A plea for common sense IT standards

L’ETSI what’s going on...

The dynamics of Sophia Antipolis and the density of organisations within this ecosystem make it difficult to observe, to the point where we no longer see the elephant in the room. Are we aware that ETSI¹ has been present since 1988, at the heart of 21st-century Florence, on the initiative of the European authorities? Are we aware that ETSI created the GSM standards (3G, 4G, 5G, etc.) and encoded the very DNA of mobile telephony, whose advent revolutionised our relationship with the world by offering us the ubiquity of the internet backed by the resonance of social networks? Finally, let us reiterate that at ETSI, unlike other institutes of the same kind, “the deliverables of the working groups are freely accessible at no cost,” says Dominique Roche. This may be a minor detail for you, but for us it means a great deal!

Standards: lethal weapons against monopolies

In technology, as elsewhere, establishing a common language prevents us from sinking into a numbing Babel-like confusion. But is that the only reason for standards to exist? During a cycle in which innovation, initially the preserve of a few pioneers, becomes commonplace as a critical technology adopted by the majority, standards act as compasses, indicating the desirable course for manufacturers and are sought after by users.

However, indicating the direction does not necessarily tell you how to get there. The law, however restrictive it may be, in its inability to replace freedom, can imply morality but cannot easily force behaviour. Thus, standards set the framework for desirable and logical interoperability for the benefit of the user, in order to better protect them from the temptations of manufacturers who, driven by their bottom line, promote their “proprietary” solutions. These are classic captive markets that are certainly easy to access but riddled with monopolistic traps for the customer and act contrary to the protection of global resources.

The Old Testament was quickly eclipsed by the New

The world of telecommunications did not escape its destiny. Its genesis told of an Eden where first-degree equations readily commuted across three simple scalars. A single service, a single medium, a single terminal. Their resolution was always obvious, finding the unknown without appeal, since it systematically disconnected... “at the end of the line”. And then, with the pair already well twisted, the first telephone standards gave Graham Bell's² descendants very little trouble.

Man’s irrepressible need to always go further rapidly transformed these few well-combed strands into a tangled global ball of yarn that the weavers of the Gordian knot would have been proud of. Hermes, the Greek god of telecommunications, must be turning in his pigeon loft! The proteins of the primordial soup colonised the world and evolved into infinite biodiversity. Thus, the telecommunications planet became populated by millions of users, a multitude of secure services based on voice, video and data, equally baroque media, microwave links, cables of all kinds, fibre optics, satellite links, tree topologies, ring topologies, a wide range of speeds, protocols and applications with astonishingly exotic purposes. A new language has even emerged, with its barbaric terms such as switching, virtualisation, port, encryption, jabbers, collisions, multicast, and endless columns of acronyms: VPN, FDDI, ISDN, TTL, FTTH, ATM, ETHERNET, DNS, DHCP, MPLS ... (the complete list, if it could ever exist, would fill dozens of magazines like the one you are leafing through right now).

ISO’s OSI or the seven pillars of wisdom

Standardisation work was undergoing a quantum leap and could no longer be entrusted solely to the pens of a few disciplined copyist monks. New testaments began to take precedence over the old. This led to the emergence of various standardisation bodies: ETSI, of course, but also IEC, IUT, ISO, etc. Perhaps, in the context of this article, we should at least mention the name of the most famous standardisation body that took up the challenge of encompassing the entire telecommunications universe in a single comprehensive model: the widely taught 7-layer OSI (Open System Interconnection) model, developed by the ISO (International Standard Organisation), which is supposed to describe and encompass all objects, protocols, services and concepts, both present and future, within this galaxy. Seven layers, a symbolic number in many civilisations, perhaps like the floors of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, whose four small degrees of deviation from the vertical express the intrinsic and irreducible incompleteness of such a model.

With the battle for interoperability in full swing, the battle for sustainability begins

So what? Firstly let's acknowledge that advances in telecommunications and standardisation bodies are engaged in a race against time, underpinned by the urgent need for interoperability. But, according to Dominique Roche, “behind this forest lies a new tree, that of sustainability. Processing, storing and transmitting data requires infrastructure that also satisfies the deployment, operation and recycling cycle.” In the current context of global resource scarcity, the terms sobriety, frugality and temperance are flashing ever more brightly on the radar screens of ETSI working groups.

Interoperability is no longer just a requirement at a given moment in time between equipment from different suppliers, but over time, between different generations of technology. Some have called this upward compatibility. For example, between 4G, 5G and even 6G, two questions arise: “Do I really need it?” asks Lynn Reiner, and if so, “Can't we update lines of code in hardware that is perfectly capable of continuing to do the job, thus avoiding the need for a replacement?” asks Dominique Roche. He answers the latter question by affirming the non-negotiable need to design modular equipment that allows for purely software-based upgrades. He also emphasises the urgent need to bring all services together, for example in the case of smart cities, on unified and shared networks... sustainability demands!

Useful or futile? That is the question!

Popular opinion is a little too quick to declare that the major sin of ICTs lies in their electricity consumption, which is responsible for harmful CO₂ emissions. These emissions are estimated at 4% of total human caused emissions, which is ultimately very little when compared to the footprint of other sectors. But Lynn Reiner warns that this figure is far from reality, “as it does not take into account the footprints associated with the extraction of metals and rare earths, the transport of materials to factories, the industrial production of infrastructure components, their deployment and their recycling at the end of their life. This is the hidden part of the iceberg, which is insidiously concealed and represents 80% of the value of the indicator sought.”

When does a telecommunications installation truly become obsolete, compared with how long is it actually used? Lynn Reiner points out that “the cabling in a building can last for 25 years, but we tend to replace it every five years depending on successive tenants.” The deployment of capillary fibre optics to users requires the disposal of high-quality copper cables, which are expensive to deploy, dismantle and recycle and ultimately provide speeds that are often excessive in relation to the actual needs of the service consumer. Furthermore, as fibre connection to a terminal is not possible, there is inevitably a copper section, which can become a bottleneck, thereby negating the benefits of fibre.

She also takes the opportunity to emphasise that shortages of these metals and rare earths are just around the corner. “In 1800, industry used nine metals; since the 2000s, it has needed 70 rare metals and materials, 29 of which will be in short supply in 25 years if nothing is done to recycle, optimise and find alternative solutions. Copper will have disappeared from our mines by 2043, while the production of telecom and electrical cables requires 60% of global production.” Lynn Reiner cites the example of the RATP. The famous Paris transport authority has the largest analogue video surveillance system in Europe (between 20,000 and 30,000 cameras) and has migrated to an all-digital system, choosing to keep its good old coaxial cables, not only to carry the video stream over IP but also to power the cameras. “The technology may not be the sexiest in the world, but it ticks all the boxes in terms of simplicity and reuse and limits the headlong rush to systematically replace and throw everything away. Recycling copper cables is still too rare because it is too expensive,” she comments.

Proper use and management are the two pillars of sustainable and moderate ICT use.

To summarise the challenges facing ICT, Lynn Reiner quotes Albert Einstein: “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.” Meanwhile, Dominique emphasises the importance of implementing KPIs, “key performance indicators to orchestrate interoperability, sustainability, consumption and recycling.” eG4U, the NGO he chairs, offers free tools and methods to facilitate these infrastructural transitions.

Will ICTs ultimately be both victims and perpetrators of their own downfall? This summary is appealing, but by pointing to a certain responsibility on the part of manufacturers, it overlooks the role of the user. In ICTs, as in supermarkets or in our vehicles, it is also urgent to ask ourselves how we can avoid going too far, to assess the relevance of a useful need or the toxicity of a futile whim... “Useful or futile? That is the question.” Standards can be of great help to us, but they will never replace our own judgement.

1 European Telecommunication Standard Institute

2 Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), engineer and scientist, credited with inventing the telephone.

Encadré 1

After spending the early part of her career analysing communications in various government agencies in the United States, Lynn Reiner spent 11 years teaching in the French national education system. She then joined the InGeTel research consultancy in 2019 with the aim of raising awareness of environmental responsibility among digital players. Today, Lynn is CEO of EcoFlex'IT Development, spokesperson for digital eco-design in the broadest sense at the NGO eG4U (eGreen for Users) as Technical Director of ICT Engineering, and a member of the ETSI ATTM Technical Committee, where she chairs the TM6 subcommittee as a representative of eG4U.

Encadré 2

A veteran of the telecommunications industry, Dominique Roche is currently President of the NGO EUROPEAN ICT USERS, an association of users for the management of information and communication technology lifecycle resources. As the creator of the first French standard on the installation of communication networks, he chairs several standardisation committees at ETSI: ETSI/ATTM (Access Terminals Transmission Multiplexing) and ETSI/ISG OEU (Industry Specification Group Operational Energy Efficiency for Users).

Encadré 3

The European NGO eG4U (eGreen for Users) was founded in December 2015 and brings together private and public ICT users (companies, cities, ICT provider customers, etc.). The association's purpose is to strengthen the environmental, economic and societal sustainability of ICT at European level, particularly in the management and monitoring of energy consumption, CO₂ equivalent emissions and electrical and electronic waste throughout their life cycle.