Better Living with ICT

Introduction

Technologies that improve people's lives and environment 

Digital living for the benefit of society and individuals

Information and communication technologies (ICT) assist us in many areas of our lives. Large scale deployment of communications technologies has produced major changes in the way we communicate for social and business purposes. However, most of these deployments were technology-led, without any prior assessment of social consequences.

ETSI's "Better Living with ICT" cluster contains several technical committees whose aim is to make products and services simpler to use, safer and more efficient, taking account of the social and cultural contexts of the end users.

The ultimate goal is improvement of the quality of life for all, but this is not at the expense of the environment. ETSI is actively committed to identifying energy efficiency solutions that mitigate the impact on climate change by the growing use of ICT. For example, ETSI is establishing a common methodology for measuring the overall environmental impact and has furthermore defined requirements and measurement methods for power consumption of specific telecommunications devices.

ETSI has also been defining the complete life cycle for telecommunications equipment, from its development to the end of its life. This definition is useful in making assessments of the environmental aspects of a product in the various phases of its life cycle. Operational needs are also being addressed; these include power optimization for broadband equipment, energy control and monitoring, alternative energy for telecommunication installations, etc.

ETSI also addresses the user experience in a variety of ways. ETSI defines ‘Quality of Service', i.e. the characteristics of the a telecommunications service that reflect its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs of the user of the service, as well as ‘Quality of Experience', i.e. the overall acceptability of an application or service, as perceived subjectively by the end-user.

ETSI's work in Human Factors deals with issues relating to the ease of use and accessibility for all users. In order to provide the necessary guidance to designers and developers, ETSI has identified particular user needs related to special domains like public Internet terminals and needs related to eHealth; novel emerging user interface technologies; individual requirements related to factors such as age, language or disability and personalization.

Groups

The ETSI Better Living with ICT cluster encompasses the activities of several ETSI Technical Committees and Industry Specification Groups:

  • HF (Human Factors)
  • User Group
  • EE (Environmental Engineering)
  • STQ (Speech and multimedia Transmission Quality)
  • Safety
  • ATTM (Access, Terminals, Transmission and Multiplexing)
  • TISPAN (Telecommunications and Internet converged Services and Protocols for Advanced
  • Networking
  • ORI (Open Radio equipment Interface)

The cluster co-operates with various fora, consortia and organizations, including

  • IEC
  • ITU-T
  • OMA
  • CEN
  • CENELEC
  • ATIS
  • GSMA
  • ISO
  • W3C
  • GeSI
  • HGI
  • Broadband Forum

Activities

ETSI activities to promote Better Living with ICT are distributed across several Technical Committees.

ETSI's Human Factors technical committee is responsible for Human Factors issues in all areas of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Human Factors is the scientific application of knowledge about human capacities and limitations in order to make products, systems, services and environments effective, efficient and easy for everyone to use. The committee has a special responsibility for "Design for All" – addressing the needs of all users, including young children, seniors and disabled people.

The ETSI User Group represents the interests of users of ICT products and services, in numerous different categories. Examples include consumers, business users, users with special needs, service providers, telecommunication operators in a user mode, and government departments.

ETSI Technical Committee EE is responsible for defining the environmental and infrastructural aspects for all telecommunication equipment, including equipment installed in subscriber premises. The Committee has a particularly important role to play as the world seeks to improve energy efficiency. Its work includes specifying environmental requirements, the acoustic noise emission of equipment, power supply interface requirements and monitoring, grounding and bonding and related topics, mechanical structure and physical design, thermal management and the ecological aspects of environmental topics.

Some aspects of energy efficiency for ICT are handled by other ETSI committees, working in close collaboration with the EE committee. Technical Committee ATTM deals with energy efficiency for broadband. Working Group 5 of ETSI's TISPAN Technical Committee is also currently defining the means of monitoring power levels in Next Generation Networks (NGN) and the control of power modes of devices in Customer Premises Networks.

The ORI ISG is developing a standardized and interoperable data link interface for the remote radio head equipment to further encourage widespread deployment of this type of equipment by network operators.

Speech and multimedia transmission quality is the focus of ETSI's STQ Technical Committee. The committee is responsible for standardization relating to speech and media quality aspects of terminals and networks, end-to-end single media and multimedia transmission performance and Quality of Service (QoS) parameters for fixed and mobile networks and services, both now and in the future. Technical Committee STQ forms the horizontal technical nucleus for speech and multimedia transmission quality focusing on the areas of voice and multimedia over IP, acoustic pressure and relevant measurement methods, modelling and assessment for wide-band/super-wideband/full-band speech, userrelated QoS and Quality of Experience (QoE).

Co-ordination of ETSI positions on telecommunications safety requirements, including those which are essential requirements of European Directives, is handled by ETSI's Safety Technical Committee. The committee works closely with other European and international standards organisations in order to establish globally-applicable solutions where possible, and to avoid duplication of effort.