Beyond TCP/IP — next-generation protocols

Things have changed since the advent of the TCP/IP protocol in the 1970s, and according to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the time has come to assess alternatives that will deliver the full potential demanded by our increasingly connected world.

To facilitate this, the organisation has created a new Industry Specification Group (ISG), which will look at evolving communications and networking protocols to provide the scale, security, mobility and ease of deployment required for the connected society of the 21st century. The group’s inaugural meeting took place 21 January and was hosted by BSI, the UK National Standards Organisation.

According to ETSI, the telecommunications industry has reached a point where forward leaps in the technology of the local access networks will not deliver their full potential unless, in parallel, the underlying protocol stacks used in core and access networks evolve. The development of future 5G systems presents a unique opportunity to address this issue, as a sub-optimal protocol architecture can negate the huge performance and capacity improvements planned for the radio access network.

The ETSI Next Generation Protocols Industry Specification Group (NGP ISG) will identify the requirements for next-generation protocols and network architectures, from all interested user and industry groups. Topics will include the following:

• Addressing
• Security, identity, location, authorization, accounting/auditing and authentication
• Mobility
• Requirements from Internet of Things
• Requirements from video and content distribution
• Requirements from ultralow latency use cases from different sectors (ie, automotive)
• Requirements from network operators (eg, challenges with E2E encrypted content)
• Requirements from e-commerce
• Requirements for increased energy efficiency within the global ICT sector

The ISG will provide a forum for interested parties to contribute by sharing research and results from trials and developments in such a way that a wider audience can be informed. An action plan to engage other standards bodies will be developed so that parallel and concerted standardisation action can take place as a further step in the most appropriate standards groups.

Andy Sutton, chairman of NGP ISG, said “The TCP/IP protocol suite has undoubtedly enabled the evolution of connected computing and many other developments since its invention during the 1970s. NGP ISG aims to gather opinions on how we can build on this momentum by evolving communication systems architectures and networking protocols to provide the scale, security, mobility and ease of deployment required for the connected society of the 21st century.”

Participation in the Next Generation Protocols Industry Specification Group is open to all ETSI members as well as organisations who are not members, subject to signing ISG Agreements. For information on how to participate, email ISGsupport@etsi.org.

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