Note: The Architecture and Migration Work Area was merged with the Routing and Transport Work Area in January 2019 forming the Access and Transport Architecture Work Area. See announcement from the 2018 Q4 meeting report in Glasgow, UK.

Work Area Directors: David Sinicrope

Mission:

The Access and Transport Architecture (ATA) Work Area (WA) defines and specifies the architecture and requirements for access, routing and transport network infrastructure. ATA produces industry-agreed specifications for applications such as mobile transport infrastructure (fronthaul and backhaul), data center interconnect, residential broadband Internet access, etc.  as well as specifications for testing these networks and there application.  (E.g., Performance monitoring and testing, Application Level Testing and testing quality of experience.).  This work is typically in the form of architecture, equipment requirements, test guidance, implementation guidance, and education materials.

Business Impact:

A critical element of the work is the long term support of existing network elements alongside virtualized software based network functions, resulting in a stable network that may be evolved over time.. This enables seamless migration of new networking technologies based on their market acceptance, at the same time protecting existing infrastructure investment, and deployment into new different territories. ATA specifications underpin the infrastructure, value-added services and application delivery for fixed and mobile access networks, and allows deployment at the pace of each relevant market. Co-existence of physical and virtualized solutions and from static and dynamic services will create a broadband network mitigating the risks to existing revenue and enabling leveraging new networking technology for according to market demand.

Scope:

ATA maintains the primary architectures for the work of Broadband Forum. The architectures, requirements and other deliverables reflect the control, management, and data plane aspects of the access, transport and routed networks used to provide operator, enterprise and “over-the-top” Internet based connectivity services. The deliverables of the work area are designed to leverage and integrate new industry technologies while protecting investment of current deployments. These deliverables provide the industry with a collective and consistent methodology todrive product development and service deployment.