European Telecommunications Standards Institute
Encyclopedia
Standardization
Standardization is the process of developing and implementing technical standards.The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers , compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality....
organization in the telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s industry (equipment makers and network operators) in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, with worldwide projection. ETSI has been successful in standardizing the Low Power Radio, Short Range Device, GSM cell phone system and the TETRA
Terrestrial Trunked Radio
Terrestrial Trunked Radio is a professional mobile radio and two-way transceiver specification...
professional mobile radio system.
Significant ETSI standardisation bodies include TISPAN
TISPAN
The Telecoms & Internet converged Services & Protocols for Advanced Networks is a standardization body of ETSI, specializing in fixed networks and Internet convergence...
(for fixed networks and Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
convergence) and M2M (for machine-to-machine communications). ETSI inspired the creation of, and is a partner in 3GPP
3GPP
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project is a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations, known as the Organizational Partners...
.
ETSI was created by CEPT
European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations
The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations was established on June 26, 1959, as a coordinating body for European state telecommunications and postal organizations...
in 1988 and is officially recognized by the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
and the EFTA
EFTA
EFTA may refer to:* European Family Therapy Association, an NGO.* European Fair Trade Association, an association of eleven Fair Trade importers in nine European countries....
secretariat. Based in Sophia Antipolis
Sophia Antipolis
Sophia Antipolis is a technology park northwest of Antibes and southwest of Nice, France. Much of the park falls within the commune of Valbonne. Created in 1970-84, it houses primarily companies in the fields of computing, electronics, pharmacology and biotechnology. Several institutions of higher...
(France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
), ETSI is officially responsible for standardization of Information and Communication Technologies
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
(ICT) within Europe. These technologies include telecommunications, broadcasting and related areas such as intelligent transportation and medical electronics. ETSI has 740 members from 62 countries/provinces inside and outside Europe, including manufacturers, network operators, administrations, service providers, research bodies and users — in fact, all the key players in the ICT arena. A list of current members can be found here.
In 2010, ETSI's budget exceeded €22 million, with contributions coming from members, commercial activities like sale of documents, plug-tests and fora hosting (i.e. the hosting of forums), contract work and partner funding. About 40% goes towards operating expenses and the remaining 60% towards work programs including competency centres and special projects.
ETSI is a founding partner organization of the Global Standards Collaboration
Global Standards Collaboration
The "Global Standards Collaboration" started life as The "Inter-regional Telecommunications Standards conference in 1990. This was an initiative of the T1 Committee of the United States who invited the other founding partner organizations ITU-T, ETSI and the Japanese TTC to the first ISC Meeting...
initiative.
ETSI was criticised for the preemptive inclusion of wiretapping capabilities in their telecommunication standards, encouraging governments to pass their wiretapping laws accordingly. (see Lawful Interception
Lawful interception
Lawful interception is obtaining communications network data pursuant to lawful authority for the purpose of analysis or evidence. Such data generally consist of signalling or network management information or, in fewer instances, the content of the communications...
)
ETSI deliverable types
- European Standard, telecommunications series (EN) - Used when the document is intended to meet needs specific to Europe and requires transposition into national standards, or when the drafting of the document is required under an EC/EFTA mandate.
- ETSI Standard (ES) - Used when the document contains normative requirements and it is necessary to submit the document to the whole ETSI membership for approval.
- ETSI Guide (EG) - Used when the document contains guidance on handling of technical standardization activities, it is submitted to the whole ETSI membership for approval.
- Special Report (SR) - Used for various purposes, including giving public availability to information not produced within a technical committee. ETSI SRs are also used for 'virtual' documents, e.g. documents that are dynamically generated by a query to a database via the web. An SR is published by the technical committee in which it was produced.
- ETSI Technical Specification (TS) - Used when the document contains normative requirements and when short time-to-market, validation and maintenance are essential, it is approved by the technical committee that drafted it.
- ETSI Technical Report (TR) - Used when the document contains mainly informative elements, it is approved by the technical committee that drafted it.
- ETSI Group Specification (GS) - Used by Industry Specification Groups according to the decision making procedures defined in the group's Terms of Reference. This deliverable type is approved and adopted by the Industry Specification Group that drafted it.
This list is gathered from the European Telecommunications Standards Institute website.
External links
- Official Website
- NORMAPME.com, The European Office of Crafts, Trades and Small and Medium sized Enterprises for Standardisation