IN THIS ISSUE:

• MSF President's Report - Roger Ward, BT
• TC Chair's Notebook- Avri Doria
• MSF Welcomes New Members
• GMI 2006 Update
• More Interoperability News
• MSF Election News
• MSF TC Meeting, Berlin - Important Dates
• Contact Us

Dear MSF Member,

Clearwater was an important meeting for us in so many ways.

First and foremost, there was the progress towards delivering a successful GMI 2006 - the very visible and unique MSF event that builds upon the MSF relationship with major carriers to provide a networked global test environment to validate MSF Implementation Agreements (IA's) in support of the MSF Release 3 architecture.

Secondly - there was the MSF Senior Fellowship awards - a timely reminder of just how much the achievements of the MSF have been due to the determination and leadership of a small number of exceptional individuals determined to make a difference and positively influence our work.

Let's look at some of these topics in more detail…

1. GMI 2006 Progress

After many months of careful preparation, it is a pleasure to finally be able to announce publicly details of GMI 2006 - the Global MSF Interoperability event that will be held 16 - 27 October 2006. Five of the world's top carriers - BT, KT, NTT, Verizon and Vodafone and leading test facility UNH-IOL - will host the event to provide world-class networked test facilities spanning 3 continents. Comprising a massive 'real network' trial of the MSF IMS-compatible (IP Multimedia System) Release 3 architecture, this event is critically important to any carrier or vendor committed to building or implementing infrastructure elements compatible with IMS.

GMI 2006 will bring together dozens of carriers and vendors to test the interoperability of IMS-based infrastructure components in a real-world setting. Providing a test-bed for the full spectrum of hardware, processes and services needed to assemble an effective next-generation delivery platform, GMI 2006 is designed to validate MSF Release 3 Implementation Agreements covering a wide range of topics including roaming across multiple network types (including cellular and WiFi), QoS issues (including session border control and bandwidth management), and interoperability with 3GPP release 4. Because full IMS implementation will demand enormous investment - nothing less than a complete overhaul of the world's service delivery infrastructure - GMI 2006 provides a vital insight into the development of appropriate interoperable specifications for deployment across real networks.

2. MSF Senior Fellowship

None of what the MSF achieves happens without people! Having had the privilege to work with Avri Doria (TC Chair), Chris Gallon (Protocol & Control Working Group Chair) and Brian Down (former MSF Board Member and Management Committee Chair) for many years, it was a pleasure to see all their hard work and achievements recognised with the award of an MSF Senior Fellowship. The aim of this program is to bestow "Senior Fellowship of the MSF" to individual members who have made an outstanding impact on the direction of the MSF at Committee or Working Group level, over a period of about 3 years or more. Senior Fellows are given a lifetime free fellow membership in the MSF. Thus, if their company were no longer in the MSF, they will still have access and, most importantly will still be able to contribute to the work of the MSF. As you can see above, both Chris and Avri were in Clearwater to accept their awards, whilst we will have to wait until Berlin to catch up with Brian Down!

3. Commitment & Member Engagement

As in any organisation, the business priorities and focus change over time. For the MSF our top level priorities as we approach GMI 2006 will be:

• 1Q/06 Participant Engagement
• 2Q/06 Technical Specifications Complete
• 3Q/06 Operations Environment Complete

As we go through the year ahead, there will continue to be a major shift in emphasis from definition to delivery, with GMI 2006 (16 - 27 October 2006) now firmly established as the major global interoperability event that will be the culmination of our immediate work programme. Whilst the TC will be working hard to deliver GMI 2006, I will be starting to work with the MSF Board to define our 2007/8 work programme - who knows, it is just possible that we might end up working towards a GMI 2008!

And Finally...

Do remember that in a forum as diverse as the MSF, good communication is everything. So please forward this and other information about the MSF to anybody in your company who might benefit from getting more involved in our work. As they say, if you like what we do, tell your friends - if there are things we could do better, tell me!

I look forward to seeing you all in Berlin, Germany 4 - 6 April 2006!

Roger Ward - MSF President
London, UK.

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By several accounts, the MSF TC meeting held in Clearwater Beach, Florida was the best meeting we have had in a while. And that is saying something since many of the meetings in the last years have been very good meetings. At this meeting we not only moved from the early stage of GMI planning to the most active stage of planning, we made great progress in all the working groups.

GMI 2006

The meeting started with the Q1 report for GMI 2006. The most important announcement concerned the hiring of the GMI 2006 coordinator as part of the planning team. After receiving a number of applications for the coordinator's position, we interviewed two excellent candidates and decided to select a candidate with impressive experience in running interoperability tests and with experience as an event monitor from GMI 2004: Kari Revier. In addition to having been with the MSF for GMI 2004, Kari is a manager at UNH Interoperability Labs and has led the multi location testing efforts for the OIF. Kari attended the meeting, including a pre-meeting planning session, and by the end of the meeting was firmly involved in the project having had many conversations with prospective hosts and participants.

After spending hours reviewing and fine tuning the schedule for GMI 2006, it was presented to the membership. This schedule has been published on the GMI page (http://www.msforum.org/interoperability/GMI.shtml) of the MSF web site and will be updated as the work continues on preparing for the event.

One of the critical milestones for GMI 2006 was the selection of the host sites. Selecting the hosts set the rest of the planning into motion. It preceded the participant recruitment and with the selection of Hosts, the design of the network substructure began in earnest. The MSF recently announced the selection of our sites and has sent out the invitations for participation. Hopefully, everyone has received their invitation and is working on completing it as you read this newsletter.

Finally, the requirements for the GMI event were amended to include the Mc interface as required for inter-operation with existing mobile systems. The updated GMI requirements document can be found at: http://www.msforum.org/interoperability/GMI_2006_PRD.pdf.

Technical Committee Progress

As we moved from the planning stages of GMI to the execution stages, it was good to see the great progress made during the Clearwater meeting.

Architecture WG

The R3 Architecture went through a comprehensive post straw ballot review and is currently out for a second straw ballot. Once this straw ballot is completed, it will published on the public side of the MSF web site while awaiting final ballot so that prospective participants in the GMI will be able to consult this important document. The goal is to send this to Final Ballot before the Berlin meeting.

One of the critical deliverables for the GMI, the Physical Scenarios, were reviewed and were approved for Final Ballot. Vodafone's request for the addition of the Mc interface to the scope of the GMI was approved by the membership and extensions were made to the scenarios to validate the interface.

Other work included the resolution of comments on the Session border Gateway requirements and discussions on two new white papers:

• Network Engineering to support the Bandwidth Manager Architecture
• Roaming in GMI 2006

More details can be found in the Architecture WG closing plenary report: MSF2006.033.

Protocol and Control WG

During this stage of the GMI cycle, the greatest pressure falls on the P&C WG to define and complete the IAs which will be the focus of the tests. The Clearwater meeting made very good progress on these goals: the protocol selection process is complete and 16 new IAs have been identified, and have editors. Additionally 9 IAs are ready for Straw Ballot.

A complete list of the IAs, with the responsible authors and the status can be found at: http://www.msforum.org/private/GMI2006_IA_Table.shtml

This list is updated every few weeks, so interested members can track the progress and can get their development engineers involved early in the review and on implementation of the IAs.

More details can be found in the P&C WG closing plenary report: MSF2006.038.

Interoperability WG

With the Architecture WG finishing up its tasks, and the P&C WG, the focus comes on the Interoperability WG. This meeting saw the critical startup of that effort. And as TC chair, I must say how impressed I was at the effort of the WG leadership and the response of the members.

With the exception of the management test cases, which are handled by the Management Advisory Group, the Interoperability WG is responsible for defining tests for each of the scenarios defined by the Architecture WG and for each of the interfaces being represented by IAs. This has resulted in a list of 6 Test Scenarios comprised on over 80 test all together. A list of test cases can be found in: MSF2006.028 on the MSF contribution site. A list of test cases with details on authors, document numbers and status has been added to the GMI 2006 pages at http://www.msforum.org/private/GMI2006_Test_Cases.shtml.

Details can be found in the Interoperability WG closing plenary report: MSF2006.037.

Management Advisory Group

As I mentioned above, the MAG is responsible for defining the management interface IAs and management test scenarios for GMI 2006.

The MAG's is done slightly differently from the work in the other groups of the MSF. Management will be publishing a document that covers the following in one document:

• Scenario Requirements for:
  • provisioning Multi technology VPNs
  • provisioning Value added service - VoIP/IMS
  • fault management
• the Management Architecture to be sued in GMI 2006 testing
• Test cases

The MSF will be working with its members and its partners in the TMF to identify the specifics on protocols to be used in these scenarios.

Details can be found in the Management Advisory Group closing plenary report: MSF2006.035.

Ballots, Ballots, Ballots

Over the next few months, a great number of ballots, both straw and final, will be arriving in you mailbox. I am sure you have already seen some, and more are on the way. While the TC leadership will try to space these out in such a way so that they do not become too confusing and too much a burden, there will be several open at the same time. These ballots are important as they represent the last chance the members get to check and make sure that your company agrees with and support the work of the MSF. Please alert your reviewers; make sure they have the time to review; and watch your email.

Elections

March is election time at the MSF. AMS has sent out the information on nominations and elections in the near future. In the TC, the following roles are up for a vote:

• TC chair (1 year term)
• TC vice chair (1 year term)
• Architecture Chair (2 year term)
• Management Advisory chair (2 year term)

In terms of the Architecture WG, Paul Drew has announced that he will not be standing for re-election as he has changed job responsibilities. I will be personally sorry to see him leave the TC leadership. He has been a very fine Architecture chair and has been a pleasure to work with over the years. I wish him well in his new tasks and look forward to the day when we can work together again.

At the Berlin meeting, we will be holding some WG vice chair elections. Notice about these elections will be sent out before the meeting.

Conclusion

As always it was a pleasure meeting with the MSF participants, one of the most dedicated group of forum participations I have ever worked with. I thank all the participants, both on the lists and in the face to face meeting for their continuing efforts. And I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Berlin at our next meeting.

Avri Doria - TC chair

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The MSF would like to give a warm welcome to new members Lucent Technologies (http://www.lucent.com/) and Nextone Communications (http://www.nextone.com/).

The MSF's dues renewal period for 2006 is winding down. If your company has not already done so, please make sure that your dues are paid for 2006 so that you can continue to participate in all of the exciting activities that MSF has planned for this year.

Do you know of a company that would be perfect for MSF membership? We'd love to send them more information. Please contact Cindy Morgan (cmorgan@msforum.org) for membership information.

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GMI 2006 UPDATE

Sign Up Now!

GMI 2006, hosted by five of the world's top carriers BT, KT, NTT, Verizon and Vodafone and the UNH-IOL test facility, will provide an opportunity for equipment vendors to test products in a real world setting, across multiple continents in real-time. The focus of GMI 2006 is to demonstrate multi-vendor interoperability to achieve Fixed Mobile Convergence supporting the IMS service framework. The event will validate MSF Release 3 Implementation Agreements covering:

• Roaming services across multiple network types
• QoS (Session Border Controller and Bandwidth Manager)
• 3GPP IMS and Mobile Core Network Interoperability
• IP Carrier Interconnect/Interworking
• Security interoperability
• 3rd party applications and service brokering
• Network management and OSS
• IPv4/6 Interworking

GMI 2006 will be held from October 16-27, 2006 at host labs in North America, Europe and Asia. The fee to participate for MSF members is $9,500 USD. To download the participant contract and NDA, please go to the MSF web site at http://www.msforum.org/interoperability/GMI.shtml#participants.

Play the GMI 2006 Quiz - Win an iPod!

How much do you know about GMI 2006?

The MSF BoD and the MAE will give away an iPod to the lucky person who knows the most about GMI 2006! Go to http://www.msforum.org/private/GMI_2006_quiz.shtml to take the GMI 2006 Quiz! For every correct answer, your name will go into a drawing that will take place at the Q4 2006 TC meeting in San Diego.

MSF Hires Kari Revier as GMI Technical Coordinator

We're pleased to announce that the MSF has hired Kari Revier to act as the GMI 2006 Technical Coordinator. Those of you who participated in GMI 2004 may remember Kari as the Event Monitor at the U.S. site. Kari has valuable experience in interoperability testing, and we're delighted to have her on board.

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MORE INTEROPERABILITY NEWS

MSF Joins with UNH-IOL on Pre-GMI IMS Interoperability Event

The UNH-IOL, in cooperation with the MultiService Forum (MSF), invites you to participate in a multi-vendor interoperability test within an IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) network.

Supported by Empirix, Sage Instruments and Spirent Communications, the event will be held May 8-12, 2006 in Durham, NH.

This event will bring together industry leading companies in a neutral third-party setting to test multi-vendor interoperability of key components of the IMS core. This event also provides the opportunity for vendors to pre-test their IMS solutions before attending MSF's Global Interoperability test, GMI 2006 (www.gmi2006.com)

Your early response to this special invitation entitles you to the early-bird discount of $150.00 USD off the registration fee.

Please contact Lincoln Lavoie at UNH-IOL (lylavoie@iol.unh.edu) if you have any questions.

To register go to: http://www.iol.unh.edu/consortiums/vox/grouptest/may_01_2006ims/.

The early-bird registration deadline is Wednesday, March 29, 2006.

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MSF ELECTION NEWS

The MSF is currently seeking leadership volunteers for the following MSF Leadership Positions:

• Four seats (4) on MSF Board of Directors (2-year terms, voted for by MSF Primary Representative)
• Technical Committee Chairperson (1-year term, voted for by MSF Primary Representative)
• Technical Committee Vice Chairperson (1-year term, voted for by MSF Primary Representative)
• Marketing Awareness and Education Committee Chairperson (1-year term, voted for by MSF Primary Representative)
• Marketing Awareness and Education Committee Vice Chairperson (1-year term, voted for by MSF Primary Representative)
• Architecture Working Group Chairperson (2-year term, voted for by MSF TC Voting Representative)
• Management Advisory Chairperson (2-year term, voted for by MSF TC Voting Representative)

Nomination statements for each candidate must be received on or before Tuesday, March 14, 2006. Please see the positions listed below for information on how to nominate. Self-nomination is allowed. Nominations will be posted at http://www.msforum.org/about/nominations.shtml as they are submitted.

Upon completion of nominations, written ballots will be distributed via email to all Primary and TC Voting Representatives on Wednesday, March 15, 2006. Each Principal Member company is allowed one vote. If you are a Voting Representative and will not beable to cast your vote via email between March 15 and March 29, you can assign a proxy to vote for you by sending an email notice to Cindy Morgan (cmorgan@msforum.org) on or before March 14, 2006 specifying who has been assigned your voting privilege. The MSF requires quorum (51%) for the vote to be considered valid.

Election results for 2006 are anticipated to be complete and announced on March 30. The individuals elected will step into their new roles on April 5.

Please consider serving this highly motivated and innovative forum through a position on the MSF leadership team.

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MSF TC MEETING, BERLIN - IMPORTANT DATES

The next MSF Technical Committee meeting will be held April 4-6, 2006 in Berlin, Germany.

Meeting Registration

To register for the meeting, please complete the on-line registration process on the MSF web site under Meetings and Events at http://www.msforum.org/events/upcoming.shtml#berlin.

• Pre-registration (Good through Tuesday, March 21, 2006): $395 USD
• Late registration (Wednesday, March 22, 2006-Tuesday, April 4, 2006): $545 USD

Please note the following important deadlines for this meeting:

• Hotel Reservation Deadline: Friday, March 17, 2006, 5:00 PM CET
• Contribution Deadline: Tuesday, March 21, 2006
• Meeting Registration Deadline: Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Hotel Reservations

To make your hotel reservations, please contact:

Swissôtel Berlin
Augsburger Straße 44,
D-10789 Berlin, Germany
Phone: + 49 30 220 100
Web: http://www.berlin.swissotel.com/

MSF Room Rate: €125 single/ €135 double per night, including breakfast. Please mention "MSF Forum" to secure the MSF Room Rate.

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Want to include something in the next issue? We want to hear from you! Send your comments and contributions for the next issue to Julianne Fitzpatrick at jfitzpatrick@msforum.org.

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