Crystal Clear All Round

Faced with a world speaking 6000 different languages, it was hardly surprising that a Dr Zamenhof saw the potential for a universal language back in 1887 and so devised Esperanto.

His hope (and that’s very much the sense behind ‘Esperanto’) was to achieve easier communication and better understanding between different peoples and cultures without the more powerful nations or languages always having dominance.

It’s very much the same spirit that’s driving the work of Consult21’s Network Structure Working Group, as Group ‘buddy’ – Industry Consultant Chris Evans – explained:

“Because Next Generation Networks (NGN’s) such as our own 21CN are an industry-wide phenomenon, everyone’s coming to the party with their own vocabulary: the terms they use in their own company to describe a particular type of network or system. So – for example – one person might refer to something as ‘voice transport’ while another might call the same thing ‘call conveyance’.

"There’s also the problem that because BT was the UK’s first national telecoms company, the terms we devised for our own use have perhaps inadvertently been imposed on others. But now 21CN gives us the chance to start with a blank sheet. Now everyone has the chance to come up with the best possible name for a product or technology – to create the industry’s very own 21CN dictionary, if you like.” 

Set up in November 2005 and co-chaired by C&W’s Paul Rosbotham and BT’s Tim Wright, the Network Structure Working Group is busy creating a single uniform set of terms. These can then be applied to describe, define and name any and every 21CN system element, function and product now and in the future and be used by everyone with exactly the same sense.

Chris continued: “With 21CN speed is of the essence. We need everyone to know exactly what’s meant the moment they hear or read a 21CN term, without lengthy explanations. So the imperative is avoid any grey, fuzzy areas of meaning. It all has to be black and white.”

For its inspiration the Group is picking up on familiar technical words that are in common currency in the UK – but with occasional forays into international arenas – and then stitching them together with innovation and a good deal of creative brainstorming to devise the suite of new terms needed – plus the rules to govern them. Paul Rosbotham’s high-level overview of the UK comms market gained through his membership of Ofcom’s industry standards panel is also invaluable.

“Generally our ethos is to ‘tell it like it is’” said Chris “so we’re adding names like ‘Border Gateway Controller’, ‘Call Server’ and ‘Virtual LAN’ to the UK’s telecommunications language.”

Being a member of a ‘naming panel’ of this kind is not a new experience for Chris Evans. It was he who was responsible for coming up with the terms ‘Other Licensed Operator’ and ‘interconnect’ when the UK market was first liberalised and BT needed a vital new vocabulary.

Chris concluded: “We appreciate that Network Structure is one of the ‘nuts and bolts’ Working Groups. Our work is fundamental to the success of all the others and really has to be in place before they can start to build and develop. So we intend to generate ‘terminology guides’ that can be distributed and shared so that everyone involved in Consult21 has a handy reference and a clear understanding of the new 21CN language and how to use it – and we are of course always here to help all the Working Groups with any technical issues they have relating to the Next Generation Network.”

This is the second in a series of monthly articles that will be putting the work of each Working Group under the microscope, plus an update on their progress. So look out for another profile in the next issue of News21.

For a diary of forthcoming Working Group meetings, please visit the Consult21 website regularly: www.btwholesale.com/consult21