NICC Drives UK’s Interoperability Standards at Annual Open Forum
London, 1 October 2013 – The NICC is set to bring together industry leaders next month, as it continues to develop interoperability standards for public communications networks and services across the UK. Taking place on 28 November, this year’s NICC Open Forum will throw a spotlight on nuisance calls, solar storms, cyber security and optical fibre and VDSL2 on copper.
2013’s Open Forum already boasts an impressive agenda that includes participation from George Williamson, Director of Strategic Network Design at Openreach; Trevor Linney, Head of Access Network Research at BT, will explore Next Generation Access – benefits and architectural implications; Stephen Hearnden, Director of Technology at Intellect, will impart his knowledge of the spectrum and the 700MHz challenge; Stuart Eves, Lead Mission Concepts Engineer at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, and Mike Hapgood, from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, will address Solar Storms; Neil Cook, CTO at Cloudmark will share his thoughts on nuisance calls; and Gavin Young, Head of Fixed Access Competence Centre at Vodafone, will provide insight on Demand Attentive Networks. The issues that surround of Cyber Security, an item from The IET and BIS, will also form a part of the agenda.
NICC is considered by Ofcom to be the UK Telecommunications Network Design Authority and is a source of advice to Ofcom and Government departments on the harmonisation of technical interconnection arrangements. Since its establishment, NICC has been instrumental in developing standards to enable end-to-end new and existing telecoms services to operate successfully. In the past twelve months alone it has spearheaded work in:
· SIP NNI Basic Voice Architecture and the supporting protocol specifications which involved the Cabinet Office
· The development of a nuisance call tracing process document at the request of Ofcom
· The formulation of a suite of ALA specifications, including VDSL2 wires only
· The creation of a NGA-T specifications suite
· The development of a standardised approach to Security, Connectivity and Authentication within Wi-Fi networks in the UK
· Exchange based VDSL2 for UK copper access networks
· Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM)
· Vectored VDSL performance
David Hendon, Senior Advisor at Ofcom, says: “The NICC is a very special place where the communications industry looks at the intersection between technology, network standards and regulation and agree how current and future UK networks will co-exist and interconnect in a changing world. The NICC Open Forum is your best opportunity to lift your gaze from today’s work and think about what is coming down the line. You can’t afford to miss it.”
The NICC Open Forum provides the perfect platform where contributors from member organisations and other sectors come together to discuss proposed work for the next year, while providing updates on new and exciting topics. The event also provides unique networking opportunities throughout the day.
Gavin Young, representing The IET Communications Policy Panel, adds: “For many years the NICC had played a key role in the evolution of the UK telecoms network infrastructure, facilitating deployment of the interoperable services that underpin our digital economy. The NICC Open Forum is a great opportunity to get an insight into current work and forthcoming technologies as well as an excellent opportunity to network with industry peers.”
Looking ahead to 2014, the NICC plans to focus on key areas including dial through fraud in SIP; enhancements to the SIP NNI Basic specifications; interworking specifications to permit SIP NNI; corporate SIP access; emergency location information from SIP Enterprise locations; and updates to the CLI specifications to cater for nuisance calls as requested by Ofcom.
As a basis for its work on standards, NICC adopts where possible and adapts when necessary existing ETSI and International standards where possible. NICC will endorse existing ETSI and International standards with changes to meet the requirements that exist as a result of the UK historical and current regulatory environments. NICC publishes its standards on the NICC public web site – http://www.niccstandards.org.uk/.
The NICC Open Forum will take place on 28 November at the Godfrey Mitchell Theatre, One Great George Street, Westminster, London. To view the full programme, please visit http://www.niccstandards.org.uk/meetings/forum-2013.cfm. NICC members and non-members can register to attend by contacting openforum2013@niccstandards.org.uk for further information.
About NICC
NICC is considered by Ofcom to be the UK Telecommunications Network Design Authority. NICC is the UK telecommunications industry committee acting as an industry consensus group in which specifications and technical issues associated with network interoperability can be discussed. It is also a source of advice to Ofcom and Government departments on the harmonisation of technical interconnection arrangements. NICC membership is comprised of UK telecommunications organisations including, communication providers, equipment vendors and service providers. For more information, go to: NICC publishes its standards on the NICC public web site – http://www.niccstandards.org.uk/.
