Too many devices and too few controls-remote management is just the time
Employees working remotely are used to let their IT colleagues and other key suppliers to remotely configure, upgrade and maintain their computers. One day, mobile phones and other electronic gadgets will bring similar services into the digital home-from wall-sized LCD TVs to pocket-sized MP3 players.
System manufacturers and service providers believe that remote management of interconnected equipment will increase productivity and broaden the market. But if the industry intends to launch a technology and business model that can bring this capability to the office and home, a lot of work needs to be done.
To support this ambitious vision, the Telecommunication Management Forum (TM Forum) recently convened a meeting in Silicon Valley in the United States and took a step in this direction. Executives from multiple service providers, system manufacturers and software developers tried to outline the problems they faced.
"Completely different agreements from different fields are everywhere. This is one of the central problems we intend to solve." Christopher Ballard, head of the newly established equipment management group under TM Forum, said. TM Forum is a huge industry organization that has been engaged in the development of standards for managing telecommunications networks since the 1980s.
"Our role is to rationalize existing methods, reach consensus, find gaps, and integrate standard requirements into a suitable standard group." Ballard said.
The TM Forum ’s new 30-member working group is drafting a guide, in which it plans to launch multiple projects in this area, such as how to discover devices on a wide area network (WAN) and how to repair or manage these devices when needed.
This meeting played a role in attracting new members and expanding the impact of work. At present, the main members include several system companies such as Cisco Systems, Ericsson and Hewlett-Packard; service providers like Korea Telecom and Telecom Italia; and consulting firm Deutsche Telecom. The conference also attracted senior speakers and attendees from Comcast, LG Electronics, Nokia and home gateway manufacturers 2Wire and Westell.
"We hope to build an ecosystem, and only cooperation can achieve this goal." The team member, Comcast
CTO Chris Albano said, "We are still in the early stages of an emerging field."
At present, the various management technologies used by service providers and system manufacturers have no shortcomings. Participants believe that what is missing is a common architecture that enables multiple methods to work together.
For example, telecommunications companies such as AT & T adopted the TR-069 standard led by the Broadband Forum (formerly DSL Forum). Cable TV operators like Comcast generally use technologies based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
Representatives of the Broadband Forum have talked with CableLabs counterparts about management technologies, including the possibility of using TR-069 for wired networks, introduced Jaime Fink, Broadband Forum member and gateway manufacturer 2Wire ’s vice president of technology and strategy. The TR-069 specification is flexible and lighter than the SNMP method, he said.
"As far as I know, Broadband Forum has always been of little help to us." Said CTO Ralph Brown of CableLabs. CableLabs is a research consortium composed of major cable service providers.
Brown said that the CableLabs specification calls for SNMP to manage set-top boxes and the use of technology from the UPnP Forum to manage devices such as gateways and routers in home networks. CableLabs also defines specifications for devices that manage to mix IPv4 and IPv6 in home networks.
Brown is skeptical of TM Forum's latest work. "It may be too greedy to intend to manage all the devices in the home network." He said, "Our work focuses on the management of home gateways, service quality and terminal network connectivity."
Some consumer product manufacturers say that TR-069 is not suitable for their systems. "TR-069 makes equipment more expensive, and you can't find retail products that use TR-069." MarTIn DeBono, vice president of sales at Pure Networks, said. The company is a software company that has developed the Home Network Application Protocol (HNAP), a proprietary technology that can help users more easily manage their home Wi-Fi networks.
HNAP does not have any remote management functions, but only 52KB of memory. Most Wi-Fi routers retailing on the market use HNAP, and even deal specifically with some routers used for retailing cable TV vendors, DeBono said. Pure Networks will introduce HNAP extensions for network cameras and digital image frames, he added.
During this period, more and more consumer electronics equipment companies are adopting the method defined by the UPnP Forum and promoted by the Digital Home Network Alliance (DLNA). Many existing management mechanisms have similar goals and use the same building blocks, said Jim Thomsen, product line manager at gateway manufacturer Westell. However, each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and there is no universal method to connect them, he pointed out.
In addition, neither management methods from telecommunications providers, cable TV service providers or consumer electronics manufacturers can effectively incorporate new home control networks based on Echelon, Zensys or ZigBee Alliance technologies, Thomsen said.
"If all these methods work together, it can help companies like us sell gateways not only to telecommunications companies, but also to cable TV service providers," he said.
Thomsen suggested that the industry may need new conversion capabilities to bridge these many protocols. OEMs need to consider moving to multi-core processors, larger memory and multi-threaded software to deal with the corresponding work. "If data processing has exhausted today's routers, they can no longer be used for management applications," he said.
Consumer electronics companies are interested in integrating Ethernet and USB interfaces in TVs and other systems so that suppliers can remotely upgrade these products or correct software defects. In Ryu, executive vice president of LG ’s advanced research organization that attended the TM Forum Said. However, consumer electronics companies are also concerned that new features will increase the already high repair rate of digital electronics.
TM Forum's original intention was "very meaningful and may be important," said Paul Liao, CTO of Panasonic's North American branch. Panasonic has been using embedded SD card slots to upgrade software in its high-end TVs, but Panasonic itself does not provide such support services.
Chuck Trent, vice president of internal IT services at Cisco, expressed the hope that the team ’s efforts will make it easier for the company ’s business units to support the rapid changes in their staff ’s use of a wide variety of cell phones and mobile services.
"I need mobile phone manufacturers and service providers to join hands to support global services in such a way-to make the device unboxing available and get it done with one click." Trent said, "I need this forum to pass this on to service providers. Information, I hope they find a way to make all this happen. "
Plamen Nedeltchev, another senior member of the Cisco IT department, is trying his best to help the TM Forum team retouch the requirements statement for a standard based on the work Cisco has always done for its IT users.
Define business model
In parallel with technical efforts, executives are also debating the business model of providing remote support for mobile business systems and digital home devices.
Many people believe that remote support is a natural extension of the business of mobile phone and TV service providers. But it is unclear whether these companies are ready for this task. Other organizations trying to lead the business said that it is unclear whether users are willing to pay for the service, especially for home networks.
"Because consumers are not yet planning to pay for such services, we are still in the category creation stage." Said Fred King, vice president of sales and marketing at Plum Choice, an online PC support service provider.
It was also pointed out that the shift to remote management requires a path around the source. On the one hand, the services provided should simplify the work and life of IT departments and home users. But on the other hand, these services can also cause privacy issues.
Figure 2: Chuck Trent, Cisco ’s vice president of internal IT services, expressed the hope that the company ’s business unit will make it easier to support its staff ’s mobile phones and mobile services.
Author: Merina
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