Interoperability

Introduction

 

 Enabling interoperability in a multi-vendor, multi-network, multi-service environment

The Centre of Excellence for interoperability in a multi-polar interconnected world

One of the underlying motives for the development of communications standards is to facilitate interoperability between products in a multi-vendor, multi-network and multi-service environment. Interoperability ensures that users have a much greater choice of products and that manufacturers can benefit from the economies of scale that a wider market makes possible. Consequently, it is market demands that have ensured that interoperability has maintained its prominence in standardization. In their efforts to deliver interoperable standards, ETSI's Technical Committees follow the principles of applying best practice specification techniques, the validation of standards and the development of test specifications related to key ETSI technologies. The Interoperability Cluster is a horizontal cluster with the mission to work with all ETSI Technical Committees, other Standards Development Organizations and relevant fora on the co-ordination and dissemination of interoperability activities.

ETSI Test Specifications

For over 20 years ETSI has been a pioneer among the standardization bodies in recognising the importance of achieving interoperability through testing. Many key ETSI  Technologies have an accompanying set of standardized test specifications that may be used by ETSI Members and other organizations in a variety of contexts, ranging from in-house product development to industrial certification schemes.

Validation through ETSI Interoperability Events

One well-proven and cost-effective approach to validate standards for interoperability, and subsequently interoperable products, is through interoperability events, or PlugtestsTM.

These events, which may comprise just a few or many hundreds of participants, collect engineers and equipment in a neutral environment - possibly distributed - where they can execute a large variety of real-life scenarios in various combinations and with different equipment.

Interoperability events have the additional advantages of optimizing the development of implementations and providing an open forum for resolving issues of noninteroperability
and other technical aspects related to standards development and validation. It is a place for engineers to meet and develop interoperable solutions in a very practical environment and to provide feedback to the standardization groups. 

Groups

The ETSI interoperability cluster encompasses the activities of the majority of ETSI Technical Committees:

  • 3GPP - Organization of a series of femtocell interoperability events with the Femto Forum.
  • 3GPP RAN5 - Continuous development of user equipment test specifications for use by GCF (Global Certification Forum), PTCRB (North America) and TDIA (China)
  • AERO - A series of Plugtests with EUROCAE on VoIP for ATM (Air Traffic Managment) to improve the robustness between Voice Communication Systems (VCS) as well as the interworking between VCS and Ground Radio Stations (GRS)
  • ATTM - A series of Plugtests with the Fixed Services and Networks Alliance on Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON)
  • BRAN - Development of conformance test specifications, interoperability test specifications and the organization of interoperability events with
  • the WiMAX Forum
  • CLOUD - Organization of GRID interoperability events and demonstrations with the Open Grid Forum
  • DECT - Development of conformance test specifications for the original DECT standards and more recently working with the DECT Forum to the organization of interoperability events for Cordless Advanced Technology- Internet and Quality interoperability events (CAT-iq)
  • eHealth - Participation in IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) CONNECTATHON events with the provision of state-of-the-art TTCN-3 test tools for HN7 profiles
  • ERM - Development of test specifications for PMR (Public Mobile Radio), DMR (Digital Mobile Radio) and the organization of several RFID Plugtests.
  • ESI - Development of an interoperability portal to facilitate remote interoperability events for standards XAdES, CAdES, PAdES (Advanced Electronic Signature)
  • HF - Plugtests events for handsets from a user perspective
  • INT - Development of test specifications and organisation of Plugtests for IMS (Internet Multi-media Subsystem) in co-operation with GSMA, MSF and IMTC
  • ITS - Development of test specifications and test frameworks, as well as interoperability events on Cooperative Mobile Systems and Road Toll Systems/DSRC co-existence.
  • LI - Organization of interoperability events for Lawful Interception
  • M2M – Interoperability demonstrations
  • MTS - Development of specification techniques including TTCN-3 and testing methodologies such as Automated Interoperability Testing
  • PLT - Organization of co-existence testing events, for example between PLT and ADSL
  • SCP - Development of prototype testing tools and methodology for ePassport readers (jointly with MTS)
  • STQ - Organization of speech quality test events TETRA - Development of test specifications
  • TISPAN - Development of test specifications for NGN

Activities

ETSI has two important horizontal activities that support the production of interoperable standards, namely TC MTS (Methods for Testing and Specification) and the ETSI CTI (Centre for Testing and Interoperability).

TC MTS creates standards related to testing and specification languages (such as TTCN-3) and provides frameworks, guidelines and methodologies to enable the other ETSI committees to achieve this goal. Of particular interest is the ongoing work on Model Based Testing (MBT).

TC MTS works very closely with the ETSI CTI to develop the background material which is then used in support of other ETSI committees as well as other relevant standardization bodies. Much of the work done by TC MTS has also been adapted and used globally by other organizations, fora, and industry bodies.

ETSI's Centre for Testing and Interoperability (CTI)provides hands-on expertise and support to the ETSI Technical Organization and 3GPP for:

  • Standards validation (focusing on Plugtests™ interoperability events)
  • Development of test specifications (conformance and interoperability)
  • Application of protocol specification techniques Advancement of methodologies and best practices, including TTCN-3.

Specialist Task Forces for Test Specifications - Most ETSI test specifications are developed on behalf of the various technical committees by ETSI Specialist Task Forces (STF) working under the guidance of the CTI.