indi- viduals result in the creation of a collection of new and revised standards recommendations published on a four-year cycle. Historically, the stan- dards were color-coded, published in a series of large-format, soft-cover books, differently colored on a rotating basis. For example, the 1984 books were red; the 1988 books, blue; the 1992 books, white. It is common Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. First Things First First Things First to hear network people talking about "going to the blue book." They are referring (typically) to the generic standards published by the ITU for that particular year. It is also common to hear people talk about the CCITT. Old habits die hard: The organization ceased to exist in the early 1990s, replaced by the ITU-T. The previous name is still used, however. The activities of the ITU-T are parceled out according to a cleverly constructed division of labor. Three efforts result: (1) study groups create the actual recommendations for telecomm equipment, systems, net- works, and services (there are currently 16 study groups); (2) plan com- mittees develop plans for the intelligent deployment and evolution of networks and network services; and (3) specialized autonomous groups (currently three) produce resources that support the efforts of developing nations. The study groups and their responsibilities are as follows: SG 2-Operational aspects of service provision, networks and performance SG 3-Tariff and accounting principles including related telecommunications economic and policy issues SG 4-Telecommunication management, including Telecommunications Managed Network (TMN) SG 5-Protection against electromagnetic environment effects SG 6-Outside plant SG 7-Data networks and open system communications SG 9-Integrated broadband cable networks, and television and sound transmission SG 10-Languages and