Telecom industry association ITU and MEF announced their agreement to advance the development and deployment of emerging connectivity services – in addition to standardized CE 2.0 (Carrier Ethernet) services.
ITU Standardization Bureau Director Chaesub Lee and MEF President Nan Chen signed the agreement in Budapest.
The agreement focuses on mutual standards referencing for CE 2.0 and LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration), standards compliance/certification and global education as well as alignment in emerging areas, such as trust in the information society, orchestration and virtualization, as well as 5G Cloud Access.
The ITU Standardization Sector (ITU-T) and MEF will establish a Joint Steering Committee composed of two representatives from each organization that will supervise the overall implementation of the collaboration.
The two bodies intend to organize periodic leadership workshops to focus on specific aspects of proposed collaboration relating to the adoption of ITU-T and MEF standards in the areas of Carrier Ethernet and the next generation of agile, assured and orchestrated connectivity services.
The organizations intend to focus on enhancing contributions to the ongoing work of relevant ITU-T Study Groups and maximizing the MEF work that can be referenced by ITU-T documents.
MEF and ITU-T intend to investigate collaborative certification and conformance testing activities and promote the availability of training and certification to maximize the impact of the MEF Certified Professional program.
ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao said: “MEF offers support to ITU’s standardization of Carrier Ethernet, assuring the ICT industry that well-coordinated standards development will drive the evolution of Carrier Ethernet and the emergence of integrated fixed-mobile hybrid 5G networks.”
“Alongside ITU-T, the MEF is defining the technologies that effectively makes for a level playing field, bridges the standardization gaps, and fosters opportunities for everyone to participate in the digital economy,” said Nan Chen, president of the MEF.
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