While the Broadband Forum’s TR-181 Device Data Model provides standardized paths for almost every core gateway capability, from Wi-Fi 7 configuration to cellular WAN metrics, hardware vendors and ISPs frequently need to expose proprietary features. Whether you are exposing a specialized AI-driven QoE engine, custom LED controls, or hardware diagnostics, TR-181 accommodates custom data via Vendor Extensions. However, improperly formatted vendor extensions can break Auto Configuration Servers (ACS) in TR-069 or cause schema validation failures in USP (TR-369) controllers. Here is how to design vendor extensions that remain robust, compliant, and easy to maintain.

In CPE management, TR-069 has dominated for over 20 years, offering clear data handling but revealing flaws over time. Instead of reworking it, a new protocol—TR-369, or User Services Platform—was developed to address these issues and align with modern needs. Learn more in our new blog post: TR-069 Lessons Learned: Unlock Benefits with USP.

Providing customers, the ability to use and integrate any device which supports one or more of the many standardised device management and monitoring protocols is in Axiros’ DNA. The most utilised standard by our customers is still TR-069, but with the introduction of its successor USP, we’re seeing a major shift in aspects of the lower layers of communication in comparison to TR-069. The analysis of the actual device capabilities and the representation in the data they provide, is a process we call Interoperability Benchmarking. To learn more, check out our blog post.

The second part of the IoT Standards & Protocols blog covers the application protocols which can be divided into general application protocols and specialized application protocols for covering specific use cases.

Having gathered here with fellow members of the Broadband Forum to test our latest versions of the USP / TR-369 embedded Agents and Controllers, developers from AVM GmbH, Arris, Axiros, Nokia, QA Café and many others …

Ensuring smooth and secure communication between devices is a critical function of any Internet of Things…