Telecommunications

Standards
Standards Overview
Standards for building telephony voice communications, data
communications, LAN, and wireless communications hardware and
software products are developed by several national and international
standards groups (see Table 1). Some key international standards
organizations include:
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is a Geneva,
Switzerland-based agency of the United Nations.
The Consultative Committee of International Telegraph & Telephone
(CCITT) was formed in 1956. The CCITT studies telegraphy and
telephony technical, operating, and tariff questions. The CCITT is now
part of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), founded in
1947, is a specialized international agency that develops and
promotes worldwide standards. It is a voluntary, non-treaty group
with members from over 80 countries.
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), formed in
1988, writes technical standards. It is composed of representatives
from Post, Telephone, and Telegraph (PTTs) ministries, computer and
telecommunication vendors, manufacturers, users, and research
bodies.
There are several key American standards bodies as well, including:
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which has
developed data communications and other standards like the
American national Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII
code).
The Electronic Industries Association, which plays a role in developing
communications hardware standards, including the venerable EIA232D (formerly Recommended Specification-232, or RS-232)
specification.
The Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), which has
taken the lead in developing LAN (the 802.x standards) and other
high-speed networking standards.
The standards developed by lead groups are reviewed and
incorporated into worldwide standards by the ITU and other
organizations. Standards are developed over a period of time by
meetings between interested individuals and organizations having a
vested interest in the specific standards. There are several steps and
votes required before a particular standard is approved and issued for
the industry to follow. The main problem is that products and
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technologies are evolving so quickly and so profusely, it is difficult for

the standards organizations to keep pace. It is best for us to view
standards as the starting point or foundation on which our
telecommunications networks rest. Planet-wide, there are general
overlying telecommunications standards, but in general, North
American telecommunications standards are slightly different. For
example, in the U.S., T-1 service is sold (T-1 is just a digital pipe that
connects to a telephone network or data network at speeds of 1.544
Mbs), but in Europe, E-1 service is sold. An E-1 channel is the European
equivalent to a T-1 channel, but it operates at 2,048 Mbps. Standards
are reviewed and expanded regularly, accommodating the construction
of larger, faster networks using newer technologies that rest on those
standards. The networks themselves incorporate some proprietary,
non-standard equipment that solves special problems for the network.
Hopefully, if wisely selected, the proprietary equipment can be easily
replaced with industry-standard equipment as it becomes available.
Recognizing and understanding the role that standards play in
telecommunications networks is key to effectively designing and
implementing them. So, let us look further. In my short stint as a
lobbyist for General Electric Information Services Company (GEISCO), I
attended a CCITT standardization meeting hosted by the State
Department at one of their buildings in Washington, D.C. It was like fifty
men in blue and gray suits (and one man in a sport coat with a pocket
protector in the pocket) sitting around a big table. Each participant had
stacks of paper in front of him. They were passionate about their work,
and all that came through to me was boring. Actually, it was very, very
boring. I was fortunate that my stint as a lobbyist did not last. Now that
is not to say that standardization work is unimportant. Quite the
contrary, it is a very important first step in achieving what we really
need hardware, software, and channels that all work together to form
a network. Standards need to be developed in one years time, tops.
This should be possible if the process uses electronic proposal posting,
review, commenting, and voting. When this is not the case, standards
run the risk of being obsolete before they are approved.

The Importance of Standards

Standards are especially important for telecommunications because
they are the first step to assuring inter-operability of products and
services from many telecommunications vendors. When products are
manufactured to a standard, they do not necessarily work together. For
example, when ten tax accountants are given the same exact income
tax information on an indi vidual and fill out the same standard income
tax return, we get ten different implementations of that standard
income tax return. In theory, all tax accountants should have produced
the exact same return. But life does not work that way. Ten
manufacturers building communications equipment to the same
standard
oftentimes
produce
ten
different
variations
of
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communications equipment that does not work together. However,

these different pieces of equipment are closer to working together than
if they had not been built to the same standard.Telephony standards
vary from data communications and LAN standards because they are
more often established through international standards bodies and less
through market share recognition. AT&T created all early American
telephony standards. International telephony standards were not
created by AT&T and vary in many ways from American telephony
standards.

Table 1 Standards Bodies

Abbreviation Full Name, Address, Telephone Number, and Web
Site
ANSI American National Standards Institute
1430 Broadway
New York, New York 10018
Telephone: (212) 642-4900
www.ansi.org
EIA Electronic Industries Alliance
Corporate Engineering Department
2500 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia 22201
Telephone: (703) 907-7500
www.eia.org
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
650, route des Lucioles
06921 Sophia Antipolis, France
Telephone:+33 49 294.42. 00
www.etsi.org
ITU (CCITT) General Secretariat
International Telecommunications Union
Place des Nations
Ch-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland
Telephone: +41-22-730.51.11
www.itu.int
ECMA European Computer Manufacturers Association
114 Rue Du Rhone
Ch-1204 Geneva, Switzerland
Telephone: +41-22-849.60.00
www.ecma.ch
ISO International Organization for Standardization
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Central Secretariat
1 Rue De Varembe
Ch-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Telephone: 41-22-749.01.11
www.iso.ch
IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
802 Committee
Secretary, IEEE Standards Board
345 East 47th Street
New York, New York 10017 USA
Telephone: (212) 419-7900
www.ieee.org

De Jure Standards
Standards created by a single organization for the industry or
standards bodies are called de jure standards. Most telephony
standards are de jure standards. They are developed by the
international standards bodies and finalized so the product developers
can construct compatible hardware and software products. The
drawback here is that they take time to be developed and adopted. So
much so that unless the standard covers some very consistent or
constantly used technology, it may not be so useful. Standards bodies
have decreased the time it takes them to create a standard because
they understand that the standard may be obsolete if they take too
long to create it. In contrast, they must create standards, otherwise
proprietary products would dominate the telecommunications market.
An example of a de jure standard is the V. 90 modem specification
standardized by the ITU.

De Facto Standards
Some standards have been established de facto because specific PC
and LAN products dominated the market by out-selling their
competition. This is basically the idea of whoever sells the most wins.
The original de facto PC industry standard was the IBM PC. Most PC
consulting gurus at the time would advise, Buy your software first,
then get your hardware. They were very wrong. In the early 1980s, if
software did not run on an IBM PC, it did not run. At that time, it was
best to buy the hardware first (an IBM PC). I learned this painfully when
I tried running some special accounting software on a Columbia Data
Products PC. It did not run and I had to eat $6,000 of expenses.
However, the IBM PC de facto standard lost out around 1990 when IBM
introduced the PS-2. (Pretty Stupid Computer 2 Oops! Sorry, my
opinions are showing.) Although innovative, it failed to motivate the
market to mimic it, and as a result, IBMs PC market share dropped to
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about 10% from a high of around 85% share. With that decline, the IBM
PC ceased to be the PC industry de facto standard. However, in the
1990s, Microsoft Windows became the de facto industry standard for
PCs. The Microsoft Windows operating environment continues to be the
de facto driving standard for the PC industry. No one is holding a gun to
our head, forcing us to buy Microsoft products, but Microsoft does twist
our arm a little bit. Windows is a software de facto standard around
which other PC applications software is built. Periodically, Microsoft
publishes a PC hardware design document for PC manufacturers that
directs them how to design PC hardware that will work with future
Windows releases. So, Windows today is the de facto standard, driving
both PC hardware and software. This is good as long as Microsoft
publishes complete information needed by other hardware and
software developers so that they can develop competitive and reliable
products. Microsoft knows that Windows is only a de facto standard and
that Windows could be replaced at any time by another de facto
standard. This could be the Macintosh operating system or even the
dread Linux operating system. For us, the most important standards
are those that relate to telephony, data communications, LANs,
wireless communications, etc. The focal point for these standards is the
OSI model. The OSI model is the key to understanding how all
telecommunications and PC technology fits together. We will discuss
this shortly.

Inter-operability
Standards are especially important for telecommunications because
they assure product compatibility. However, more important is interoperability of products and services from different telecommunications
vendors. Interoperability means that the products can be plugged
together to form a network that carries voice, data, image, and video.
It is nice to have products meet standards. Conforming to a common
standard is an important step in having products inter-operate.
However, what we must have is inter-operable products to construct
working networks. Inter-operable products come more from de facto
standards than from de jure standards. If you are building a network or
just connecting to OSI Model the Internet from your home, you must
select inter-operable products to have that connection work.
Fortunately, there are many inter-operable products from which to
choose for consumers. In business, network design and implementation
commonly involve a pilot test to assure that all involved vendors solve
inter-operability problems before product purchase commitments are
made. Contracts also include clauses obligating communications
hardware, software, and service vendors to fix any inter-operability
problems that occur through the life of the network.
Reference : Pete Moulton with the assistance of Jason
Telecommunications Survival Guide, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2001.

Moulton,

De jure = secara hukum

De facto = sesungguhnya, berdasarkan kenyataan