The Broadband Forum is a non-profit industry

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

dedicated to developing broadband network specifications. Members include telecommunications networking and service provider companies, broadband device and equipment vendors, consultants and independent testing labs (ITLs). Service provider members are primarily wire-line service providers (non-mobile) telephone companies.

History

The DSL Forum was founded in 1994 with about 200 member companies in different divisions of the

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

and

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

sector. It is used as a platform for companies that operate in the broadband market. Its initial main purpose was the establishment of new standards around

digital subscriber line Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...

communication products such as

provisioning Provisioning may refer to: * Provisioning (technology), the equipping of a telecommunications network or IT resources * Provisioning (cruise ship), supplying a vessel for an extended voyage ** Provisioning of USS ''Constitution'' * Provisionin ...

. This cooperation has brought different standardizations for

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over Copper wire, copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem ...

, SHDSL,

VDSL Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber li ...

ADSL2+ G.992.5 (also referred to as ADSL2+, G.dmt.bis+, and G.adslplus) is an ITU-T standard for asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) broadband Internet access. The standard has a maximum theoretical downstream sync speed of 24 megabits per secon ...

and

VDSL2 Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber lin ...

. The group was established in November 1994 as the ADSL Forum and was renamed to DSL Forum in 1999. It was renamed after the

(DSL) family of technology, also known collectively as xDSL. Among its early design documents, the Forum created TR-001 (1996) system reference model, which together with later TR-012 (1999) core network architecture, recommended PPP over an ATM transport layer as the best practice for a DSL ISP. This was subsequently refined in TR-025 and TR-059. Starting in 2004, the Forum expanded its work into other last mile technologies including

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

. On 17 June 2008 it changed its name to "Broadband Forum". DSL-related specifications, while still a key part of the forum's work, are no longer its only work. For instance, the forum produced work specific to

passive optical network A passive optical network (PON) is a fiber-optic telecommunications network that uses only ''unpowered'' devices to carry signals, as opposed to electronic equipment. In practice, PONs are typically used for the '' last mile'' between Internet ...

ing (PON). Its Auto-Configuration Server specification

TR-069 Technical Report 069 (TR-069) is a document by the Broadband Forum that specifies the CPE WAN Management Protocol (CWMP). CWMP is a SOAP-based protocol for communication between an internet service provider auto configuration server (ACS) and ...

, originally published in 2004, was adapted for use with

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner inpu ...

and

Network Attached Storage Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. In this context, the term "NAS" can refer to both the technology and systems ...

units. The Forum's TR-101 specification (2006) documents migration toward an

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

-based DSL aggregation model (Ethernet

DSLAM A digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM, often pronounced ''DEE-slam'') is a network device, often located in telephone exchanges, that connects multiple customer digital subscriber line (DSL) interfaces to a high-speed digital co ...

s). In May 2009, IP/MPLS Forum merged with the Broadband Forum. It had promoted the

Frame Relay Frame Relay (FR) is a standardized wide area network (WAN) technology that specifies the Physical layer, physical and data link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology. Frame Relay was originally devel ...

and

Multiprotocol Label Switching Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a routing technique in telecommunications networks that directs data from one node to the next based on labels rather than network addresses. Whereas network addresses identify endpoints, the labels iden ...

technologies. Technical work of IP/MPLS Forum continued in a newly created "IP/MPLS and Core" Working Group of the Broadband Forum. The historical specifications from the IP/MPLS Forum's predecessors,

ATM Forum The ATM Forum was a non-profit industry consortium founded in 1991 to promote Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology. The founding president and chairman was Fred Sammartino of Sun Microsystems. The ATM Forum created over 200 implementation agre ...

, Frame Relay Forum, MFA Forum, and MPLS Forum, are archived on the Broadband Forum's website, under IP/MPLS Forum specifications. Broadband Forum issued Femto Access Point Service Data Model

TR-196 TR-196 (Technical Report 196) is a Broadband Forum technical specification. Its official title is "Femto Access Point Service Data Model." The purpose of this Technical Report is to specify the Data Model for the Femtocell, Femto Access Point (FAP) ...

during April 2009 and version 2 released during November 2011. Broadband Forum specified in TR-348 for Hybrid Access Networks an architecture that enables network operators to efficiently combine

XDSL Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...

and

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a mobile telephony standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement ** LTE Advanced Pro, a further enhancement * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers * Leukotrie ...

References

External links

* * * {{web archive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980204074458/http://www.adsl.com/, title=Official website (ADSL Forum) Broadband Forum Technology consortia Digital subscriber line Broadband Digital television

History

See also

References

External links