Ericsson Commits to Support the IETF in the Long Term

In particular, Ericsson will host a number of IETF meetings during the next few years. Ericsson, which is the largest mobile network infrastructure vendor in the world, already hosted the summer IETF meeting in Toronto (Canada) in 2014. Now we are sending a message to the Internet community that we are serious about supporting the IETF in the longer term as well.

We want to support the IETF because of the technical specifications it produces and also because of its importance as a forum to achieve industry alignment. The IETF is a great venue to discuss with the relevant players in the Internet community and align views on important topics.

On the technical front, Ericsson’s vision of the Networked Society is that everything that can benefit from being connected will be connected. Consequently, we are interested in technologies supporting the IoT (Internet of Things). We need protocols that are designed for devices with different types of constraints and connectivity patterns. We are also interested in technologies that are flexible enough to be deployed in heavily virtualized environments, including data centers. In these extremely flexible environments, management and orchestration systems need to evolve as well in order to support zero-touch operations in many network scenarios.

When it comes to applications involving humans, real-time communications and media delivery are high in our agenda. We need technologies that enable enhanced interactions beyond what current video and voice over IP systems currently provide. Technologies that increase the security and efficiency of networked services and the privacy of their users are of extreme importance now that more and more mission-critical operations depend on them.

Many of the technologies above, which are needed to fulfil our vision, are developed at the IETF. We are happy to see that the IETF keeps working on relevant technologies over time. Additionally, we also welcome the ongoing work on improving IETF internal processes and on integrating open source efforts into them. Any efforts that decrease the time to market of new applications and services are obviously important.

We are also glad about ISOC’s efforts aimed at making it easier for companies to support the IETF. Nowadays both large and small companies can support the IETF in many different ways, from long-term support deals involving the hosting of several IETF meetings to sponsoring a particular beverage break at an IETF meeting. Even single individuals can support the IETF through the ISOC.

In summary, the IETF brings together a diverse set of Internet players to develop technologies that are directly relevant to the fulfilment of our strategic vision. Our support, together with the support of many other players, will ensure the economic viability of the IETF also in the future.