Driving Technology Changes

Here at TIA we're always looking at new ways to help our members deploy more broadband, more rapidly, to more consumers. This could mean pursuing policies that encourage investment in next-generation networks. It might take form at NXTcomm, our annual industry-leading tradeshow, where vendors, carriers and content providers come together to forge new business models. Sometimes, it's the work of TIA's engineering committees, which do so much to establish consensus standards within a diverse industry, that furthers our goal of universal broadband deployment.

At times, these committees push the envelope of what "universal broadband" means, extending it beyond the idea of data to every consumer's laptop or PDA and onto the roads we drive on or into the hospitals we visit to get well. Our newest committees, launched last year, are tackling just those topics. 

One committee in particular, TR-48: Vehicular Telematics, reminds me by its very existence of the ways ICT is changing our economy and the long-term planning needed within our industry to see that change through. TR-48 aims to harmonize communications in a sector that has been showing major growth in recent years. 

OnStar, Connexis, Synch, Hughes and ComCare are among the many brands of wireless communications for the auto industry – each of which uses slightly different protocols.  GM's OnStar, for example, centers its communications around the auto itself, placing the Telematics Control Unit (TCU), the brains of the operation, in the car's dash. Ford's Synch 2.0, on the other hand, pairs the TCU with the user's mobile phone via Bluetooth technology. Both systems are thriving, and both serve the consumer – but they are very different in application, and harmonization is an important concern when considering public safety and E911 issues.  The potential for improved rapid response and emergency assistance is immense in the telematics industry – as long as public safety answering points and other first responders can process the many different kinds of information coming from each vendor. Translation problems emerging from these different protocols may not stunt such a promising industry's growth, but they could lead to public-interest-driven regulations that might inhibit its development. 

TR-48, chaired by Telcordia Director of Broadband Access Engineering and Operations Kevin Lu, is making preliminary forays into telematics harmonization. The committee's goals are to develop use cases and requirements as precursors to ultimately developing standards; to develop a notional architecture diagram representative of TR-48's larger mission; to select and extend an existing architecture to identify gaps as an initial starting point for discussion on standardization activities; and to develop notional market packages including the devices into a vehicular telematics system for equipment suppliers and service providers.

It's clear the next decade will see major changes in the automotive and ICT industries.  Member companies participating in TR-48's various projects will be on the forefront of those changes, and will be, quite literally, in the driver's seat when it comes to global harmonization of the market.

Thank you,
Grant Seiffert
President
TIA