The Broadband Forum has published its User Services Platform (USP), a specification for implementing, deploying and managing all types of devices in the broadband home. USP is intended to provide a unified, common approach to securely deploy, manage and control network-aware consumer electronics, including home and enterprise WiFi, Internet of Things (IoT), and more.
"As an evolution of the popular TR-069 standard, USP makes use of the same data models, but instead of simply having a single Auto Configuration Server, there are now many end points that control not only the devices, but also individual executables on each one," said Barbara Stark, of AT&T, USP Project Lead at Broadband Forum. "This means deployments with IoT devices, smart WiFi, set-top boxes, and smart gateways can be controlled by anyone in the household, while permission levels for service providers can be created to allow any necessary updates or troubleshooting of the network and devices connected to it. Ultimately, we designed USP to be flexible, scalable and secure."
USP is designed to let service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and end-users perform lifecycle management of connected devices and carry out upgrades, for example, for critical security updates. Newly installed or purchased devices and virtual services can also be added, while customer support includes remote monitoring and troubleshooting of connected devices, services and home network links.
The specification is intended to enable secure control of IoT, smart home and smart networking functions and helps map the home network to manage service quality and monitor threats.
Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh said: "TR-069 has seen great success, with 800 million TR-069 CPE WAN management protocol devices worldwide, and the time is right to move this into the hyper-connected, virtualized world and provide an evolved specification to enable the industry to provide for and monetize the opportunities presented by modern connected users and homes."
Work on the USP specification was carried out by the Broadband User Services (BUS) Work Area, which is led by Co-Directors John Blackford of ARRIS, who is also a Broadband Forum board member, and Jason Walls of QA Cafe.
"This ground-breaking standard was made possible through the combined input of many of the world's leading service providers who use TR-069 and the technical expertise of the BUS community, including participants from AT&T, Axiros, Google, Greenwave Systems, Huawei, NEC, Nokia, QA Cafe and ARRIS," said Blackford.
The USP specification is available at http://usp.technology.