Читать книгу Networking All-in-One For Dummies - Lowe Doug, Doug Lowe - Страница 117

As I mention earlier, a standard is an agreed-upon definition of a protocol. In the early days of computer networking, each computer manufacturer developed its own networking protocols. As a result, you couldn’t easily mix equipment from different manufacturers on a single network.

Then along came standards to save the day. Hurrah! Because standards are industry-wide protocol definitions not tied to a particular manufacturer, you can mix and match equipment from different vendors. As long as the equipment implements the standard protocols, it should be able to coexist on the same network.

Many organizations are involved in setting standards for networking. The five most important organizations are

 American National Standards Institute (ANSI; www.ansi.org): The official standards organization in the United States. ANSI is pronounced AN-see.

 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE; www.ieee.org): An international organization that publishes several key networking standards — in particular, the official standard for the Ethernet networking system (known officially as IEEE 802.3). IEEE is pronounced eye-triple-E.

 International Organization for Standardization (ISO; www.iso.org): A federation of more than 100 standards organizations throughout the world. If you’re wondering why the acronym for International Organization for Standardization is ISO and not IOS, the answer is simple: ISO is truly an international organization, and although it is known as the International Organization for Standardization in English-speaking countries, it goes by different names in non-English-speaking countries — for example, in French-speaking countries, it’s known as Organisation internationale de normalisation. The organization’s founders chose ISO so that it would have the same short name in all languages.

 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF; www.ietf.org): The organization responsible for the protocols that drive the Internet.

 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C; www.w3.org): An international organization that handles the development of standards for the World Wide Web.