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1. What
is the HGI about?
The initiative focuses on operator business requirements
and starting from them derives a set of technical specifications
for the home gateway capable of delivering multiple play
services over broadband.
HGI bases its work on existing standards (ITU-T, ETSI, DLNA, DSL
Forum, WiFi Alliance among others) and, while defining the
requirements, identifies gaps and possible inconsistencies.
2.
When
was HGI formed and who founded it?
HGI was legally created and incorporated as an
association under Swiss law on December 15th, 2004. Nine telecom
operators founded it: Belgacom, British Telecom, Deutsche
Telekom, France Telecom, KPN, NTT, Telecom Italia, Telefonica,
TeliaSonera.
The HGI was officially announced with a press release on March 2
nd 2005 and held its first plenary meeting in Paris on April 14
2005.
3.
Who
joined already?
Several key worldwide companies (Telecom Operators and
Manufacturers) have already joined the alliance. The complete
and updated list can be found
here.
4.
Who
can join?
The HGI is an open forum. Operators and manufacturers who are deploying
and designing residential gateways, broadband home equipment, chipsets and
software are those who can be more interested in joining HGI. The only
commitment is to follow the statutes and therefore to share the goals described
there. Telecom Operators have taken the initiative of creating this group but it
is fully open (see bylaws) to any company agreeing with its objectives.
5.
How
will the customer benefit from HGI?
HGI is boosting the development of home services by
developing home gateways specifications fully integrated with
the broadband services and the home networking environment.
6.
Why
now?
Home gateways that meet operator requirements are not yet
on the market today and operators need to deploy such products
in the upcoming years. It is a key turn in the industry, and
telecom operators want to give a direction on where the industry
developments should go.
7. What
are the deliverables?
The outputs are technical specifications, as well
as architectural definitions and (work in progress)
testing. Prototypes from manufacturers are anticipated
to validate key concepts. Technical specifications that
have been published are already used in procurement
activities and tenders to help reaching a critical mass
on to shorten the time to market of products.
Release 1 has been published on July 2006 and it is
available to the general public from the HGI website.
Release 2 is due for full publication in 4Q2007
8. Who
are the targets of the results published by HGI ?
All industry sectors and service operators
interested in the provisioning and deployment of
interoperable residential/SOHO services through a
broadband access (DSL, optical, CATV, Wireless ...) are
taking advantage of the HGI specifications that provide
the building blocks of the Home Gateway and the impact
on the surrounding networking environment.
9. When
is the first HGI output due?
A first set of requirements about the end to end
reference architecture, the use cases description, the
architecture of the Home Gateway, the security mechanisms,
the remote operations and device management features, the
end-to-end QoS architecture and functionalities and the home
networking architecture, has been released on July 2006.
Release 2 is currently being discussed and scheduled for
publication 4Q2007.
In May 2007 Release 3 topics and priorities have been
identified and passed to the HGI Business Working Group for
defining the related use cases. The Technical Working groups
will start mapping them into technical requirements in
3Q2007.
10.How
can a company join?
Applicants may access membership information
here.
11.What
is the role of Telecom Operators in the HGI ?
Telecom Operators have a key role in the HGI as they
steer the technical work through the Management Committee and
assign the priorities to make the results more usable and
products depolyed. Manufactures actively cooperate to make the
right choices and to have consistent results with the aim of
having a seamlessly integrated home environment.
12.What
type of contributions are required from the members ?
We have two working streams: business requirements and
technical specifications. Business requirements and use cases
are meant to serve as a basis to technical groups to define
specifications to support efficient services and network
deployment. Depending on your company's interest, you may choose
to contribute to either or both working streams.
Document submission is not mandatory, but active participation
is more than welcome. You can choose to provide your written
contributions or simply follow the discussions of the working
groups.
13.What
additional resources would members be expected to contribute?
The intent is to organise events where prototypes or systems
will be demonstrated, compared and tested against each other to
prove that specifications are unambiguously leading to
interoperable services and networks.
14.How
many meetings will HGI hold a year ?
Face to face plenary meetings are held 4 times a year
worldwide. Working groups may meet as well during interim
meetings if needed and they usually work by conference calls
making as well extensive use of the mailing lists.
15.Is
the HGI a Worldwide forum or Europe centered ?
The HGI is a forum open to any potential member
worldwide. HGI currently has several important members from
Middle East, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, South
Africa, Europe and US.
16.When
the first HGI-compliant products will become available on
the market ?
HGI Release 1 specification has been reference partially or
totally in several RFI/RFQ worldwide and the home gateways
deployed by the HGI members in their tripl-quad play offers
rely on more than 75%-80% of the HGI specs.
17.Is
the HGI planning to define a compatibility/compliance program ?
Whenever we will identify a specific functionality or
feature that might be recognized as HGI-peculiar we will start
evaluating the identification of procedure for compliance.
Anyway plugfests are already planned after the second release of
specifications.
18.What
are the differences between HGI and DSLForum, DLNA, OSGi and
other similar fora and initiatives ?
The HGI is closely working with all the relevant
bodies and fora in order to help them reaching their goals
and targets. HGI aims to fill the gaps, particularly on the
Home Gateway and the surrounding environment, that have been
identified by its members in the currently available
standards and specifications. The documents that have been
published before the launch of the HGI by other groups
forced telecom operators to ask for customized, and
therefore expensive, developments of advanced gateways to
support the deployment of triple play services.
19.What
are the advantages for operators in joining HGI ?
Telecom operators worldwide will be able to shorten
the time to market for added value services over broadband
taking advantage of cost effective and future proof Home
Gateways that will provide support to end to end QoS,
management and service delivery mechanisms.
20.What
are the advantages for vendors and manufacturers in joining HGI
?
Vendors and manufacturers will be able to rapidly answer
to operators and market needs of Home Gateways relying on a
uniform architecture and a wide set of required and specified
features
Status 2007-05-21
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