CommLedgeETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute
ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, produces globally-applicable standards for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), including fixed, mobile, radio, converged, broadcast and internet technologies.
ETSI is officially recognised by the European Union as a European Standards Organisation. The high quality of our work and our open approach to standardisation has helped us evolve into a European roots - global branches operation with a solid reputation for technical excellence.
ETSI is a not-for-profit organisation with more than 750 ETSI member organisations drawn from 63 countries across 5 continents world-wide.
Globally applicable ETSI Standards and Technical Specifications such as GSM™ (2.5 billion mobile connections), DECT™, TETRA and DVB are prime examples of the role we play in growing international markets.
The world's leading telecom companies are all members of ETSI and they are drawn from 62 countries, thus making the work present on every major continent.
ETSI is officially recognised by the European Union as a European Standards Organisation. The high quality of our work and our open approach to standardisation has helped us evolve into a European roots - global branches operation with a solid reputation for technical excellence.
ETSI is a not-for-profit organisation with more than 750 ETSI member organisations drawn from 63 countries across 5 continents world-wide.
Globally applicable ETSI Standards and Technical Specifications such as GSM™ (2.5 billion mobile connections), DECT™, TETRA and DVB are prime examples of the role we play in growing international markets.
The world's leading telecom companies are all members of ETSI and they are drawn from 62 countries, thus making the work present on every major continent.
ETSI's technical activities
ETSI is involved in a large number of technical activities, under very diverse organisational settings. The two main modes of standards development in ETSI are:
- the Technical Committees (TCs) which are gathering standards developers from all members of ETSI, working together cooperatively and following a set of precise and effective procedures to ensure the fairness of the development process. The outcome of their work falls in different categories, including Technical Specifications (TS), European Norms (EN) or Harmonised European Norms (HEN).
- the Industry Specification Groups (ISGs) which are a more lightweight kind of organisation that may allow the participation of experts that are not members of ETSI. The outcome of their work is Group Specifications (GS).
3GPP
The home of mobile networks
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration agreement that was established in December 1998. The collaboration agreement brings together a number of telecommunications standards bodies which are known as 'Organizational Partners'. The current Organizational Partners are ARIB, CCSA, ETSI, ATIS, TTA, and TTC.
The project covers cellular telecommunications network technologies, starting from GSM, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and now starting the definition and specification of 6G.
These technologies includes the radio access, the core transport network, and the service capabilities - including work on codecs, security, quality of service - and thus provides complete system specifications. The specifications also provide hooks for non-radio access to the core network, and for interworking with Wi-Fi networks.
The project covers cellular telecommunications network technologies, starting from GSM, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and now starting the definition and specification of 6G.
These technologies includes the radio access, the core transport network, and the service capabilities - including work on codecs, security, quality of service - and thus provides complete system specifications. The specifications also provide hooks for non-radio access to the core network, and for interworking with Wi-Fi networks.
NFV
Network Function Virtualization
Modern telecoms networks contain an ever increasing variety of proprietary hardware. As the innovation cycles continue to accelerate, hardware-based appliances rapidly reach end of life. Network design must be more agile and able to respond on-demand to the dynamic needs of the traffic and services running over it.
Key enabling technologies for this include SDN (Software Defined Networking) and NFV (Network Functions Virtualization), two complimentary concepts that are being developed by both the IT and the telecoms industries.
In November 2012 seven of the world's leading telecoms network operators selected ETSI to be the home of the Industry Specification Group for NFV. Now a large community of experts are working intensely to develop the required standards for Network Functions Virtualization as well as sharing their experiences of NFV development and early implementation.
Key enabling technologies for this include SDN (Software Defined Networking) and NFV (Network Functions Virtualization), two complimentary concepts that are being developed by both the IT and the telecoms industries.
In November 2012 seven of the world's leading telecoms network operators selected ETSI to be the home of the Industry Specification Group for NFV. Now a large community of experts are working intensely to develop the required standards for Network Functions Virtualization as well as sharing their experiences of NFV development and early implementation.