More studies on future topics

Anastasius Gavras
Eurescom
gavras(at)eurescom.eu

The Eurescom study programme is a unique way of performing collaborative research between telecom operators. The programme was established almost 20 years ago and continues to be attractive for its members for addressing emerging topics in a short time frame. The latest study started in December 2010, and the call for new studies is now open.

Quick study results

The Eurescom study programme continues to be popular among the engineers and scientists of its member organisations. Especially in view of the diverse initiatives and activities on the Future Internet, the members of the programme can benefit from the studies. They can help them to quickly and flexibly define work items on topics that emerge and which need to be discussed and elaborated with engineers and scientists in other telecoms companies to develop a common opinion, position or statement. The programme is financed by its subscribing member companies, and their commitment is underwritten by their upfront payments to the programme’s budget.

Competitive advantage

The fundamental working principle within the Eurescom study programme is collaboration. Any network operator or service provider may become a subscriber of the study programme and participate in it, if they share the interest of addressing the substantial issues facing the telecoms industry in a collaborative way. The results of the studies are exclusively available to the members of the programme so that the study subscriber organisations get a direct competitive advantage from collaborative work. The programme is flexible to accept study proposals at any time.

Study on Android security issues

In December 2010, Eurescom launched a study on security issues of the Android operating system, with a focus on the operator’s view.

The nature of Google’s Android operating system, which is broadly available on mobile devices, allows the users and application developers to assume full control over the devices, but also attacks on the operator’s network. Although currently all impacts on the operator’s network are caused rather by poorly written applications and fast dormancy issues, the framework makes it easy for malicious entities to attack the network and cause trouble.

The operators’ core business is managed, secure communication, and most operators are developing value-added services and enablers on top of this core functionality. In this respect Google’s role as information hub interferes with this role. An additional concern is that Google’s understanding of customers’ privacy is different from the telecom operators’ understanding.

The study aims at developing a set of recommendations and a strategy on how to address and possibly solve the security and privacy concerns and, thus, safeguard operators’ interests.

The study is intended to scope out the threats that certain characteristics of the Android operating system represent for network operators and potentially seed an initiative among operators to create a joint position regarding best practices in this area.

Recent studies

Other recent studies that will conclude in 2011 address a wide range of topics, like “Opportunities and challenges for operators in the mobile cloud”, “Dynamic service discovery and use in a cloud environment”, “Virtual customer premises equipment (CPE)”, “Unified standardisation framework for telecommunications network enablers” and “Energy efficiency - Business opportunities for telecom operators”.

Outlook

Currently, the first call for studies in 2011 is open, and proposals can be sent to Eurescom following the established procedure. Interested telecoms network operators can join the study programme anytime, and they can directly participate.

More information about the ongoing programme as well as past studies can be found here.

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