Broadband Forum Advances Connected Home Market with USP Plugfest

• Broadband Forum hosts third USP Plugfest, further bolstering connected home market and management of IoT experience
• USP Plugfest demonstrates growing interest in leveraging USP to accelerate and monetize new, innovative connected home services

Interoperability in the rapidly changing connected home market advanced today as Broadband Forum hosts its latest User Services Platform (USP) Plugfest, which aims to test new functionalities and highlight increased robustness.

Building on more than one billion installations of the TR-069 protocol, USP addresses the explosion of connected devices, providing a unified, common approach to controlling and managing all types of devices in the new world of the Internet of Things (IoT) and virtualized services. The Plugfest brings together industry leaders ARRIS, AVM GmbH, Axiros, Greenwave Systems, Nokia, and QA Cafe to prove interoperability of their solutions to deliver a common ecosystem where service providers and application developers can guarantee the best possible connected experience.

“As the momentum of the connected home, IoT, automation, and digital lifestyles gains pace, there is a growing need for industry-wide interoperability and collaboration – USP is at the heart of this,” said Jason Walls, Co-Director of the Broadband User Services (BUS) Work Area at Broadband Forum and Director of Technical Marketing at QA Cafe. “This is extremely evident as we embark on our latest Plugfest, with many vendors and component manufacturers looking to test their devices so they can support operators looking to monetize new and innovative services.”

USP has already seen significant uptake and currently has hundreds of active developers, with Greenwave Systems – a Broadband Forum member – announcing it has already successfully deployed USP in its Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

The USP Plugfest follows the formation of Broadband Forum’s new Open Broadband USP Agent project, which will provide vendors with an open source code base that they can either integrate into their devices or use as a reference implementation. Referred to as OB-USP-Agent, the project aims to provide faster time-to-market for vendors, by supporting operators in unlocking new revenue from IoT.

“USP is an important step on the journey to maintaining an integrated, carrier-class connected home that will deliver an unprecedent quality of experience for users and level of control for providers,” said Geoff Burke, Chief Marketing Officer at Broadband Forum. “Furthermore, with the addition of this Open Broadband implementation, USP is building on the proven track record of its successor, TR-069, whilst evolving to meet new software demands. The result: faster time-to-market of USP solutions and ultimately, accelerating the journey to the truly connected home.”

The Plugfest, hosted by the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory, is taking place until Friday, April 5 and is being held in conjunction with Broadband Forum’s latest webinar: “Deliver on the promise of the connected home: An expert panel webinar on USP/TR-369”. Plugfest participants Axiros, Greenwave, Nokia, and QA Cafe will join the expert panel to discuss how USP is driving the connected home market, as they test their solutions together alongside ARRIS and AVM GmbH at the Plugfest.

Source: Broadband Forum media announcement