IEEE Conformity Assessment Program (ICAP) to Establish Testing and Certification Program

The IEEE Conformity Assessment Program, in collaboration with the IEEE P1904.1TM Working Group, today announced an initiative to establish a Conformity Assessment Program for the IEEE P1904.1 Service Interoperability in Ethernet Passive Optical Networks standard, which is pursuant to this agreement development. The goals of the Program are to drive adoption, encourage industry collaboration, and provide a process for the equipment vendors to test and certify their products in ICAP Authorized Laboratories. ICAP, serving in the role of Certification Authority, will administer the Program. ICAP will coordinate the activities of the participating laboratories, issue certificates to vendors whose products have satisfied a rigorous battery of compliance tests, and maintain a registry of certified products.

"SIEPON follows the collaborative focus of Ethernet Passive Optical Networks, supporting participation from vendors throughout the Passive Optical network ecosystem in parallel with telecom service providers," commented Julie Kunstler, Principal Analyst, Communications Elements, Ovum. "ICAP's approach of partnering with multiple labs throughout the world extends the collaboration to testing and certification, the then stage in service interoperability."

The market-leading fiber-access research

IEEE EPON is the market-leading fiber-access research, with worldwide deployments supporting more than 60 million subscribers today and an anticipated subscriber base of more than 100 million by the end of 2013. EPON deployments support a diverse suite of business and residential services, including IPTV, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), commercial-grade data services, and cellular backhaul. Given the large and accelerating global deployment, there is a strong demand from network operators for fully interoperable, "plug-and-play" solutions, available from a diverse community of suppliers.

Sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society, the foremost international forum for the exchange of ideas on communications and information networking, the IEEE P1904.1 SIEPON working group is developing a complete and testable standard that offers clear-cut guidance to component manufacturers, system manufacturers, network operators, and testing laboratories. The IEEE P1904.1 draft standard describes the system-level requirements needed to ensure service-level, multi-vendor interoperability of Ethernet Passive Optical Network equipment. These specifications complement the existing IEEE 802.3 and IEEE 802.1 standards that at the same time ensure interoperability at the Physical and Data-Link layers.

The validation

Network operators who deploy Fiber-to-the-x research will have the validation and assurance that products bearing the IEEE SIEPON certification mark have undergone thorough testing and evaluation prior to procurement. As part of this effort, ICAP has established relationships with experienced testing laboratories with a global presence.

"Our collaboration with ICAP allows us to combine the IEEE's global position as a standards leader with the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory's proven expertise in conformance and interoperability testing, in this way creating leading-edge test environments for the broadband access market," said Jeff Lapak, Senior Manager of Ethernet Technologies at UNH InterOperability Lab.

Leading independent test lab

"As a leading independent test lab, Innovation Institute of Telecommunications Transmission has deep experience in the testing of a broad range of telecommunication equipment, including IEEE EPON. Our cooperation with ICAP will promote the SIEPON standard for world-wide use," said Liu Qian, Deputy Director in the Transport and Access Technology Department of RITT.

"The IEEE P1904.1 standard and ICAP's SIEPON certification program will help unify the global EPON industry and promote EPON product deployment. The EPON industry, including China Telecom, will benefit from these activities. As an important EPON interoperability promotion organization and China Telecom's EPON test lab, the Shanghai Institute of China Telecom has rich experience in EPON conformance and interoperability testing," said Shen Chengbin, R&D Director of the Broadband Network Department, Shanghai Institute of China Telecom.

"A focus group composed of SIEPON representatives from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, other Japanese telecom carriers, and Japanese system suppliers has been formed to study SIEPON conformance testing in Japan. The group expects to align this effort with the global SIEPON and ICAP activities," said Toshihiko Kusano, Chair of the IEEE P1904.1 Conformance Task Force and co-founder and President of Oliver Solutions.