Hello, My name is Suzanne Snow and I am the Marketing and Communications Manager at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). Recently, Tim Sheehan and I had the experience of attending the Digital Home Summit, co-located at the FTTH Conference in Dallas, Texas. This was the UNH-IOL’s first year attending the summit.
Tim Sheehan, Operations Manager of Broadband Technologies presented on a panel along with Brain Henrichs, VP of Business Development at Actiontec. They discussed the newest tools for the next generation of home networking, specifically the Broadband Forum’s BBF.069 certification program and the IPv6 Ready CE Router Logo program. These programs are critical tools for operators and users in order to ensure conformance to standards and interoperability. The TR-069 protocol enables service providers to communicate with customer premises equipment to better manage and troubleshoot within the digital home.
The keynote panel addressed the growing number of applications and devices in the digital home. Driving this is the broadband access that carriers are expected to meet in order to support the digital lifestyle. There are many current and future applications allowing for business growth that will be enabled by the digital home ecosystem.
The audience was interested in opportunities to deliver top- notch experience for customers and how to increase their bottom line. The key message that was delivered during the panel discussion was the importance of certification testing and how that can increase user confidence, increase time to market and save providers time and money. Service Providers can be confident if they know the equipment/device they are working with is TR.069 certified.
Overall, the key take away was the number of connected devices in the home is growing exponentially. There are many opportunities for the digital home ecosystem. It is important to stay informed of the trends and work with reliable resources.
During October 16 - 18th, Lincoln Lavoie, Senior Engineer for Broadband Technologies, Timothy Sheehan, Operations Manager for Broadband Technologies and myself will attend the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam. We are attending in partnership with the Broadband Forum (BBF) and will be at the BBF booth in Exhibition Hall 11. On Wednesday, October 17, Robin Mersh, CEO of the BBF will present on "Network Infrastructure for the Digital Home". To find out how the Broadband Forum Certification Program is expanding to help your business or to stay up to date and connected with the conference please follow us on Twitter and Facebook, as we will be sharing important updates.
The UNH-IOL has been involved in testing the Broadband Forum CPE WAN Management Protocol (TR-069) since 2006 and testing IPv6 since 1998. The Home Networking Consortium is a collaborative test program that brings together industry leaders in TR-069, IPv6 and related technologies to foster quality, interoperable systems. The Home Networking Consortium provides certification test services to companies seeking to obtain the Broadband Forum's BBF.069 Certification or the IPv6 Ready CE Router Logo for home devices. This service will enable the end users, service providers and equipment manufactures to have a higher level of confidence and experience in the connected home.
For more information on BBF.069 or to see the current UNH-IOL IPv6 CE Router Tested list please visit our Home Networking Consortium pages or Contact Us.
Suzanne Snow, Marketing and Communications Manager