July 30, 2009, Washington, DC – The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions ( ATIS) recently formed a Next Generation Carrier Interconnect (NG-CI) Task Force within its Packet Technologies and Systems Committee (PTSC). The PTSC NG-CI Task Force’s objective is to define a testing environment and a set of verifiable tests to help ensure that ATIS standards can be used to achieve seamless, service-specific, next-gen carrier interconnection between two carriers.

These specifications will help service providers accelerate the development of the holistic, next-gen interconnection solutions. While the PTSC NG-CI Task Force will initially focus on VoIP interconnection, the specifications will be eventually extended to support multimedia -- and other services -- traversing disparate technologies and networks.

The PTSC NG-CI Task force will develop IP network-to-network interconnection guidelines based on ATIS Standards that will provide: physical configuration; protocol suite profile; operational information to be exchanged between carriers; and test suites for conformance and interoperability testing.

The PTSC NG-CI Task Force is Chaired by Verizon’s Bhumip Khasnabish, and is Vice-Chaired by Cisco’s Mike Hammer.

“The Next Generation Carrier Interconnect Task Force’s ultimate goal is to simplify the carrier interconnection process irrespective of the service running over the interconnection,” says the NG-CI’s Chairman, Bhumip Khasnabish. “By accomplishing this, we will allow for interconnected networks to successfully deliver tomorrow’s robust data applications.”    

About ATIS
ATIS is the leading technical planning and standards development organization committed to the rapid development of global, market-driven standards for the information, entertainment and communications industry. More than 250 companies actively formulate standards in ATIS’ 20 Committees, covering issues including: IPTV, Service Oriented Networks, Home Networking, Energy Efficiency, IP-Based and Wireless Technologies, Quality of Service, Billing and Operational Support. In addition, numerous Incubators, Focus and Exploratory Groups address emerging industry priorities including “Green”, IP Downloadable Security, Next Generation Carrier Interconnect, IPv6 and Convergence.

ATIS is the North American Organizational Partner for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a member and major U.S. contributor to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio and Telecommunications’ Sectors, and a member of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL). For more information, please visit www.atis.org.