Telecom Standards: Business Values, Bodies, and Acronyms

Business Values of Telecom Standardization for Operators

1. Multiple sources of supply (decrease risk of sole supplier dependencies/lock-in, improve choice at competitive prices).
2. Interoperability, e.g., multi-vendor networks, service interop.
3. Assurance that investment in technology should not abruptly change or fail.

Business Values of Telecom Standardization for Vendors

1. Network vendors can sell to all service operators, freed from vendor-specific R&D.
2. Reduce customization.
3. Build reputation / customer confidence - strong standards brand.
4. Larger markets from wide adoption, greater economies of scale.

Types of Standards Bodies

1. Accredited
2. Treaty-based
3. Partnerships

Telecom Acronyms Explained

1. ITU: International Telecommunication Union
2. IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force

Examples of Standards Development Organizations

ITU, IEEE, ETSI, IETF, etc.

High-Impact Telecom Standards

1. Signaling System #7 (SS7)
2. SONET / SDH
3. AMPS: AT&T Bell Labs circa 1984
4. Ethernet: IEEE 802.3 circa 1980
5. TCP / IP

More Telecom Acronyms

• TDM: Time Division Multiplexing
• CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access
• PON: Passive Optical Network
• FTTH: Fiber-To-The-Home
• WDM: Wavelength Division Multiplexing

High Performance Routing (HPR) / Dynamically Controlled Routing (DCR)

In dynamically controlled routing (DCR) with centralized intelligence, the network updates routing tables every few seconds based on current traffic patterns.

Telephone Services Enabled by Common Channel Signaling System Number 7 (SS7)

Call Forwarding, Auto Recall, Auto Call Back, Call Waiting

Differences Between Circuit (TDM) and Packet Switching

• Fixed speed vs. speed conversion
• Fixed delay vs. variable delay
• Dedicated vs. shared bandwidth

Hot Topics in Packet Switching

• Expanding role of Ethernet across the LAN/MAN/WAN up to 10Gbit/s
• Making the IP networks more saleable and improving economics
• Expanding application fit of IP networking

Key Features of an Open Standard

• Consensus derived (and interested parties are not excluded)
• Publicly available