wide area networking). This Series also addresses the access technologies providing communications between the customer premises and the nearest traffic aggregation node of the public network, such as a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) or optical line terminal (OLT). This Series focuses on the industry standards for access and home networking including standards development organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), IEEE, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), industry organizations such as the Broadband Forum, Cable- Labs, Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), TeleManagement Forum (TMF), and open source entities such as Open Compute Project (OCP) and Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV). Article submissions related to the work of these and other relevant industry standards bodies are invited for future issues of IEEE Communications Standards. The article in this issue is written by experts working on fixed broadband access technologies and participating in several SDOs as well as cooperative projects. From a customer point of view, not only is downstream data rate important but also upstream.

Embedding X.509 Digital Certificates in Three-Dimensional Models for Authentication, Authorization, and Traceability of Product Data.

Exchange and reuse of three-dimensional (3D)-product models are hampered by the absence of trust in product-lifecycle-data quality. The root cause of the missing trust is years of "silo" functions (e.g., engineering, manufacturing, quality assurance) using independent and disconnected processes. Those disconnected processes result in data exchanges that do not contain all of the required information for each downstream lifecycle process, which inhibits the reuse of product data and results in duplicate data. The X.509 standard, maintained by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T), was first issued in 1988. Although originally intended as the authentication framework for the X.500 series for electronic directory services, the X.509 framework is used in a wide range of implementations outside the originally intended paradigm. These implementations range from encrypting websites to software-code signing, yet X.509 certificate use has not widely penetrated engineering and product realms. Our approach is not trying to provide security mechanisms, but equally as important, our method aims to provide insight into what is happening with product data to support trusting the data. This paper provides a review of the use of X.509 certificates and proposes a solution for embedding X.509 digital certificates in 3D models for authentication, authorization, and traceability of product data. This paper also describes an application within the Aerospace domain. Finally, the paper draws conclusions and provides recommendations for further research into using X.509 certificates in product lifecycle management (PLM) workflows to enable a product lifecycle of trust.

Experimental Evaluation of Recovery From Multiple Failures in Multicore Fiber-Based Optical Network

We experimentally investigate recovery from multiple link failures in a multicore fiber (MCF) link-based optical network (NW). The NW is composed of an input/output interface and a two-ring structure to achieve high-capacity and highly reliable NWs in access areas. Each node has a switch (SW) unit consisting of field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based optical SW units. The SW unit is able to detect failures and implements a failure recovery scheme that monitors signals and secures a restoration path, even when there are multiple link failures. Signal transmission experiments demonstrated that the path could be recovered within a short time period (approximately 8 ms), even after multiple failures in the NW. Moreover, performing a second (consecutive) switching after no signal was detected in the first switching for complicated multiple failures in the NW also led to recovery within a short time period (approximately 25 ms). These times are sufficiently less than that required by recovery time standard for telecommunication NWs of the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T). The results indicate that the MCF link would be useful for increasing the reliability of NWs.

QoE rating performance evaluation of ITU-T recommended video quality metrics in the context of video freezes

In real-time video streaming, video quality can be degraded due to network performance issues. Among other artefacts, video freezing and video jumping are factors that influence user experience. Service providers, operators and manufacturers are interested in evaluating the quality of experience (QoE) objectively because subjective assessment of QoE is expensive and, in many user cases, subjective assessment is not possible to perform. Different algorithms have been proposed and implemented in this regard. Some of them are in the recommendation list of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T). In this paper, we study the effect of the freezing artefact on user experience and compare the mean opinion score of these videos with the results of two algorithms, the perceptual evaluation of video quality (PEVQ) and temporal quality metric (TQM). Both metrics are part of the ITU-T Recommendation J.247 Annex B and C. PEVQ is a full-reference video quality metric, whereas TQM is a no-reference quality metric. Another contribution of this paper is the study of the impact of different resolutions and frame rates on user experience and how accurately PEVQ and TQM measure varying frame rates.

NG-PON2 Transmission Convergence Layer: A Tutorial

The first family of multi-wavelength PON systems, 40-gigabit-capable capable passive optical networks (NG-PON2), has been specified by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T). This tutorial, which is based on the author's ECOC'2015 presentation on the topic, offers a comprehensive review of the NG-PON2 transmission convergence layer specification, and is addressed to a wide range of readers who are active in the field of optical communications.