Present day telecommunications standardisation activities can be sub-divided into several technology domains.
Within these major areas are many interesting topics that are seen as very important over the next few years. The table below lists some of them.
Mobility
|
Broadband Fixed Networks
|
Internet Networks and Services
|
Network Convergence
|
Basic Switching and Transmission
Technologies
|
Network Intelligence
|
Network Management
|
Multimedia
|
It is important to differentiate between "standards" prepared by formal standards bodies and "specifications" prepared by trade associations and industry consortia. The former have a formal basis in international law whereas the latter are simply documents with some measure of industry agreement.
Increasingly the old model of national delegations headed by Governments or PTTs participating in formal standards bodies is being usurped by fast-moving industry consortia or fora where technical specifications are drafted and agreed in very short timescales (typically 12 - 18 months compared to 2 - 4 years under older regimes). This is an industry backlash against the regimented and formalised manner in which telecom standardisation activities have been conducted in the past. Today companies are not content to toe the line of the incumbent network operator nor are they content to endure lengthy waits for standards before placing their products on the market.
Standardisation in the future will increasingly modelled as partnership projects between standardisation bodies able to give legal basis to the result and industry fora where a lack of bureaucracy and stiff formalised procedures allows rapid progress to be made in the techical work.
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