TIA 2011: Searching for an identity on the show calendar

The TIA is a global trade organization that supports standards development and policy initiatives on industry regulation, tax incentives, and wireless spectrum. It has about 300 active member companies.

TIA 2011 provided presentations on a broad span of issues related to converged networks, mobile backhaul, over-the-top (OTT) services, sustainability and environmental issues, security management, M2M and connected devices, and the smart grid. The overall theme to the presentations might be summarized as “IT has won the technology battle; now the issue is how can carriers extract value from their networks.” A number of presentations noted that carriers need to take advantage of the fact that they alone have real-time data on subscribers and the network—commercial cloud providers do not.

Little hardware was visible in exhibitor booths. Huawei and Ciena were obvious exceptions: they brought their demonstration trailers loaded with wireless, optical, and carrier Ethernet equipment. Further, vendors did not use the event to announce new technology. In fact, Fujitsu Network Communications announced its 100G line cards the week before rather than waiting to make the announcement at the show. Instead of an event to show off hardware platforms, TIA’s conference seems to be attractive as a forum to address financial, regulatory, and operational issues in modern carrier networks.

July 25, 2011

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