Events

Introduction

As a legally sanctioned official access to private communications, Lawful Interception (LI) is a security process in which a service provider or network operator collects and provides law enforcement officials with intercepted communications of private individuals or organizations.

LI implementation is required by the European Council Resolution from 1995¹ which allows for LI to prevent crime, including fraud and terrorism.

The ETSI specifications are now in use globally in a large number of countries that require the Lawful Interception of telecommunications, and well as the Lawful Disclosure (LD) functionality.

1. Official Journal C 329, 04/11/1996 p. 0001 - 0006 Council Resolution of 17 January 1995 on the lawful interception of telecommunications.

Our Role & Activities

Bringing together the interests of governments and law enforcement agencies (LEAs) as well as mobile network operators and equipment vendors, our Technical Committee Lawful Interception (TC LI) develops standards supporting international requirements for LEAs, including the interception and retention of electronic communications data sent over public communication services. We cover the whole spectrum of interception aspects working closely with other ETSI committees and with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP^TM).

At the core of an ALL IP current and future networks is the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) which provides an access independent platform for a variety of access technologies. IMS is being developed in 3GPPs Service and System Aspects Group, with the handover interface for lawful interception being developed in TC LI.

TC LI regularly updates its suite of standards by adding needed functionalities to the LI specifications. Other important work includes an overview of the necessary parameters for the handover in the form of a library for Lawful Interception (LI) and Lawful Disclosure (LD); this work describes national parameters and implementations in the context of the Inter LEA Handover Interface (ILHI) and cross-border data exchange in criminal matters, e.g. through bilaterally agreed legal assistance, or using the secure European Judicial Network. In 2024 TC LI published a new specification on an interface for Lawful Disclosure of vehicle-related data: this work defines an interface between two parties to make lawful requests for data relating to vehicles, and to respond to those requests where appropriate. The usage of the interface does not jeopardise the safety and security of the vehicles involved and takes into account the boundaries of the responsibilities of the parties involved.

TC LI maintains regular strong collaboration with our group working on Cybersecurity, and makes sure the LI and LD functions are performed in the context of latest technologies and related work within new ETSI groups.

Standards

A full list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the LI committee page.

Introduction

PMSE covers a wide range of equipment (see ECC report 204 and 323 for further information) including radio microphones, in-ear monitors (IEM), video and audio links and associated equipment such as talkback and ALDs (assistive listening devices). They also include low-cost licence-exempt consumer radio microphones, audio systems used by tour guides.

With the explosion of content production generated by streaming, e.g. TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, video blogs and local music production in addition to traditional industries including broadcast theatre, film, sport, corporate presentations and conferences PMSE equipment have migrated from primarily professional use into almost every amateur and business activity.

Content productions requires an ever increasing quality of voice and audio which has been satisfied by expansion in the numbers of radio microphones and IEMs which reach some 180 radio microphones for events such as Eurovision Song Contest and an average of some 46 for London Theatre.

Radio microphones and IEMs are small and highly mobile. Since the professional versions used in stage and musical productions tend to be moved to different parts of the world, they need to meet local regulations, and the best way to achieve this is for them to be specified at a world-wide level.

The Global Standards Collaboration (GSC), of which ETSI is a partner, has studied requirements for radio microphones and cordless audio equipment in standards organizations throughout the world and adopted a report including globally acceptable specifications for these products. Participating Standards Organizations were requested to transpose these specifications into their own deliverables. ETSI has done this by adapting the existing standards to align them with the decisions of GSC.

Our Role & Activities

Within TC ERM, the Task Group (TG) 17 is charged with the preparation of Harmonised Standards covering the essential requirements of Directive 2014/53/EU as well as other deliverables types for: 

A range of other standards relating to the broadcast transmitter and receivers are produced in conjunction with JTC Broadcast.

ERM Task Group (TG) 17 recently published harmonised standards for:

Ongoing revision of TG 17 documents ensures we respond to industry and regulatory changes.

Introduction

Founded in November 2012 by seven of the world's leading telecoms network operators, ETSI ISG NFV became the home of Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV).

Almost seven years and over 100 publications later, the ETSI ISG NFV community has evolved through several phases, its publications have moved from pre-standardization studies to detailed specifications (see Release documentation). The early Proof of Concepts (PoCs) efforts have evolved and led to a series of interoperability events (NFV Plugtests). This large community is still working intensely to develop the required standards for NFV transformation incorporating latest technologies, as well as sharing their experiences of NFV implementation and testing in multi-vendor environments.

ETSI ISG NFV, like any other ETSI Industry Specification Group is open to ETSI members and non-members alike, with different conditions depending on ETSI membership status. If you would like to participate in this work, please contact the NFV support team.

Modern telecoms networks contain an ever-increasing variety of proprietary hardware. The launch of new services often demands network reconfiguration and on-site installation of new equipment which in turn requires additional floor space, power, and trained maintenance staff.

In a digital world, the innovation cycles accelerate and require greater flexibility and dynamism than hardware-based appliances allow. A hard-wired network with single functions boxes is tedious to maintain, slow to evolve, and prevent service providers from offering dynamic services.

In the same way that applications are supported by dynamically configurable and fully automated cloud environments, virtualized network functions allow networks to be agile and capable to respond automatically to the needs of the traffic and services running over it.

Key enabling technologies for this vision include SDN (Software Defined Networking) and NFV (Network Functions Virtualisation). SDN and NFV are complementary but increasingly co-dependent. While the former provides the means to dynamically control the network and the provisioning of networks as a service, the latter offers the capability to manage and orchestrate the virtualization of resources for the provisioning of network functions, either deployed in virtual machines or OS containers, and their composition into higher-layer network services.

Our Role & Activities

ETSI ISG NFV undertakes work in 2-year phases.

Documents published during the first phase (2013-2014) were considered as pre-standard studies and are sometimes referred to as “Release 1”.

The ISG NFV community has continued its work by developing normative specifications, as well as informative studies. The specification of new features and capabilities in planned releases had as outcome subsequent tranches referenced as "Release 2", "Release 3", etc.

Going forward, the ISG NFV continues to develop new specifications that meet the needs of the industry, with maintenance cycles for its already published specifications. The ISG NFV dedicates a continuous support for proper referencing of NFV specifications by industry stakeholders, including not only service providers or network equipment vendors, but also other implementers such as open-source communities. Progress in the industry is continuously monitored, including feedback from implementations, open-source communities, and other standards bodies, and the identification of gaps to be addressed.

Abbreviations of the NFV working groups mentioned in this page:

* The REL working group has merged with IFA and TST has merged with the SOL Working Groups.

Release 6 focuses on architecture and infrastructure with interfaces, modeling, etc. to extend current features and new features such as (not exhaustive list):

NFV Release 5 builds on top and leverages the results of ETS ISG NFV documents published as part of the Release 4. The Release 5 introduces new features on top of the specified capabilities and features in previous Releases and continues features not completed in Release 4.

The "Release 5 Definition" lists all the new features proposed for the Release 5.

Similarly, as in the previous Release, the completion of the specification of features in Release 5 at different stages follows a phased approach, commonly referred to as "drops".

NFV proposes a new approach to the implementation and operation of network functions, and may inspire the development and deployment of new types of network functions.

The open demonstration of NFV concepts in a Proof of Concept (PoC) helps to build industrial awareness and confidence in NFV as a viable technology. Proofs of Concept also help to develop a diverse, open, NFV ecosystem. Results from PoCs may guide the work in the NFV ISG by providing feedback on interoperability and other technical challenges.

Whether by means of exhibits made at specific events, demonstrators running in laboratories, or even full temporary deployments on experimental networks, any given PoC not only impacts its immediate audience, but the cumulative set of PoCs also provides a measure of industry impact from these NFV concepts. 

PoC Framework

NFV ISG has developed an NFV PoC Framework to coordinate and promote multi-vendor Proofs of Concept illustrating key aspects of NFV ISG work.

The goal for the NFV ISG PoC Framework is to build awareness and confidence and to encourage the development of an open ecosystem by integrating components from different players.

The NFV ISG PoCs are scoped around NFV use cases and architectural framework. They feedback their findings and lessons learnt to the NFV ISG and help to progress the specification work.

In order to help the PoC projects to focus on the most relevant aspects, the NFV ISG maintains a list of Hot Topics for which specific feedback from the Proofs of Concept is requested.

The PoC Process Diagram illustrates the PoC process, roles and responsibilities.

The PoC Framework document describes the NFV PoC Framework and includes the templates for PoC Proposals and PoC Reports.

The NFV wiki contains all the latest information related to NFV PoC activity: PoC details, Hot Topics, templates, guidelines...

Dowload the NFV - Proof of Concept Technology Leaflet

CTI Support

The ETSI Center for Testing and Interoperability (CTI) has experience in supporting the organization of technology evaluations and interoperability events (in many ways similar to PoCs).

This experience may be useful to assist the PoC teams with test expertise, administration and project management support.

NFV ISG PoC Teams may request CTI assistance by contacting CTI_Support@etsi.org.

NFV ISG PoCs

The following NFV Proofs of Concept are developed according to the ETSI NFV ISG Proof of Concept Framework. NFV Proofs of Concept are intended to demonstrate NFV as a viable technology. Results are fed back to the NFV Industry Specification Group.

Neither ETSI, its NFV Industry Specification Group, nor their members make any endorsement of any product or implementation claiming to demonstrate or conform to NFV. No verification or test has been performed by ETSI on any part of these NFV Proofs of Concept.

More details about NFV ISG PoC projects and PoC Framework on the NFVwiki.

Introduction

Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) offers application developers and content providers cloud-computing capabilities and an IT service environment at the edge of the network. This environment is characterized by ultra-low latency and high bandwidth as well as real-time access to radio network information that can be leveraged by applications.

MEC provides a new ecosystem and value chain. Operators can open their Radio Access Network (RAN) edge to authorized third-parties, allowing them to flexibly and rapidly deploy innovative applications and services towards mobile subscribers, enterprises and vertical segments. Also, many edge deployment options are possible, from on-premise edge to network edge. Furthermore, service providers can also collaborate among them and with cloud providers in a federated way.

MEC is a natural development in the evolution of mobile base stations and the convergence of IT and telecommunications networking. Multi-access Edge Computing will enable new vertical business segments and services for consumers and enterprise customers. Use cases include:

MEC uniquely allows software applications to tap into local content and real-time information about local-access network conditions. By deploying various services and caching content at the network edge, core networks are alleviated of further congestion and can efficiently serve local purposes. It is worth noting that MEC (as per the acronym, i.e. Multi-access Edge Computing) is not only focused on mobile networks, but also fixed and WLAN accesses, for example.

MEC industry standards and deployment of MEC platforms will act as enablers for new revenue streams to operators, vendors and third-parties. Differentiation will be enabled through the unique applications deployed in the Edge Cloud.

MEC completed its ‘Phase 3’ mid-April 2024 and currently focuses on its ‘Phase 4’ activities that consider a complex heterogeneous cloud ecosystem. This work embraces MEC security enhancements, consolidating the development of MEC Federation, addressing multi-domain and multi-tenancy slicing and MEC support for application slicing, also addressing the recommendations coming from the study on Abstracted Radio Network Information for Industries, expanded traditional cloud and NFV Life Cycle Management (LCM) approaches, and mobile or intermittently connected components and consumer-owned cloud resources. The MEC Phase 4 work will be critical also to support edge native applications leveraging the evolutions of communication systems toward 6G.

Our Role & Activities

The Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) initiative is an Industry Specification Group (ISG) within ETSI. The purpose of the ISG is to create a standardized, open environment which will allow the efficient and seamless integration of applications from vendors, service providers, and third-parties across multi-vendor Multi-access Edge Computing platforms.

The initiative aims to benefit a number of entities within the value chain, including mobile operators, application developers, Over the Top (OTT) players, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), telecom equipment vendors, IT platform vendors, system integrators, and technology providers; all of these parties are interested in delivering services based on Multi-access Edge Computing concepts.

The work of the MEC initiative aims to unite the telco and IT-cloud worlds, providing IT and cloud-computing capabilities within the RAN (Radio Access Network). The MEC ISG specifies the elements that are required to enable applications to be hosted in a multi-vendor multi-access edge computing environment.

MEC also enables applications and services to be hosted ‘on top’ of the mobile network elements, i.e. above the network layer. These applications and services can benefit from being in close proximity to the customer and from receiving local radio-network contextual information.

The work of the ISG includes development of normative specifications, as well as informative reports and white papers.

The DECODE Working Group is further focused on easing the implementation path for vendors, operators and application developers by providing SW implementation of APIs; developing a testing and compliance framework and a sandbox environment to be used in application development. All these are being made available through ETSI FORGE and in the case of the MEC sandbox, a dedicated portal.

The group also actively works to help enable and promote the MEC ecosystem by hosting Proof-of-Concept (PoC) and MEC Deployment Trial (MDT) environments as well as supporting and running Hackathons.

The various players in the value chain are invited to actively participate in the ISG and to contribute to the development of the specifications based on industry consensus. This is important, since it will ensure that the stakeholders are represented in this newly emerging ecosystem. The participants are encouraged to share best practices and demonstrate Proofs of Concepts (PoCs) and contribute to the various tasks of WG DECODE.

Upcoming meetings

The upcoming MEC meetings can be found on the ETSI Portal.

Specifications

A full list of related specifications in the public domain is accessible via the MEC committee page.

Blog

The direct link to refer to this blog is https://www.etsi.org/newsroom/blogs/blog-mec

Introduction

The advent of large-scale quantum computing offers great promise to science and society, but brings with it a significant threat to our global information infrastructure. Public-key cryptography - widely used on the internet today - relies upon mathematical problems that are believed to be difficult to solve given the computational power available now and in the medium term.

However, popular cryptographic schemes based on these hard problems – including RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography – will be easily broken by a quantum computer. This will rapidly accelerate the obsolescence of our currently deployed security systems and will have dramatic impacts on any industry where information needs to be kept secure.

Quantum-safe cryptography refers to efforts to identify algorithms that are resistant to attacks by both classical and quantum computers, to keep information assets secure even after a large-scale quantum computer has been built.

Without quantum-safe cryptography and security, all information that is transmitted on public channels now – or in the future – is vulnerable to eavesdropping. Even encrypted data that is safe against current adversaries can be stored for later decryption once a practical quantum computer becomes available. At the same time it will be no longer possible to guarantee the integrity and authenticity of transmitted information, as tampered data will go undetected. From business, ethical, and legal perspectives, this would violate the regulatory requirements for data privacy and security that are in existence today.

Our Role & Activities

Cryptanalysis and the standardization of cryptographic algorithms require significant time and effort for their security to be trusted by governments and industry. ETSI is taking a proactive approach to define the standards that will secure our information in the face of technological advance.

Quantum-safe cryptography and security is essential for:

The ETSI Cyber Quantum Safe Cryptography (QSC) Working Group aims to assess and make recommendations for quantum-safe cryptographic primitives protocols and implementation considerations, taking into consideration both the current state of academic cryptography research and quantum algorithm research, as well as industrial requirements for real-world deployment. Our focus is on the practical implementation of quantum safe primitives, including performance considerations, implementation capabilities, protocols, benchmarking and practical architectural considerations for specific applications. Our objectives DON’T include the development of cryptographic primitives.

This group considers the security properties of the proposed algorithms and protocols along with practical considerations, such as extensible security architectures and technology switching costs, which will allow these recommendations to support a variety of industrial use cases. We make pragmatic comparisons and concrete characterizations and recommendations to assist the global technology community to select and deploy the best available quantum-safe alternatives.

To assist the community to prepare their digital systems for the quantum computers era, we published TR 103 619 defining migration strategies and recommendations for Quantum-Safe schemes, and enhancing cryptography awareness across all business sectors.

Specifications

A list of related specifications in the public domain is accessible via the ETSI standards search.

Introduction

Technology has the potential to improve the way we live and work, but it can also carry risks to the environment. The ICT industry and its customers have a responsibility to minimize the adverse impact of ICT.

One way we can reduce the impact on climate change – and at the same time reduce operational costs – is by improving the energy efficiency of ICT products and services. Standards can help achieve this goal. ETSI works on these matters also answering to EC standardization requests continuing to develop the standards needed to support the EC’s energy efficiency targets.

Our Role & Activities

Our current work on the environmental aspects of ICT equipment includes energy efficiency.

TC EE develops standards for reducing the eco-environmental impact of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) equipment. This includes:

ETSI technical committee Environmental Engineering (EE) is responsible for defining the environmental and infrastructural aspects for all telecommunication equipment and its environment, including equipment installed in subscriber premises. Wherever possible this will be achieved by referencing existing international standards.

Environmental aspects considered include: 

TC EE and ITU-T SG5 are working together to develop technically aligned standards on energy efficiency, power feeding solution, circular economy and network efficiency KPI and eco-design requirement for ICT, with the aim to build an international eco-environmental standardization.

TC ATTM focuses on the ‘green’ needs of operational networks and sites and broadband transmission including:

Energy costs continue to rise, while broadband penetration is introducing new equipment to the network architecture. Energy consumption is therefore a major consideration affecting widespread broadband deployment.

TC ATTM defines the Energy efficiency for the general landscape of work required to address the energy consumption of all telecommunications equipment and systems. TC ATTM and CENELEC are working together on broadband implementation in Europe.

ISG OEU is working to minimize the power consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of infrastructure, utilities, equipment and software within ICT sites and networks. This includes:

Standards

A full list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the EE, ATTM and OEU committee pages. 

Introduction

Smart Body Area Network (BAN) technology uses small, low power wireless devices that can be carried on the body like wearables or embedded inside the body like implants. Applications include medical, health improvement, personal safety and well-being, as well as sport and leisure applications. Here are a few examples use cases:

Various challenges have been identified that hinder BAN communications development. For example, solutions that may be suitable for monitoring people during exercise one or two hours a day, or a few days a week, fall short of what is needed for 24/7 health monitoring in the Internet of Things (IoT).

A number of wireless BAN communication technologies have been implemented based on the existing radio technologies. However, if BAN technology is to achieve its full potential, it needs a more specific and dedicated technology, which is optimized for BAN.

OUR ROLE & ACTIVITIES

In ETSI Technical Committee SmartBAN, we are working on standardising a more specific and dedicated technology, optimized for BAN. Our aim is to enable the features needed for BAN applications:

Our scope includes communication media, and associated physical layer, network layer, security, data interoperability, QoS, and the provision of generic applications and services (e.g., web).

Our standardisation work covers ultra-low-power radio communications, a lower complexity Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for extended autonomy and enhanced robustness in the presence of interference, and the definition of interoperable data structures and formats enabling interoperability when communicating over heterogeneous networks in the IoT.

Future Smart BANs will exist within a wider IoT environment. Noting this coexistence, ETSI TC SmartBAN extended its work via contributions to various bodies, both within ETSI (including SmartM2M and ERM TG 30), as well as external bodies including AIOTI (Alliance for the Internet of Things Innovation), IEC TC 124 (wearable electronic devices and technologies) and IEC SyC AAL (Active Assisted Living), Bluetooth Special Interest Group (BT SIG), H2020 ACTIVAGE (Active & Healthy Ageing IoT based solutions and services) and the ITEA’s CareWare project.

STANDARDS

A full list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the SmartBAN committee page.