e ITU is representative of the manner in which all standards are developed, although the frequency of update, the cycle time, the relative levels of involvement of the various players, and the breadth of coverage of the documents vary dramatically. Other Important Organizations In addition to the formal standards bodies, some industry groups are worth paying attention to. Some of them, like the United States Telecom Association (USTA) and the National Telecommunications and Informa- tion Administration (NTIA), are trade organizations that promote the 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 Chapter 1 efficient and effective operation of the industry. Others, like the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), focus on specific sectors of the marketplace. Still others, like SuperComm, are industry groups that sponsor annual trade shows where vendors gather to display their wares. These shows are worth attending, particularly if you are running low on keychains, T-shirts, and pens (only kidding). There are also technology specific groups that focus specifically on optical, wireless, component, switching, ATM, and so on. All are reach- able online; depending on the nature of your interest in the industry, they are worth contacting. The Network For years now, communications networks have been functionally depicted as shown in Figure 1-5: a big, fluffy, opaque cloud into which dis- appear lines representing circuits that magically reappear on the other side of the cloud. I'm not sure why we use clouds to represent networks; knowing what I know about their complex innards and how they work, a hairball would be a far more accurate representation. In truth, clouds are pretty good representations of networks from the point of view of the customers who use them. Internally, networks are remarkably complex as