Internet Protocol Detail Record - Formation and History

Formation and History

During the summer of 1999, while the Communications Industry was grappling with massive growth in the use of Internet Protocol based networks for voice and data communications, a group of industry veterans formed the IPDR Organization to begin to establish standards for use in operational and business support systems used by the communications carriers. Originally formed as an informal confederation of about 60 industry experts from 20 companies, including Narus, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, AT&T and others who were active in the industry, the organization quickly matured into a formal structure, tackling a range of technical issues associated with the deployment of systems to support the growth of IP Protocol based communications services.

By 2002, the group was involving industry specific software development companies to perform inter-operability testing and encompassed working forums around five distinct tracks of industry challenges, had hired a staff, and appointed Aron Heintz as President to guide the quickly growing body of technical work being conducted within the largely volunteer organization.

IPDR had also established a formal Board of Directors structure, enlisting a range of industry experts from industry players in the United States and Canada to oversee the development of the standards and protocols being developed by the group, including Martin Demers of Ace*comm, Mark Farmer of Amdocs, Tal Givoly of Xacct Technologies, Matthew Lucas of Telestrategies, Jeff Meyer of Hewlett-Packard, Kevin McCoy of Cisco, Mike Norris of Telus, Steve O'Neal of Sprint PCS and Pankaj Patel of Convergys.