[cooperation-wg] Status update ITU discussions

Dear colleagues,

Let me start by wishing you all a happy and healthy 2021. I would like to give you a quick update on the discussions that have taken place at ITU in the past few weeks, in particular with regards to New IP, also called FVCN.

As you may recall from my earlier posts, there were two study groups seeking to establish "Questions" - the ITU equivalent of a working group - to study a new network architecture and protocol suite, that were positioned to replace or significantly amend the current set of Internet protocols and standards which are maintained by the IETF.

Both study groups 11 and 13 held meetings in the week before Christmas. In those meetings, it again became clear that outside of the small group of initial proponents there was little support for the proposed work. And a large group of countries and sector members, including the European Commission, the 27 EU member states, the UK, US, Canada, Japan, as well as the RIPE NCC, GSMA and ETNO, all objected to the establishment of these Questions.

The ITU-T processes require these decisions to be consensus based and the long and sustained opposition could only lead to the conclusion that there was no consensus on moving forward with these proposals. Subsequent to that conclusion and although the process technically allows for it, the meetings also failed to reach agreement to send these proposals for consultation of the member states. 

This now means that, after about a year of discussions, all options in the current process have been exhausted and effectively the topic has been put to rest. In fact, as the question was raised on whether the groups should continue to discuss the proposals, the meeting could not agree and again failed to reach consensus to do so.

Further, as we now expect the WTSA-20 conference to be rescheduled to March 2022. A contingency plan has been put in place. As part of that, a revised set of Questions (excluding the ones the ones that failed to reach consensus) have now been forwarded to a meeting of the Telecommunications Standardisation Advisory Group (TSAG) for endorsement as the outcome of the discussions on future work.

We expect that, with the endorsement of those agreed questions, we can leave the discussion about the work plan behind, and focus on those work items that fit within the remit of the Union and on which there is consensus that standardisation efforts by ITU-T are required and helpful to our industry.

As a sector member of ITU-T, we will remain engaged with these and other study groups and update you on any relevant developments, also towards WTSA and other upcoming conferences such as WTDC and the next Plenipotentiary, which will take place in the autumn of 2022.

Best,

Marco Hogewoning
Manager Public Policy and Internet Governance
RIPE NCC