Toward the upcoming SG16 meeting

[OKUBO Sakae]

Dear WP2/16 experts,

I would like to ask you the following for the preparation of the SG16 
meeting that will be held in Geneva during 26 June - 6 July 2007:

1/ Contributions

Since this is a formal study group meeting, all the contributions 
must be submitted to TSB according to TSB Collective Letter 7/16 
<http://www.itu.int/md/T05-SG16-COL/en>. The submission should not be 
later than 15 June 2007 after going through your national procedures.

It is appreciated if you could advise relevant Rapporteur(s) of your 
submission intention to help their planning.

I would encourage you to send the submitted contributions to me 
<e-mail: okubo at aoni.waseda.jp> as well so that they are posted at the 
avc-site <http://ftp3.itu.ch/av-arch/avc-site/2005-2008/0706_Gen/> to 
facilitate advance review by the experts. Editors and Rapporteurs are 
also encouraged to send their TDs to me after having submitted them 
to TSB.

2/ Support for the new Question on Advanced Multimedia System

Our Shenzhen meeting last March produced a draft text as attached 
after my signature. The next SG16 meeting will review this and if 
agreed this Question will start. To make this happen, ITU-T 
Resolution 1 (October 2004) requires the following:

"7.2.2 New or revised Questions may be approved by a study group if 
consensus at the study group meeting is achieved. In addition, some 
Member States and Sector Members (normally at least four) have to 
commit themselves to support the work, e.g. by contributions, 
provision of rapporteurs or editors and/or hosting of meetings. The 
names of the supporting Sector Member organizations should be 
recorded in the meeting report."

Your indication of "commitment" is requested at the meeting.

3/ Interim Rapporteur meeting(s)

Between the two SG16 meetings in June-July 2006 and April 2008, we 
plan one or two Rapporteur meetings. Hosts of the meeting are 
solicited and advice of any possibility is welcome to ease the future 
planning at the upcoming SG16 meeting.

-- 
Best regards,

OKUBO Sakae
e-mail: okubo at aoni.waseda.jp
Visiting Professor
Global Information and Telecommunication Institute (GITI)
Waseda University
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Waseda University, YRP Ichibankan 312        Tel: +81 46 847 5406
3-4 Hikarinooka, Yokosuka-shi, Kanagawa-ken  Fax: +81 46 847 5413
239-0847 Japan
                       H.323 videoconferencing: arranged by advice
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Annex 4 to the report of Shenzhen meeting AVD-3098 (TD 428/WP2)

Proposed New Question X/16 ミ Advanced Multimedia System for Next 
Generation and Other Packet-Switched Networks

<Background and Justification>

As the lead Study Group on multimedia terminals, systems, and 
applications, SG16 strives to make advances in multimedia 
communication systems that take advantage of emerging technologies, 
as well as advances in and deeper understanding of existing 
technologies, in an effort to enable new and better forms of 
communication capabilities (ubiquitous services and applications e.g. 
any devices, any time and anywhere) for end users.

The ITU-T has a long history of delivering successful multimedia 
systems that have enriched everyone’s lives.  One of the most widely 
deployed and successful videoconferencing systems produced by the ITU 
is H.320.  It is recognized by ITU-T SG16 as a first generation 
system and took advantage of the then newly-developed ISDN.  In the 
mid-1990s, the ITU began work on H.323, which essentially leveraged 
the knowledge gained through the development of H.320 and applied 
that knowledge to packet-switched networks, including LANs, WANs, and 
the Internet.  H.323 quickly became the dominant protocol for 
LAN-based videoconferencing, as well as a protocol used for 
transporting voice calls around the world.  H.323 was developed in 
parallel with the IETF’s Session Initiation Protocol, and was 
effective in facilitating a migration from circuit-switched networks 
to packet-switched networks.  Sharing similar capabilities and 
similar design philosophies and being produced in the same time 
period, H.323 and SIP are classified as second generation systems.

Now, more than 11 years since the introduction of second generation 
systems, ITU-T SG16 is again looking toward the future of multimedia 
systems as the ITU-T also undertakes a study to introduce the Next 
Generation Network (NGN).  The NGN holds the promise of 
revolutionizing communication as we know it and multimedia will be an 
important part of any new network technology.

By building on the knowledge gained through the development of voice 
and video technologies that were the core part of H.320 and H.323, as 
well as the data conferencing technologies introduced in the T.120 
series standards, ITU-T SG16 aims to introduce a third-generation 
system that truly enables users to utilize multiple modes of 
communication.

<Study Items>

The work on the third generation multimedia system will entail the 
creation of multiple new ITU-T Recommendations that will specify 
system architecture, system components, and one or more protocols at 
the service and application layer.  The primary objective is to 
deliver a new multimedia system that is optimized for the NGN, but it 
must also operate on non-NGN packet-switched networks.

The Experts will examine technologies such as various IP 
technologies, wireless technologies, and distributed computing 
capabilities in order to realize a system that will enable users to 
communicate using, as examples, voice and audio, video, electronic 
whiteboard, application sharing, real-time text, and file transfer 
across one or more communicating devices (e.g. smart phones, TV 
set-top boxes, game consoles, handheld game/entertainment machines, 
digital cameras, Internet “appliances”).  Unlike previous 
generation systems, this new system will enable independent 
application developers to create system components that are able to 
seamlessly interface with the H.325 system in order to deliver any 
one or more of the aforementioned modes of communication.  There is a 
strong desire to move away from the “monolithic applications” that 
were distinctive of second generation systems, to a system that 
enables components to “plug in” to the system, either locally or 
remotely, either using fixed wires or various wireless technologies, 
to deliver a whole new user experience.  To meet that objective, SG16 
will study the various interfaces between these components and the 
technologies that might be used to tie them together.

The study includes among others:

・	Downloadable codecs
・	System decomposition
・	Discovery of services
・	Support for transcoding functionality (e.g. text to speech)
・	Dynamic device discovery
・	Application plug in
・	Consideration of different business models
・	Integrated QoS, security and mobility functionality

<Specific Tasks and Deadlines>

・	Identification of Requirements		(until Q1/2008)
・	Basic Architecture			(until Q1/2009)
・	Complete System Specification		(depends on progress)

<Relationships>

Virtually all other questions within SG 16, especially WP 2/16 and 
audio/video coding questions
・	ITU-T SG 11, SG 13, others TBD
・	IETF
・	ETSI TISPAN
・	3GPP
・	Others TBD
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