e coordination entity for the overall international standards creation process. These include the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI, formerly the Conference on European Post and Telegraph, or CEPT), Tel- cordia (formerly Bellcore, now part of Science Applications International Corporation [SAIC] but as of this writing, about to be sold yet again), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the European Com- puter Manufacturers Association (ECMA), and a host of others. It is worthwhile to mention a bit about the ITU as a representative standards body. Founded in 1947 as part of the United Nations, it descended from a much older body called the Union Telegraphique, founded in 1865 and chartered to develop standards for the emerging telegraph industry. Over the years since its creation, the ITU and its three principal member bodies have developed three principal goals: To maintain and extend international cooperation for the improvement and interconnectivity of equipment and systems through the establishment of technical standards To promote the development of the technical and natural facilities (read spectrum) for most efficient applications To harmonize the actions of national standards bodies to attain these common aims, and most especially to encourage the development of communications facilities in developing countries The Telecommunications Standardization Sector (TSS) The goals of the TSS (or ITU-T), according to the ITU, are as follows: To fulfill the purposes of the Union relating to telecommunication standardization by studying technical, operating, and tariff questions and adopting formal recommendations on them with a view to standardizing telecommunications on a world-wide basis. To maintain and strengthen its pre-eminence in international standardization by developing Recommendations rapidly. Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Compa