Broadband Forum, Wi-Fi Alliance join forces to ensure smoother path to connected device management

Aiming to achieve a boost to the advancement of wireless communications, open standards development organisation Broadband Forum has announced it has successfully integrated the advanced capabilities of Wi-Fi Data Elements from Wi-Fi Alliance and published the next versions of its suite of standards for managed services.

The publication of the 1.2 version of User Services Platform (USP/TR-369) and 2.15 version of the widely adopted TR-181 Device Data Model is intended to ensure operators can deploy interoperable customer Wi-Fi optimisation and management services, and help reduce customer churn and increase average revenue per user (ARPU).

The new standards were developed with close collaboration among a cross-spectrum of operators, chipset manufacturers, suppliers and management application companies. The publication of the 1.2 version of USP delivers a multi-supplier, multi-application environment.

The 2.15 version of TR-181, in particular, was developed with input from members of both Wi-Fi Alliance and the Broadband Forum, with the result of enabling efficient communication combined with extensive telemetry and configuration options that are synchronised with the latest advanced features from Wi-Fi Data Elements with an increased number of Wi-Fi key performance indicators (KPIs) now available. Various Wi-Fi data model fragments are now consolidated under the 2.15 version of TR-181 Wi-Fi Data Elements interface.

Broadband Forum standards are developed in tandem with the official open-source implementation of USP through the Open Broadband USP Agent (OB-USP-Agent) project with testing and certification through the BBF.369 USP Certification Programme. This development has, according to Broadband Forum, made USP the interoperable ecosystem for the connected home and one of the fastest-growing standards for connected device management and control in the industry.

“The Broadband User Services Work Area has completed the final steps towards publishing the next versions of its suite of standards for managed services, including the ever-present need for Wi-Fi optimisation and management,” said Jason Walls of QA Cafe and chair of the Broadband Forum Connected Home Council.

“By bringing together broadband players from across the industry to work together, operators worldwide will benefit from these new standards, helping to unlock the full potential of the connected home market,” he said.

The TR-181 data model and USP projects, created by the Broadband User Services (BUS) Work Area within the Broadband Forum, focus on agile, collaborative development that combines open standards and open-source technologies. The bodies say that as USP continues to evolve, its rapid adoption by operators, application vendors, other standards bodies and open-source projects provide operators with an easy-to-customise, turn-key solution for adding Wi-Fi optimisation and management to their service portfolio and create a better user experience for subscribers.

“The latest releases from Broadband Forum will help introduce more efficient and faster ways to manage connected devices,” said Vodafone head of fixed access centre of excellence Gavin Young. “With demand heightening for device management, the use of open standards are more important than ever, as we have seen with these releases. It is essential that standards organisations continue to work together.”

The release of these standards also provides new methods for managing and monitoring DOCSIS enabled cable modems and eRouters, plus the ability to gather mass telemetry simply over an existing message queuing telemetry transport infrastructure.

“Wi-Fi Alliance is delighted that Wi-Fi Data Elements will unlock more value in operator management systems through its inclusion in the latest update of the TR-181 Device Data Model and our ongoing alignment with Broadband Forum,” said Kevin Robinson, senior vice-president of marketing at Wi-Fi Alliance.

“There are now more than 250 key performance indicators offered by Wi-Fi Data Elements that operators worldwide can use to recognise and resolve network issues, in turn helping to provide a better customer experience.”