Standards Update

Big milestone at the ITU-T SG17 closing plenary (Thursday 2025-12-11) in Geneva! The membership officially approved C396 XS.TP.epoch "Technical Report on Global Coordination Requirements for 2038-class rollover events (including but not limited to 2036, 2038, and 2106)".

This work item establishes a framework for documenting the cross-sector, cross-protocol, and cross-jurisdiction coordination needs around upcoming epoch rollover hazards. This class of issues affects telecommunications, embedded systems, aviation, maritime, finance, and much more.

For the first time, an international standards body has created a dedicated work track for this problem space. It's a first step, but a structurally important one. This draft report seeks to fill an existing structural awareness and coordination gap.

Grateful for the support we received in the room, and especially grateful to my friend and collaborator Pedro Umbelino for pushing this boulder uphill with me over the past year. We have a long way to go, but this vital work is now formally underway. If you're a technical expert interested in helping us refine XS.TP.epoch, the FIRST Time SIG (chaired by Pedro Umbelino and me) is a good place to start — and you don't need to be a FIRST member to participate.

Published on FIRST POST: Oct-Dec 2025.