 We know that ITUT is one of the leading members of the overall NGN initiative that has contributed significantly to the overall standardization process. In this module, we should look at the timeline through which different agencies and different bodies started the initiative, continued with it and eventually completed a standardized vision and direction that we call the NGN standard. Specifically, we should look at the role of the joint repertoire group, the focus group and the next generation standardization initiatives. The joint repertoire group primarily was initiated by ITUT in 2003. It was comprising the staff members, the experts from ITUT itself. They were all tasked with assigning the responsibilities to look into what NGN requirements are going to be, what is going to be a general reference model that the agencies, the telecom operators and the other entities are going to follow. The functional requirements and the architecture that could be implemented for these vendors, operators and other key important players in NGN are going to follow. And then the evolution of NGN over time. So this joint repertoire group basically was tasked for looking into all these aspects. This joint repertoire group eventually concluded with the recommendations in which it gave a general overview of NGN, the look and feel of it and also defined the general principles and the reference model for NGN which others were to follow. But it largely remained a theoretical document. Now here for you as students, I would like to bring your attention to the fact how something starts off with let's say at stage zero with only the theory at hand and over time people who are interested in it and see some business benefit into it look into the other practical aspects of it. After the effort of the joint repertoire group, the ITUT then created the focus group. In 2004 and the basic mandate of the focus group was to look into the functional architecture that is to define the functions and modules which would be required to be implemented by different stakeholders. And the effect of mobility, what changes would mobility require if IP based NGN were to be realized quality of service. The controlling and signaling aspects because when different services and different applications are being provisioned on NGN, then the controlling network such as SS7 has to be exported on to all IP network in a very smart way. Then the service and security capabilities of all the access networks, the core networks or the service provider networks which want to be part of the NGN need to provide. The focus group was also concerned with the migration that would take place primarily because you know initially it was the public switch telephone network, the integrated services digital network and the public land mobile network which were meant to be migrating to NGN. So the focus group was tasked to look into the migration pattern how this technology migration would take place into a unified platform. Then the future packet based network what it is going to look like and what all additional requirements would it pose. Finally the next generation network global standardization initiative in short we can call it NGN GSI was established in 2006 again by the ITUT. And it was tasked to work in detail on the standards for engine deployment by collaborating with different study groups from within ITUT and from certain other ventors and operators. It was tasked to strengthen the leading role of ITUT because ITUT was also seeing competition and was also seeing a growing interest from other standardization agencies such as the ITF, IEEE etc. So the primary goal of the GSI was to make sure that ITUT has the leading role amongst other standardization bodies. It was also meant to coordinate different study groups which are focusing on their own respective detailed areas and then produce a global standard document which is based on the existing and emerging telecom market needs. Now this is the backdrop of the ITUT engine standardization activity. In subsequent modules we should look at each of them one by one and we will see how this comprehensive repertoire or this repository of documents from the ITUT helped NGN to reach at what it is today in 2018.