The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has taken on seven new leadership positions in the international standardization of smart cities and city buses, laying the foundation for expanding its influence in the future standardization of core technologies such as IoT, digital twins, and smart cities.

ETRI and the Korea ITU Research Committee announced on the 24th that they have strengthened their leadership in international standardization by taking on seven new chairpersons at the ITU-T Study Group 20 (SG20) meeting, an international standardization organization.

In addition, the development of new recommendations in the city bus field was approved, securing an advantageous position in commercializing related technologies.

ITU-T SG20 is a research group that oversees international standards for Internet of Things and smart city applications and services, and ETRI's Dr. Hyungjun Kim has been serving as the international chairman since 2022.

ETRI and the Korea ITU Research Committee expanded the research scope of ITU-T SG20 to include digital twins and metaverse-based smart cities (city buses) through policy contributions at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-24) last year.

At the recent ITU-T SG20 meeting, ETRI achieved the feat of taking on seven new chairpersons who will lead the research sessions from 2025 to 2028.

The new key chairpersons include Dr. Hyung-Jun Kim, who was reappointed as the SG20 chairperson, Director Jun-Seop Lee as the WP2 chairperson, Dr. Chang-Kyu Lee as the Q1 rapporteur, and Dr. Young-Hwan Choi as the Q3 rapporteur.

this time Through its appointment to the chairmanship, ETRI has laid the foundation for expanding its future influence in the standardization of core technologies such as the Internet of Things, digital twins, sustainable smart cities, and city buses.

In addition, with regard to standard development, ETRI was the first in the world to develop and receive approval for a new recommendation in the city bus field.

This recommendation defines requirements centered on interoperability and citizen participation for a virtual city concept that supports interconnection between city services using metaverse technology.

This is expected to lead to improved urban planning and the development of citizen participation-based services.

In addition, the recommendations prepared as a result of the ETRI City Bus Standards Laboratory project were pre-approved.

This is significant as the first international standard related to the smart city integrated platform of Korea.

At this meeting, ETRI achieved the following results: approval of one international standard, pre-adoption of two, and adoption of six new standardization tasks, including recommendations related to city buses.

ETRI Dr. Hyung-Jun Kim said, “It is encouraging that Korea has been selected as an additional chairperson and has adopted many new standardization tasks in the first SG20 meeting of this research period,” and added, “We plan to take the lead in establishing core standards for building sustainable smart cities through close cooperation with domestic industries.”

ETRI Standards Research Division Director Lee Seung-yoon also emphasized, “We will do our best to create influential international standard results and enhance global standards leadership through a strategy to strengthen leadership in international standardization organizations at the institutional level.”

This achievement is part of the 'Information and Communication Broadcasting Standard Development Project' being carried out with the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, and is a result of the Citiverse Standards Research Lab project being carried out by ETRI and the standardization efforts of ETRI's Standards Research Headquarters. It was achieved as a result.