ATIS and
Interoperability in the Americas
Dr. Asok Chatterjee
On Behalf of the
Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS)
July 6, 2010
About ATIS
• ATIS is the leading technical planning and standards development
organization headquartered in North America.
• ATIS is committed to the rapid development of global, marketdriven standards to make possible tomorrow's communications
ecosystem.
– More than 600 industry professionals from approximately 250
companies actively formulate standards in ATIS’ Committees, Forums,
and Incubators.
• ATIS is the North American Organizational Partner for the 3rd
Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a member and major U.S.
contributor to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Radio and Telecommunications’ Sectors, and a member of the
Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL).
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ATIS and Interoperability in the Americas
• ATIS is pleased to be a part of the Regional ITU Consultation on
Conformance Assessment and Interoperability and strongly
supports the ITU’s objective of promoting interoperability and
bridging the standardization gap as articulated in World
Telecommunication Standardization Assembly 2008 (WTSA-08)
Resolution 76.
• ATIS seeks to support countries and regulators of the developing
world.
• In this regard, ATIS requests consideration of the step-by step
approach to addressing interoperability as recommended in the
CITEL Proposal to Plenipotentiary 2010 on Facilitating
Interoperability.
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Conformance Database Is Ineffective and Risky
• A conformance database is not likely to improve
interoperability.
– Conformance is not necessarily related to interoperability. For
example, whether a product conforms with product safety
requirements does not impact its ability to interoperate with other
devices.
– Most products conform to many standards, not just ITU
Recommendations. Hence, conformance with only ITU
Recommendations will not ensure interoperability.
– The majority of standards include many options. If a standard has two
options, for example, products in conformance with Option A will not
necessarily interoperate with products in conformance with Option B.
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Conformance Database Is Ineffective and Risky
(cont.)
• The database could negatively impact countries and
consumers.
– Countries may be deprived of new, state-of-the art products and
services if companies are inhibited from entering a market when its
products are not listed in the database.
– Time-to-market will likely be slowed by new conformance testing.
– Marketplace confusion could result from false, misleading or
otherwise erroneous database entries.
• Consumers may face higher costs from additional
conformance and/or interoperability testing and
from reduced competition in the market.
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CITEL Proposal to Plenipotentiary 2010
• THEREFORE, ATIS supports the CITEL countries’ “step-by-step”
approach.
– The Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) Director, prior
to the implementation of any conformance or interoperability
database, should:
• Identify the nature of the interoperability and conformity problems in the
CITEL region;
• Study the effects databases may have on sector members and
stakeholders (e.g., other SDOs);
– Proposed studies should also address relevance of the proposed searchable
databases in “bridging the standardization gap” in the Americas Region;
• Present the results of a robust consultative process with respect to the
databases to future Council meetings;
• Develop a detailed “business case” for the searchable database prior to
its implementation; and
• Address potential liability issues related to the use of the databases by
the TSB Director before implementation.
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In Summary
• More work remains to be done in order to move toward a
useful implementation of Resolution 76 that addresses the
needs and priorities of member States, the structure of the
ICT industry, and the expectations of end users around the
world.
• Any follow up action to Resolution 76 of WTSA-08 put
forward by the TSB Director to Council and the
Plenipotentiary Conference 2010 (PP-10) should be consistent
with the CITEL Inter-American Proposal (IAP) to the
Plenipotentiary Conference 2010.
• A business plan that identifies costs and potential liabilities
must be completed prior to launching of the proposed ITU-T
database (see JCA-CIT).
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