Question

Why are standards needed in data communication and networking? What are the advantages and disadvantages of standards? How do standards fit in with regulations at the federal, manufacturing, and organizational levels? Give an example of a standard that fits in at your workplace.

Answer 1

he Importance of Standards

Standards are necessary in almost every business and public service entity. For example, before 1904, fire hose couplings in the United States were not standard, which meant a fire department in one community could not help in another community. The transmission of electric current was not standardized until the end of the nineteenth century, so customers had to choose between Thomas Edison’s direct current (DC) and George Westinghouse’s alternating current (AC).

The primary reason for standards is to ensure that hardware and software produced by different vendors can work together. Without networking standards, it would be difficult—if not impossible—to develop networks that easily share information. Standards also mean that customers are not locked into one vendor. They can buy hardware and software from any vendor whose equipment meets the standard. In this way, standards help to promote more competition and hold down prices.

The use of standards makes it much easier to develop software and hardware that link different networks because software and hardware can be developed one layer at a time.

The Standards-Making Process

There are two types of standards: formal and de facto. A formal standard is developed by an official industry or government body. For example, there are formal standards for applications such as Web browsers (e.g., HTTP, HTML), for network layer software (e.g., IP), data link layer software (e.g., Ethernet IEEE 802.3), and for physical hardware (e.g., V.90 modems). Formal standards typically take several years to develop, during which time technology changes, making them less useful.

De facto standards are those that emerge in the marketplace and are supported by several vendors but have no official standing. For example, Microsoft Windows is a product of one company and has not been formally recognized by any standards organization, yet it is a de facto standard. In the communications industry, de facto standards often become formal standards once they have been widely accepted.

The formal standardization process has three stages: specification, identification of choices, and acceptance. The specification stage consists of developing a nomenclature and identifying the problems to be addressed. In the identification of choices stage, those working on the standard identify the various solutions and choose the optimum solution from among the alternatives. Acceptance, which is the most difficult stage, consists of defining the solution and getting recognized industry leaders to agree on a single, uniform solution. As with many other organizational processes that have the potential to influence the sales of hardware and software, standards-making processes are not immune to corporate politics and the influence of national governments.

International Organization for Standardization One of the most important standards-making bodies is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO),2 which makes technical recommendations about data communication interfaces (see www.iso.org). ISO is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The membership is composed of the national standards organizations of each ISO member country.

International Telecommunications Union—Telecommunications Group The Telecommunications Group (ITU-T) is the technical standards-setting organization of the United Nations International Telecommunications Union, which is also based in Geneva (see www.itu.int). ITU is composed of representatives from about 200 member countries. Membership was originally focused on just the public telephone companies in each country, but a major reorganization in 1993 changed this, and ITU now seeks members among public- and private-sector organizations who operate computer or communications networks (e.g., RBOCs) or build software and equipment for them (e.g., AT&T).