Essentially, USP provides an intelligent control plane for Customer Premises Equipment (CPE).
USP project was created by Broadband Forum and its specification was issued in October 2019. It represents the natural evolution of the CPE WAN Management Protocol (CWMP), commonly known as TR-069, created back in 2004.
 
With USP service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers, and end users can:

• Perform lifecycle management of consumer connected devices
• Enable IoT and consumer electronics upgradability for critical security patches
• Bootstrap and configure newly installed or purchased devices and virtual services
• Let customer support monitor and troubleshoot connected devices, services, and home network links
• Easily map the home network to control service quality and monitor threats
• Securely control IoT, smart home, and smart networking functions locally or from the Cloud
• Enable multi-tenant (i.e., multi-stakeholder) management and control

 
According to Broadband Forum, USP was designed to coexist with CWMP (TR-069) and provides an easy migration path as the two share the Device:2 data model (TR-181).
USP consists of a network of Controllers and Agents that allow applications to manipulate service elements. An Agent exposes service elements to one or more Controllers.
 
USP uses an expanded version of the Device:2 Data Model (TR-181 Issue 2) to represent device operations (firmware upgrades, reboots, etc.), network interfaces, and service functions (IoT functions, VoIP, etc.), such as:
 

• Management and monitoring of network interfaces (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Cellular, ZigBee, SSIDs and MAC layer information, IPv4 and IPv6 interfaces, DHCP, tunnelling, etc.)
• Management and monitoring network services and clients, including firewall, DNS, network time (NTP), QoS, routing policies, connected hosts, and user access, plus application layer connection interfaces such as MQTT, XMPP, STOMP, etc.
• Performance measurement and diagnostics (LMAP and TWMAP)
• Management of containers and applications (lifecycle management, device upgrades, etc.)

 
 
Key features of USP (TR-369):
 

• Robust Service Set (based on TR-181)
• Deployment Flexibility
• Compatibility with Legacy Deployments
• Multi-Controller Architecture (Multi-Tenant Management)
• Secure Communication (TLS/DTLS)
• Multiple Transport Types (WebSockets, STOMP, CoAP)
• Interoperability - Proxying non-USP Devices
• Standardised Development
• Open-Source USP Agent

 
 
A more in-depth analysis of USP and its use cases can be found in Broadband Forums whitepaper Realizing the Promise of the Connected Home with User Services Platform (TR-369)
 
 
Read more:
https://usp.technology/
https://www.broadband-forum.org/download/TR-369.pdf
 
 

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