Working group

The DMTF’s Cloud Management Working Group models the management of cloud services and the operations and attributes of the cloud service lifecycle through its work on the Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface (CIMI).
 
The CIMI specification describes the model and protocol for management interactions between a cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider and the consumers of an IaaS service. The basic resources of IaaS (machines, storage, and networks) are modeled to provide consumer management access to an implementation of IaaS and facilitate portability between cloud implementations that support the specification.

 
By developing a set of prescriptive specifications and sample implementations that deliver architectural semantics and implementation details, the Cloud Management Working Group helps achieve interoperable management of clouds between service requestors/developers and providers. This work is also utilized in the DMTF’s Cloud Management Initiative.

The Cloud Auditing Data Federation Working Group (CADF) sets out to resolve major problems with the inconsistency, incompatibility, and even inability of existing cloud and service audit interfaces, technologies, and tools. The group focuses on standardizing audit events across all cloud and service providers, and on making audit events comprehensible, consistent, shareable, and merge-able.
 
The CADF Working Group develops the DMTF’s CADF standard. More than a format, the CADF standard defines a full event model anyone can use to fill in the essential data needed to certify, self-manage and self-audit application security in cloud environments.
 
CADF is part of the DMTF’s Cloud Management Initiative, which is focused on developing interoperable cloud infrastructure management standards and promoting the adoption of those standards in the industry.

ITU-T Study Group 11 (SG11) is responsible for 'signalling', producing international standards (ITU-T Recommendations) that define how telephone calls and other calls (such as data calls) are handled in the network.
 
SG11 is home to Signaling System 7 (SS7), the set of signalling protocols that underpins telephone calls in both fixed and mobile networks, without which telecom systems around the world would not interoperate. All telephone switching systems need signalling. It provides the means for monitoring the status of a line to see if it is busy or idle, the alerts that indicate the arrival of a call, and the addressing system that routes calls. Before SS7's implementation, not all nations were party to the standards agreements enabling international telephone calls. SS7's implementation thus paved the way for the efficient operation of international telecommunication networks.
 
SG11 is tasked with developing signalling requirements and protocols for Software-defined Networking (SDN), and this work aligns with the functional requirements and architectures developed by ITU-T Study Group 13 (Future networks). Considered a major shift in networking technology, SDN will give network operators the ability to establish and manage new virtualized resources and networks without deploying new hardware technologies. ICT market players see SDN and network virtualization as critical to countering the increases in network complexity, management and operational costs traditionally associated with the introduction of new services or technologies.
 
SG11 is also responsible for the development of test specifications. This work focuses on global interoperability testing and covers technical means, services, quality of service (QoS) and testing parameters. Activities encompass establishing benchmark testing procedures and investigating the testing of next-generation networks (NGN), ubiquitous sensor networks (USN) and emerging technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), distributed service network (DSN), home networking (HN), etc.
 
SG11 leads ITU’s work on conformance and interoperability (C&I) testing and is responsible for coordinating ITU’s C&I programme. Conformance with international standards is one of the core principles underlying the global interoperability of ICT networks and devices. The C&I programme was initiated at the request of ITU’s membership in light of the challenges faced by developing countries in improving interoperability. The programme rests on four central pillars: conformance assessment; interoperability events; human resource and capacity building; and assistance in the establishment of test facilities in developing countries. SG11 is also investigating whether the ITU C&I programme could play a role in battling counterfeit goods.
 
When meeting at ITU headquarters in Geneva, SG11 holds its meetings in collocation with SG13.

Work to build confidence and security in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) continues to intensify in a bid to facilitate more secure network infrastructure, services and applications. Over 170 standards (ITU-T Recommendations and Supplements) focusing on security have been published.
 
ITU-T Study Group 17 (SG17) coordinates security-related work across all ITU-T Study Groups. Often working in cooperation with other standards development organizations (SDOs) and various ICT industry consortia, SG17 deals with a broad range of standardization issues.
 
To give a few examples, SG17 is currently working on cybersecurity; security management; security architectures and frameworks; countering spam; identity management; the protection of personally identifiable information; and the security of applications and services for the Internet of Things (IoT), smart grid, smartphones, software defined networking (SDN), web services, big data analytics, social networks, cloud computing, mobile financial systems, IPTV and telebiometrics.
 
One key reference for security standards in use today is Recommendation ITU-T X.509 for electronic authentication over public networks. ITU-T X.509, a cornerstone in designing applications relating to public key infrastructure (PKI), is used in a wide range of applications; from securing the connection between a browser and a server on the web, to providing digital signatures that enable e-commerce transactions to be conducted with the same confidence as in a traditional system. Without wide acceptance of the standard, the rise of e-business would have been impossible.
 
Cybersecurity remains high on SG17's agenda. Additionally, SG17 is coordinating security standardization work covering combating counterfeit and mobile device theft, IMT-2020, cloud based event data technology, e-health, open identity trust framework, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and Child Online Protection.

Standardization in the areas of Cloud Computing and Distributed Platforms including:

• Foundational concepts and technologies,
• Operational issues, and
• Interactions among Cloud Computing systems and with other distributed systems

SC 38 serves as the focus, proponent, and systems integration entity on Cloud Computing, Distributed Platforms, and the application of these technologies. SC 38 provides guidance to JTC 1, IEC, ISO and other entities developing standards in these areas.

Engineering Committee TR-42 develops and maintains voluntary telecommunications standards for telecommunications cabling infrastructure in user-owned buildings, such as commercial buildings, residential buildings, homes, data centers, industrial buildings, etc. The generic cabling topologies, design, distances and outlet configurations as well as specifics for these locations are addressed. The committee’s standards work covers requirements for copper and optical fiber cabling components (such as cables, connectors and cable assemblies), installation, and field testing in addition to the administration, pathways and spaces to support the cabling.

The OMG Cloud Working Group publishes vendor-neutral guidance on important considerations for cloud computing adoption, highlighting standards, opportunities for standardization, cloud customer requirements, and best practices to foster an ecosystem of open, standards-based cloud computing technologies.
 
The Cloud Working Group or "CWG" takes over the mission of the Cloud Standards Customer Council™ (CSCC™), an OMG-managed program that launched in 2011 and published 28 deliverables over the course of its operation. The CWG will maintain and update these papers. For more information, watch the webinar, Introducing the OMG Cloud Working Group.

The rapid adoption of virtual infrastructure has highlighted the need for a standard, portable metadata format for the distribution of virtual systems onto and between virtualization platforms. The DMTF’s Open Virtualization Format (OVF) Working Group produces the OVF standard, which provides the industry with a standard packaging format for software solutions based on virtual systems. OVF has been adopted and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as ISO 17203.
 
In the modern cloud computing era, OVF provides a platform independent, efficient, open and extensible packaging and distribution format that facilitates the mobility of virtual machines and gives customers platform independence. This group’s work is also utilized in the DMTF’s Cloud Management Initiative.

This standard defines topology, functions, and governance for cloud-to-cloud interoperability and federation. Topological elements include clouds, roots, exchanges (which mediate governance between clouds), and gateways (which mediate data exchange between clouds). Functional elements include name spaces, presence, messaging, resource ontologies (including standardized units of measurement), and trust infrastructure. Governance elements include registration, geo-independence, trust anchor, and potentially compliance and audit. The standard does not address intra-cloud (within cloud) operation, as this is cloud implementation-specific, nor does it address proprietary hybrid-cloud implementations.

The IEEE 1904 Access Networks Working Group (ANWG) uses an open and accredited process to develop standards for access networks. The Working Group technical expertise covers various optical access architectures based on Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPON), such as fiber-to-the-home, fiber-to-the-business, and cellular backhaul.