WkiiWorking in s tand ddiards is like working in real life

Leonardo Chiariglione Speech at WSC Academic Day, Sophia Antipolis – 2013/06/14 DfiiiDefinitions o f“f “stan dar d” y Webster’s y A conspicuous object (as a banner) formerly carried at the top of a pole and used to mark a rallying point especially in battle or to serve as an emblem y Somethinggyy that is established by authority, custom or general consent as a model or example to be followed

y Encyclopaedia Britannica y (A reference that is) established to permit large production runs of component parts that are readily fitted to other parts without adjustment

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 2 MdfiiiMy definition o f“f “stan dd”dard” y Codified agreement between parties who recognise the advantage of all doing certain things in the same way

y NB: The actual “process” (de jure or de facto) is irrelevant, provided it is y Fair to all parties concerned and y Carried out to match the needs of users

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 3 Why the World Needs Communication Standards y Language requires an agreed correspondence between Utterances and words y WitiWriting requ ires an agree d correspon dence be tween Graphic signs and words y Telegraphy requires an agreed correspondence between Combinations of dots/dashes and characters y Television requires an agreed correspondence between Certain waveforms and visible and audible information y Communication can take place only if an agreement exists about the meaning of the "symbols" used in specific communication system TfSddTypes of Standards y Optional: e . g. the technology used in a display y Desirable: e.g. threadings in nuts and bolts y Useful: e.g. a communication system assumes that there is a “standard” y Mandatory (by law): e.g. safety and some forms of communitiication Standards and interfaces

System D

System A System B System C

X YZ

• If interfaces X, Y and Z are “exposed” they must conftthfform to the referenced dtdd standard • If interface Y is not “exposed”, it may be anything IilddiiInternational standardisation y 3 major bodies deal with standards at the international level y International Telecommunication Union (ITU), dealing with “telecommunication standards” y International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), dealing with “electrical standards” y International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), dealing with standards on “everything else”

y Status y ITU i s a T reat y O rgani sati on and a UN agency y ISO and IEC are not-for-profit organisations

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 7 International Standards Making Structure y A number of committees organized in a 3-layer structure within ISO and IEC y Technical Committees (()TC) y Subcommittee (SC) y Working Groups (WG) y At TC and SC level decisions are taken by national votes y At WG level decisions are taken by consensus of technical experts Consensus according to ISO/IEC

yGeneral agreement, characterised by y The absence of sustained opposition to substantial issues by any important part of the concerned interests and y A process that involves seeking to take into account the views of all parties concerned and to reconcile any conflicting arguments

yNOTE — Consensus need not imply unanimity

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 9 The ISO hierarchy (simplified)

IEC ISO

TC xx JTC 1 TC yy

SC uu SC 29 SC vv

WG 1 (JPEG) WG 11 (MPEG)

Technologies and standards for digital media 2012/05/31 10 Principles of ISO/IEC standdiidardisation y A standard should enable anybody to build equipment conforming to the standard, therefore it should include y Normative clauses gggpuiding implementers y Means to test an implementation for conformity y In principle use of standards should be accessible by anybody y Standards whose use requires IPR from a third party are acceptable if that party declares to be willing to license his IPR “on fair and reasonable terms and non- discriminatoryy( (FRAND ) conditions” y Development of standards is strictly separate from licensing terms

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 11 Phases of ISO standards development

#1 Phase of work Acronym 1. New Project NP 2. Call for Proposals (MPEG specific) CfP 3. WkiDftWorking Draft WD 4. Committee Draft CD 5. Final Committee Draft FCD 6. Final D ra ft I nt ernati onal St and ard FDIS 7. International Standard IS The MPEG idea ( end 1980’ s ) y Different countries/industries have different agendas but y Digital audio-visual compression is mature y The enabling technology (can be) common y A place to define digital representation of audio/video y Iddflii(dli)Independent of applications (e.g. delivery) y Of global scope y Where compet ences add and agend as neut rali se y Slogan y A fight between technologists is less expensive than a fight between assembly lines – and the result is better!

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 13 The MPEG p hilosoph y y Develop standards for converging media y Develop the required technologies using research results from multiple sources y Act as a bridge between academia/research and industry y Develop software implementations of the standards as a ppplatform for peer review and o ptimisation

y Verify the performance of the standard

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 14 BhidhBehind the acronyms y MPEG meets 4 times a year y 104 meetings until April 2013 y Attendance ~500 experts y Countries actively represented ~ 25 y Industries represented: all industries with a stake in digit al au dio an d v ideo y Academia, Broadcasting, Computers, Consumer Electronics, Content, Research Institutions , Services , Telecom, …

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 15 The MPEG organi sati on y Every meeting 3 plenary sessions y Mon am y Wed am y Fri pm y Duringgggpp the meeting subgroups meet in parallel y Requirements y Systems y Video – JCT-VC – JCT-3V y Audio y 3DG y Communication y The HoD ggproup deals with administrative matters

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 16 MPEG operati on /1 y Need for a new standard y Identify the need for a standard y Approval of a new standard project y Exploration y The search for new technology y Seek Industry experts y Open seminars y Requirements y Establish the scope of work y Call f or Pr oposal s

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 17 MPEG operati on /2 y Competitive phase y Response to CfP y Initial technology selection y Collaborative phase y Core Experiments y Working Drafts y Approval y CD y DIS y IS

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 18 MPEG operati on /3 y Assessment y Verification Tests y Life cycle y Corrigenda y Amendments y Withdrawal

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 19 PfilProfiles an dld leve ls y The notion of profile was developed by OSI and is defined as y set of one or more base standards, and, where applicable, the identification of chosen classes, subsets, options and parameters of those base standards, necessary for accomplishing a particular function.

y Because e.ggp. picture resolution is an im portant cost element, each profile is usually associated with levels, a decoder of level N being able to decode bitstreams up and including that level.

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 20 The lim its o f se lf-certifica tion y Self-certification may work well when the market y has large companies, y ppgroducing mass market p p,roducts, y non terribly sophisticated y the product depends on a key technology licensed by a company y the licens ing con trac t is con ditiona l on con form ity of th e implementation, y conformity of the product is verified by the licensing company y This is not the case of MPEG standards y In general an MPEG patent holder does not want to be the “guardian” of the correct implementation of the standard

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 21 EdEncoder con formance y An encoder conforms to an MPEG standards if it generates bitstreams conforming with the syntactic and semantic bitstream requirements specified in the standard

y It is not possible to test an encoder for conformity, bu t it is possible to test a sufficient number of bitstreams generated by that encoder for conformity to become reasonably sure of the conformance of that encoder

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 22 Conformance of bits tream an d deco der y The two issues in MPEG -1 conformance are y How to test conformity of a specific bitstream y How to test conformity of a specific decode. y MPEG standards give y Guidelines on how to construct y Tests to verify bitstream and decoder conformance y Bitst ream t est suit es t o ch eck or verif y d ecod er conf ormance y (Informative) test bitstreams implemented according to those guidelines

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 23 Patents – whhhat they are y A definition (USA) of a patentable invention y “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter or improvement thereof”

y To get a patent an inventor files an application with a PtPatent tOffi Office and sub mit s y A description of the invention y One or more claims delimiting the scope of the rights requested

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 24 Patents – how to get one y Applications are examined by Patent Office examiners y If the examination confirms that the application satisfies the criteria for an invention y The patent is granted y The description of the invention is made public y If another inventor files for the same invention after the first, the second filing is rejected

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 25 PdddPatents and standards y ISO/IEC/ITU allow that the implementation of a standard requires the use of necessary patents

y The owner of the rights, however, must be willing to grant y free use of the patented item or y use on fair and reasonable terms and non discriminatory conditions y what is “fair and reasonable”? y Companies owning such rights must make a statement that is kept in ISO/IEC/ITU files

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 26 Patents and MPEG-2 y Reportedly 650 MPEG -2 essential patents in 57 countries owned by 23 companies/organisations are needed to implement MPEG -2 Video MP@ML

y Even if use of each patent is granted on fair and reasonable terms the terms for all patents may not be at all fair and reasonable

y In early 93 discussions on the occasion of MPEG meetings, made outside of the meetings, led to the establi s hmen t o f MPEG LA (Licens ing Au thor ity, no relation with MPEG) for MPEG-2 patents

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 27 Licens ing o f MPEG-2 (V&S) y For encoders and decoders 2. 50 $ per unit y For Packaged Media 0.03 $ for the first MPEG-2 Video Event, plus 0.01 $ for each additional 30 min. recorded on the same copy

y For consumer products (e.g. camcorders, read/write DVD players, PC software having codec capabilities) 2.50 $ per unit

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 28 MPEG –thihe impact y MPEG standards have changed the landscape of media ☺

y MPEG-1, -2, -4 used in hundreds of million y Video CD players (all of MPEG-1) y MP3 players (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3) y Digital TV set top boxes (MPEG-2 Video/Systems and MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2) y DVD players (MPEG-2 Video/Systems) y Photo cameras (MPEG-4 Visual) y Mobile handsets (MPEG-4 Visual/AVC, AAC, File Format) y Compressed movie players (MPEG-4 Visual + MP3)

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 29 http://mpeg.chiariglione.org/

Working in standards is like working in real life 2013/06/14 30