Recent Developments in European Community Policy to Promote a Harmonized Implementation of OSI Standards

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Miche l S. A U D O U X

Head of the Telecommunications, Information Industries and Innovation, DG XIII, Commission of the European Community, 200 rue tie la Loi, B-1049 Brussels, (Belgium)

During the past years the importance of international standards as a basis for ensuring data interchange in various types of applications has been more and more widely recog- nized. Within the Community, there has been an increased awareness of the role that Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standards will play for maintaining the capability to com- municate in a world-wide environment. This has led to an increased level of community activities in this field and espe- cially to new initiatives to promote a harmonized application of international OSI standards in Europe.

Keywords: OSI, European Community, Data Interchange, Functional Standards.

1. The Challenge of Digitalization

One of the s t r iking facts in mode rn communi - ca t ion is the growing use of d igi ta l techniques to t ransfer var ious types of in format ion . Digi ta l tech- niques are no longer res t r ic ted to the d o m a i n of computers . They are now pervasive enough to cover te lephony, aud io and video record ing and t ransmiss ion of television signals to name bu t a few examples . The result is that signals are becom- ing complex. Protocols or convent ions needed to communica t e are ex t remely sophis t ica ted and re- quire that any s t anda rd in this field be imple- men ted with much more discipl ine than before and swiftly enough to cope with the pace of the new technologies.

Michel Audoux was born in France (1938) and graduated as an engineer in Electronics.

He pursued his studies in Nuclear Engineering in the United States and joined the Commission of the European Communities in 1964.

After various assignments within the Commission services, he joined the te lecommunicat ion and da ta processing division. He is presently Head of the Standardization and Type Approval Unit with the Directorate-

General XIII (Telecommunications, Information Industries and Innovation) in Brussels.

North-Holland Computer Standards & Interfaces 5 (1986) 225-227

2. The Community Approach

The impor t ance of technical s t andards as a requis i te for the c rea t ion of a c o m m o n marke t of ten and very soon twelve M e m b e r States has been recognized f rom the ear ly days of the European Communi ty . S tandard iza t ion activit ies are closely l inked to the removal or prevent ion of technical bar r ie rs to trade.

In the field of new technologies, s t andard iza - t ion is cons idered as a p r ior i ty and the ma in e lements of this a p p r o a c h will be summar ized as follows: - Pr ior i t y to i n t e rna t iona l s tandards . There is a

c lear recogni t ion that in te rna t iona l s t anda rds represent the bes t solut ion to the p r o b l e m be- cause of the requ i rement for communica t ion world-wide. There is also a well es tabhshed jus t i f ica t ion to rely on the huge quan t i ty of work done wi thin ISO and to p romo te the work on OSI s tandards . The same appl ies to C C I T T r e c omme nda t i ons which appea r after much ef-

226 M.S. Audoux / OSI standards in Europe

fort has been made in various study groups to facilitate the convergence on common solu- tions.

- Internat ional standards have to be implementa-

ble. If the reference to international standards is obvious, their implementation is a much more delicate problem, especially in the light of past experience in the field of computers. In the domain of telecommunications, the application of CCITT recommendations has raised similar issues which clearly show that standards imple- mentation problems are not specific to a data processing environment but correspond to the degree of complexity associated with digital techniques. If data are to be easily interchanged and if the end-to-end compatibility is to be preserved, international standards have to be implemented in a way that avoids disturbing ambiguities and with an ease which should restore their credibility when they are used in real-life situations.

- The need to verify conformance to standards.

Verification of conformance to international standards has been identified as a key issue and is directly related to the correct implementation of standards which are as complex as the new protocols.

- The convergence between information technology

and telecommunications. The convergence be- tween information technology and telecom- munications justifies a parallel approach in both fields. This is especially true in the area of OSI standards because data interchange amongst computers depends upon the availability of wide area networks which can support OSI upper levels, and also because OSI standards are now appearing as CCITT recommendations which should be implemented in a similar way.

3. Supporting the Data Interchange

One of the difficulties in applying standards was traced back to the nature of the standards, which were often written as a "basis for design" with many options left open to accommodate vari- ations. This flexibility is not an advantage when a standard is used as the basis to guarantee data interchange and communication between hetero- geneous equipment. Although there is obviously a limit to the number of standards which have to be

well defined, it is becoming quite clear that to achieve easy information interchange, standards should be made available in a form which allows them to fulfil the initial requirements set when the work was initiated in this field. This is especially true in the field of OSI where the objective of standards is to ensure open communication.

4. The Concept of Functional Standards

The use of OSI standards which cover the various layers has led to the recognition that an end-to-end application across all the layers brings new requirements. Communication requires that if a complex function is to be provided across so many layers, it is not enough to agree on the selection of the options at the layer level. The complex chaining of all the standards has to be well defined. Experts in Europe have therefore devoted much effort to defining the concept of functional standards and to identifing profiles which would benefit from such an approach, which appears extremely promising in easing the applica- tion of OSI standards.

5. Organization of Standardization Activities

In May 1984, the Council of Industry Ministers accepted the proposition of the Commission to promote a more efficient organization of stan- dardization efforts within the Community. With the valuable assistance of a group of senior offi- cials, actions have been launched which are aim- ing at a better implementation of international standards corresponding to the needs of the Com- munity. It should be pointed out that the technical work, entrusted to the existing European stan- dardization bodies C E N / C E N E L E C with the co- operation of the CEPT, is conducted by the na- tional standardization bodies and that such a scheme allows other European countries to par- ticipate to the technical work.

The cooperation of the standardization bodies and the efforts of their experts, combined with the support of industry, have led to progress, in- cluding an adaptation to the specific nature of the work, the definition of functional standards and the agreement of a first programme of work which gives high priority to the OSI standards and the

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corresponding functional standards. This work is being matched by an increase in

activities within the telecommunications adminis- trations that are engaged in similar projects re- lated to standardization of public networks and corresponding services and facilities on the basis of CCITT recommendations.

The area of verification of conformance has not been neglected and the Commission has recently launched a call for proposals for the provision of testing services which should allow increased co- operation in Europe for setting up testing centres. Two draft directives have been proposed by the Commission to the Council, which should comple- ment the work being done and aim at ensuring implementation of standards throughout the Com- munity.

6. Conclusion

During the past months, the Community has clearly expressed its willingness to fulfil its needs for information interchange and system interoper- ability on the basis of international standards, especially in the area of OSI. Efforts have been made with the support of governments, industry and users to promote a harmonized implementa- tion of the international standards and it appears extremely desirable that further work on the upper levels within the ISO community be vigorously pursued to facilitate the promotion of OSI appli- cations at the user level.