Ўзбекистон республикаси ахборот технологиялари ва коммуникацияларини ривожлантириш вазирлиги муҳаммад ал-хоразмий номидаги

 
 
 
 

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INCREASING RECOGNITION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF STANDARDS 
 
Khonturaev S.I. (TUIT of Fergana branch, senior lecturer) 
 
Standards play a major role in the evolution of telecommunication networks because of the 
importance of interoperability of these networks, which also must provide for continuous paths 
for improvement without disruption of existing infrastructure. In computing, vendors put 
substantial effort into proprietary approaches to protect market share. But the U.S. government's 
championing of "open systems" and the Portable Operating System Interface for Computer 
Environments (POSIX) standards has allowed a new class of vendor to emerge and create 
entirely new market forces with many suppliers in every niche of computing. IBM's decision to 
make the PC an open, standard product provided another major force toward standardization in 
computing. Standards for products and for the representation of information have advanced 
rapidly over the last decade. Industry standards such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet 
Protocol (TCP/ IP), Simple Message Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Simple Network Management 
Protocol (SNMP), X.400, Standard Generalized Markup Language Hyper Text Markup 
Language (SGML/HTML), and easy-to-use browser products such as Netscape and Mosaic were 
necessary for the rapid expansion of the Internet. Companies still use proprietary approaches to 
gain short-term market advantages, often with the hope that their products will become the 
standard (e.g., Microsoft's OLE). Sun's Java language is an interesting example of a company 
sponsored effort that is becoming a standard through rapid expansion of licensing agreements. 
Technical standards increase competition and product availability, while reducing price. The 
downside is that standards themselves evolve and can contribute to a kind of industry driven 
obsolescence. Also, when multiple standards apply in the same area, buyers are forced to try to 
choose prospective winners and losers (recall the battle for consumer support of the Beta and 
VHS standards). 
Within the scientific disciplines, there is increased attention to system interoperability in 
terms of both data and software. In the astronomy community, for example, the interchange of 
data has become fairly simple because of effective coordination in the United States and 
internationally. Radio astronomers developed a voluntary standard format for data interchange 
(the flexible image transport system; FITS) that was widely adopted in the astronomy 
community during the 1980s. This standard is maintained by an international committee, with 
support from several organizations, including NASA. There are related standard formats for 
planetary data, as well as a trend toward the development and adoption of a few comprehensive 
data analysis systems that could be used with a variety of types of astronomical data from 
different observatories and instruments and different subdisciplines. Sharing of analysis software 
and commercially developed computing tools among the different systems is encouraged. 
Of course, the need for standards for effective data exchange is not confined to 
telecommunications, computer languages, and storage media. Even within a narrow discipline or 
subdiscipline, true data exchange with proper interpretation of numbers, symbols, words, and 
graphics depends on standards for data structures, database management systems, and even 
terminology. 
Cooperation in Monitoring and Controlling of Network Activity.The rapid growth in 
networks over the last 15 years has led to the need for appropriate levels of cooperative 
monitoring and control. Initial ad hoc activity in developing protocols such as SNMP has given 
way to more elaborate standards and tools today. Authentication systems, retrieval systems, and 
networks can now account for specific activities of users and can support flexible billing 
systems. Public key encryption technology is increasingly accepted as a means of protecting data 
and authenticating users. Such developments are being driven by needs associated with the 
network as a market place. 
Version 6 of the Internet Protocol (developed by IETF and often referred to as the Internet 
Protocol Next Generation) includes the necessary technical components to support security, 

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authentication, delivery of multimedia, and the continuing growth of the Internet. Several 
implementations of the proposed standard are now available. As with telephones, circuit and 
switch technology readily supports network control and accounting during connection creation 
and breakdown. The ATM forum is leading much of the work in this area. These initiatives will 
help applications developers to implement the functions necessary to make networks 
commercially viable. 
The functionality provided by fine grain network control will support additional penetration 
of network equipment and services into the market, which should in turn drive down equipment 
costs and provide an infrastructure to support community services such as network access to the 
public libraries. The technology also can be used to protect proprietary information and allow 
publishers and others to make better use of the Internet. 
Increasing Use of Intranets.Tools for searching and creating HTML pages, internetworking 
hardware (e.g., routers), and strong dependency on electronic mail have supported the rapid 
growth within corporations of private networks known as intranets. These networks provide 
reliable service, high performance access, and information protection not afforded by the public 
Internet. Today, sales are brisk for intranet products such as browsers, servers, and search 
engines for internal corporate applications. A high profile example is the Hewlett Packard 
intranet, which links more than 110,000 PCs and workstations and transfers over 5 terabytes of 
data per month. Hewlett Packard also supports public bulletin boards with company or product 
information that dispense over 15 terabytes of data per month.
The interest in intranets is also evident in initiatives to support priority research and 
education needs. Prominent among these is the Internet II project, which initially is connecting 
approximately 100 universities over a private, reserved backbone with 622 Mbps links. This type 
of network could be used more broadly by the scientific community and extended to reach 
international partners to solve specific needs for bandwidth and for real-time control.