Broadband Forum Reorganizes, Promotes Packet Network Specs

A conglomeration of 220 service providers, chip vendors, communications equipment manufacturers, and high-tech industry organizations has banded together to form a new iteration of the Broadband Forum. The strengthened organization was merged Monday with the IP/MPLS Forum to create the new body.

The group will focus on next-generation packet network specifications by forging the Core and access aggregation work of the IP/MPLS Forum with the work of the Broadband Forum, which has traditionally focused on local transport and digital home management specifications.

The new group is wasting no time in tackling issues at its first meeting this week in Valencia, Spain. At the meeting, a new IP/MPLS and Core working group is being created to continue MPLS protocol work as well as to address Core-related work that's being taken up by the new Broadband Forum. In addition, a new IP/MPLS vice chairperson will be added to the organization and IP/MPLS ambassadors will be added to the Broadband Forum's speakers' bureau.

George Dobrowski, who has been serving as chairman of the Broadband Forum, will serve as president of the reconstituted organization, while Andrew Malis, who has been chairman of the IP/MPLS Forum, has been named VP of the Broadband Forum.

"Both organizations have played an important and highly valued role as the world has grown into the broadband-rich society we enjoy today," Dobrowski said in a statement.

The two groups decided to merge after the IP/MPLS Forum Board conducted an industry analysis and concluded that a union would help the future success of standards specifications work. The analysis followed the 2008 renaming of the former DSL Forum to become the Broadband Forum.

InformationWeek has published an in-depth report on private cloud computing. Download the report here (registration required).