The Importance of Standards in Developing an Effective Internet

If there had not been a set of globally agreed standards that gave, for example, a common means to connect, a common language for the exchange of data as well as a form for displaying that data, then the exponential growth in the use of the Internet would probably never have happened.

There are many organizations involved and a strong degree of cooperation binds them all. Take for example your mobile phone. ITU-T codecs provide voice and video; ITU-R defines the radio spectrum in which it operates; IEEE provides Wi-Fi standards; IETF, TCP/IP and HTTP; W3C, HTML and XML; just to name a few. Mobile backhaul is primarily facilitated by optical transport networks conforming to ITU standards and ITU’s IMT Advanced specifications will make your phone at least 100 times faster than today’s 3G smart phones. Building blocks for an Internet Age is an info-graphic that charts some of ITU’s work, but it also acknowledges that ITU is an important part of a big jigsaw puzzle with many different players slotting in to provide coherence and continuity to one of the greatest engineering feats ever achieved. ITU has led many initiatives to avoid duplication of work between standards organizations. Defining the standards that apply to the physical infrastructure over which all data runs, is a key area of work for ITU. The vast majority of global communications systems interoperate because of optical transport standards agreed between ITU members from the private and public sectors.