Standards and Specification Organizations | Cabling

If you pick up any document or catalog on data cabling, you will see acronyms and abbreviations for the names of specification organizations. If you want to know more about a particular specification, you should be familiar with the organization that publishes that particular document. These U.S.-based and international organizations publish hardware, software, and physical-infrastructure specifications to ensure interoperability between electrical, communications, and other technology systems. Your customers and coworkers may laugh at the elation you express when you get even simple networked devices to work, but you are not alone. In fact, the simple act of getting two stations communicating with one another on a 10Base-T network, for example, is a monumental achievement considering the number of components and vendors involved. Just think: Computers from two different vendors may use Ethernet adapters that also may be from different manufacturers. These Ethernet adapters may also be connected by cable and connectors provided by another manufacturer, which in turn may be connected to a hub built by still another manufacturer. Even the software that the two computers are running may come from different companies. Dozens of other components must work together.

That anything is interoperable at all is amazing. Thankfully, a number of organizations around the world are devoted to the development of specifications that encourage interoperability. These are often nonprofit organizations, and the people who devote much of their time to the development of these specifications are usually volunteers. These specifications include not only cabling specifications and performance and installation practices but also the development of networking equipment like Ethernet cards. As long as the manufacturer follows the appropriate specifications, their devices should be interoperable with other networking devices.

The number of organizations that provide specifications is still more amazing. It might be simpler if a single international organization were responsible for all standards. However, if that were the case, probably nothing would ever get accomplished—hence the number of specifications organizations. The following sections describe a number of these organizations, but the list is by no means exhaustive.