Guide to the Use of Standards

This publication presents guidelines for the development of International Functional Standards in Information Technology (IT), as proposed by the seventeen companies comprising SPAG: AEG, Bull, GCE, CGE, ICL, Nixdorf, Olivetti, Philips, Plessey, Siemens, STET, Thomson-CSF, Alcatel, British Telecom, DEC (Europe), Hewlett-Packard S.A. and IBM Europe. Other contributors to the contents of the Guide include the Commission of the European Communities, the German Research Networks (DFN) and Ericsson Information Systems.

The Guide aims to:
- define the ways in which IT functions can be realized in terms of Standards, thereby creating an effective multi-vendor market
- encourage use of the techniques for defining these Standards, and achieve uniformity in Standards Institutions throughout the world
- promote the application of those standards related to the Basic Reference Model for Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), allowing a true interworking of IT systems.

Specific topics covered by the Guide include:
- file transfer, access and management
- addressing, to enable the construction of practical networks
- management, based on the latest progressions in the OSI architecture
- document architecture, with the results of ISO work on ODA, and a revised ODA profile structure
- PABX/ISDN interfaces, outlining recent developments and recommendations for improving operations within the framework of a trans-national ISDN.

This book also contains information on interworking between SPAG and CEN/CENELEC/CEPT Profiles and those derived from MAP and TOP. All are based on the same OSI model and base standards, and provided the recommendations in the Guide are followed, little difficulty should be experienced in building and using equipment in either (or indeed in a mixed) environment.